My Beloved's Vineyard

We praise you, Father, the Vinedresser. In your love and holiness, you are the one who prunes, trains, and cultivates your vineyard for your good pleasure. Every branch that does not bear fruit, you take away and every branch that does bear fruit, you prune so that it may bear more fruit.

We praise you, Lord Jesus, for you are the True Vine, the Everlasting Vine. By your blood we have been grafted into the your vine.

As we read your Word, our desire is to remain in you and for your words to remain in us. Please do this in us today. Amen. (John 15:1-2)

Scripture Reading - Mark 12:1-11, Isaiah 5:1-6 (ESV)
     And he began to speak to them in parables.
     “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. 

Let me sing for my beloved
    my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
    on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones,
    and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
    and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
    but it yielded wild grapes.

When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
What more was there to do for my vineyard,
    that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
    why did it yield wild grapes?

     "He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 
     "But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 
     "What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord's doing,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

     And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.

And now I will tell you
    what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
    and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
    and it shall be trampled down.
I will make it a waste;
    it shall not be pruned or hoed,
    and briers and thorns shall grow up;
I will also command the clouds
    that they rain no rain upon it.

Father, we hear the warning and destruction to come in this story. You, the Almighty Vinedresser, has made all provision for our salvation. What more could you have done? Yet, some reject your Son's sacrifice. Your Word tells us that anyone who does not abide in him will be cut down like a branch that withers, thrown into the fire and burned. We pray for those we know that are rejecting him now. We pray for your mercy and grace to fall down on them. We cry out for them - Hosanna, save them! (John 15:6)

Oh what a great mystery, Lord, that this was your doing, sending your Son to become the True Vine. And we say, It is marvelous in our eyes. Thank you for grafting us into him by his blood spilled on the cross. This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it! (Romans 11:17-20, Psalm 118:23-24)

We confess that you, Jesus, are the Holy Root who makes us the righteous branches. Forgive us for our arrogance in thinking that somehow we the branches support the roots. It is you, the Holy Root that nourishes the branches. Prune away our arrogance, Father. Make us more fruitful for your glory. Amen. (Romans 11:15-20)

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.