“Israel - A Warning to Christians”
Isaiah 5:1-7
10/5/08
Well, given the Scripture texts we have before us,
it seems that today is “Let’s pick on Israel” Sunday
in the Church year, a day for us to point our fingers at the Jews and
rejoice that we’re not like them. Did you notice how all
three of the readings for today say something negative about the
Jews? The O.T. lesson compares them to a vineyard which God
planted and cared for, but one in which He was disappointed, because
they had failed to produce the fruit He wanted from them. The
Gospel lesson shows Jesus’ frustration with the leaders of Israel
for their rejection and persecution of God’s prophets,
culminating in their rejection and crucifixion of Jesus Himself, the
vineyard owner’s Son, for which they would be put to death and
cast out of God’s kingdom. Then, finally, in the Epistle
text for today the Apostle Paul refers to the Jews as
“dogs” and warns Christians to watch out for these
evildoers who mutilate the flesh (a reference to circumcision).
So, let’s join in the revelries, throwing stones at the Jews, who
have been thrown out of the vineyard, and let’s rejoice that we
Gentiles were considered worthy to have the vineyard be given to us
instead. Hurray for us! Thanks be to God we’re not
like those wicked Jews! We don’t reject Jesus like they
do. God is pleased with us.
But is this really the reason why God gives us these
texts today? Is He really trying to teach us that we are not as
bad as the Jews, that we can congratulate ourselves that we don’t
reject His Son as they did, and that therefore we deserve to be given
His kingdom? The Apostle Paul delivers us from this kind of
thinking. In his first letter to the Corinthian congregation he
writes that whatever happened to the Jews “happened to them as an
example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the
end of the ages has come. Therefore,” he continues,
“let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he
fall.” Instead of using the bad behavior of the Jews as an
opportunity for us to criticize them and boast in ourselves, Paul
teaches us to use them as an example for what can happen to us as well,
if we are not on guard and alert in the faith. We are no less
sinners than they are, no more deserving of God’s grace and mercy
than they are, and it’s just as possible for us to fall, to
reject our Savior and fail to produce the fruit of righteousness and
justice, as it was for the Jews. We could be cast out of the
Lord’s vineyard just as they were.
And yet this is rejected by those Christians who
live by a “once saved, always saved” kind of
philosophy. For them, once you become a Christian, it’s
impossible for you to fall away from the faith; it’s impossible
to lose your salvation. Oh, sure, you may backslide and fail to
be the good Christian you ought to be, but no matter what you do, how
you live, or even what you believe, your salvation is secure. No
need to watch, be on the alert, or beware of things like false doctrine
or the enticements of the devil, the world, and your own flesh.
They can’t harm you. Live as you will; believe what you
want; give into sin. “Once saved; always
saved.” And yet, this flies in the face of Scripture.
It goes against what both Paul and Jesus say. Jesus says,
“Stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is
coming... Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you
do not expect.” By warning us to stay awake and be ready
for His coming, Jesus wants us to be on our guard, so that we might not
be deceived by false christs and false gospels. The danger is
that if we fall for their lies, we will lose our salvation.
According to Jesus, then, just because you believe in Him now,
doesn’t mean that you couldn’t deny and reject Him.
You must be vigilant about persevering in the faith.
On another occasion, Jesus says that He is the Vine,
we His disciples are the branches. “Whoever abides in me
and I in him,” He says, “he it is that bears much fruit,
for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in
me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are
gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” Here again our
Lord warns us of the possibility of losing our salvation, if we
aren’t vigilant about abiding in Him. And how do we abide
in Him? By faith. But faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word about Christ. If we aren’t hearing the Word
about Jesus, our faith in Him will soon die, and we will lose our
salvation. Like a branch that’s been cut off from the life
giving sap that’s pumped into it from the Vine, we will whither,
die, and be thrown into the fire of God’s wrath.
So, there’s no picking on Israel. We
can’t sit back, point our fingers at them, and boast in our
salvation as if what happened to them couldn’t happen to us,
too. It could! The Scriptures use them as a warning to us
not to do what they did. Though we stand today, tomorrow we could
fall. Paul reminds us of this, when in the book of Romans he
likens Christ to an olive tree. Of this olive tree the Jews are
the natural branches. They were those whom God had chosen of all
the nations of the world to be the people through whom He would send
the Savior. To put it in Paul’s words, “...to them
belong the adoption, the glory, the testaments, the giving of the Law,
the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and
from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over
all, blessed forever. Amen.” But most of these
natural branches were broken off for their unbelief. Even though
they had the promises of God, proclaimed to them through Moses and the
Prophets, they rejected their Messiah when He came, killed Him, and
threw Him out of the vineyard. In turn, the Lord rejected
them. Though individual Jews can still be saved, provided they
repent and trust in Jesus as their Savior, in 70 A.D. God showed that
He was done with the Jewish nation as a whole by sending the Romans in
to destroy Jerusalem and the temple. Now the Lord has given His
vineyard (His kingdom) to others - to all believers in Christ, whether
they be Jews or Gentiles. According to Paul, we Gentiles are wild
olive branches by nature. We were at one time not a part of
God’s people. We were “separated from Christ,
alienated from the inheritance of Israel and strangers to the
testaments of promise, having no hope and without God in the
world.” But through faith in Jesus Christ we have been
grafted into Him, the olive tree, so that it is now said of us that we,
along with the believing Jews, are the true Israel of God.
The temptation now is, however, that we grafted-in
branches become smug and arrogant towards those natural branches that
were broken off. We may start to think there’s something
special about ourselves, that we did something good in repenting and
believing that makes us worthy and deserving of eternal life, and we
start to judge and look down on the Jews (and others) for their
unbelief, rejoicing that we’re not like them. But Paul
writes, “...don’t be arrogant toward the branches. If
you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that
supports you. Then you will say, ‘Branches were broken off
so that I might be grafted in.’ That is true. They
were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through
faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God
did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you.
Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward
those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you
continue in His kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut
off.” Paul and Christ, then, both send us sober warnings
that if we don’t remain in Jesus, if we don’t continue in
His kindness towards us, if we cut ourselves off from His Word and fall
into unrepentance and unbelief, we too will be broken off, cast out of
the Lord’s kingdom, and thrown into the fire of God’s
judgment and wrath.
Today’s Scripture lessons speak to us.
We are the Lord’s vineyard spoken of in the O.T. lesson.
For us God has done everything necessary, in order that we might
produce good grapes instead of wild ones. But instead of justice
and righteousness, the Lord often finds bloodshed and an outcry.
Instead of love and mercy towards one another, we often exhibit hatred
and unforgiveness. We are the tenants in the Lord’s parable
from the Gospel lesson for today. It wasn’t just the Jews
who rejected Christ and crucified Him. We were there with them,
and even today, whenever we close our ears to His messengers and reject
the Lord’s Word in their mouths, we are doing the same thing that
those wicked tenants did, so that we deserve to lose the vineyard, be
cast out, and killed. And whenever we start boasting in
ourselves, trusting in our repentance, faith, and good works, teaching
others to do the same, we turn into the dogs of whom Paul warns in the
Epistle lesson, who glory in themselves instead of in Jesus
Christ. So much, then, for “Let’s pick on
Israel” Sunday. Instead of the finger pointing at the Jews,
it’s pointing at us.
So, how are we delivered from this finger? Not
by turning to ourselves and our good works, but by trusting in the One
who allowed Himself to be cast out of His own vineyard, giving Himself
up to death for us on a cross, so that we dogs might repent of our
sins, believe in Him, and produce good fruit. As unfruitful as
the vineyard spoken of in the O.T. lesson for today is, as wicked as
the tenants found in the Lord’s parable are, and as aggressive
and ferocious as the dogs are, spoken of in today’s Epistle
lesson, Jesus shed His blood for all of them, for all of us sinners,
for you. And it was out of His unmerited favor that He had
compassion on you, planting you in the rich soil of His Word, giving
you the privilege of working in the vineyard of His kingdom, and taming
your wild and vicious hearts, so that you might not bite and devour one
another, but encourage one another with the Gospel and serve one
another in love. The Lord has graciously given His vineyard to
you, sinners, and He’s given to you as a gift. It was never
earned by your good behavior or obedience. You were grafted into
the Vine by God’s mercy. The only way to be delivered from
the accusing finger of God’s Law when it points out your
disobedience and sin is to remember that mercy delivered to you through
your Savior, the Rock of your salvation.
In the Gospel reading for today He says, “The
one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls
on anyone, it will crush him.” It’s a crushing blow
that we feel when Jesus hits us with His words of Law. It’s
a word that tells us that we have failed to produce good fruit, that we
have been wicked tenants and dogs in His vineyard, and that we deserve
to be cast out and killed. But Jesus speaks these words to us, so
that we might then fall on Him and be broken to pieces in
repentance. That’s when we confess that His word about our
sin and rebellion is true, that we do deserve to be cast out of His
kingdom and die, and that there is nothing that we can do to save
ourselves. All we can do is cast ourselves in all our brokenness
upon Him and trust in His promise to be merciful to us.
And He is. He builds you back up in the faith,
strengthening and comforting you with His words of forgiveness, and He
plants you again in the rich soil of His Word and Sacraments, so that
you might produce the fruits of repentance and faith, justice and
righteousness, love and mercy. Thanks be to God, then, that He
has not cast us out of His vineyard. Let us rejoice and boast in
Him, who daily and richly does everything necessary through His Son,
Jesus Christ, to care for and protect us, to lead us to repentance, to
cause us to grow in the faith, and to produce good fruit that is
pleasing to Him. Amen.