What to Do with an Unproductive Vineyard? —Lectionary reflection for Pentecost 10C (Isaiah 5)

Isaiah 5:1-7 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

5 I will sing for my beloved
    my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
    on a very fertile hill.
² 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;
he expected it to yield grapes,
    but it yielded rotten grapes.

³ And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and people of Judah,
judge between me
    and my vineyard.
⁴ What more was there to do for my vineyard
    that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
    why did it yield rotten grapes?

⁵ 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.
⁶ I will make it a wasteland;
    it shall not be pruned or hoed,
    and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
    that they rain no rain upon it.

⁷ For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
    are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
    but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
    but heard a cry!

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                I’m not a farmer, though I married a farmer’s daughter. You see, my father-in-law once owned vineyards (he mostly raised Thompson’s Seedless grapes that became raisins). So, I have some knowledge of vineyards, including that it is hard work to plant and tend a vineyard if you are going to produce the hoped-for crop.

Vines and vineyards are popular biblical images. Jesus even compared himself to a vine in the Gospel of John, telling his followers: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:1-5). Here in Isaiah, the prophet speaks of Israel/Judah as God’s beloved vineyard. Despite God’s care for the vineyard, it produced bad fruit. That doesn’t please God.

                The reading from Isaiah 5 starts as a love song concerning a beloved vineyard. The song begins by describing the vineyard owner’s efforts to prepare a fertile hill so that a vineyard could be planted. The vintner chose just the right spot, expecting it to bear fruit. Then the vintner cleared the land of stones and debris before planting “choice vines.” The vintner didn’t just plant any vines. These would be the best kind. Remember, this is a love song to the vineyard. When the ground had been prepared and the vines planted, the vintner built a watchtower in the middle of the vineyard so that he could keep watch over this beloved vineyard and protect it from anyone set on destroying it. Finally, the vintner built a winepress. After going to all this trouble to plant a vineyard, the expectation was that it would produce grapes. Unfortunately, instead of the expected grapes, wild grapes appeared. In other words, the farmer planted vines that had been bred to produce wine-making grapes, not wild ones. The problem here is that wild grapes were not suitable for making wine.

                We quickly learn that the farmer/vintner is YHWH. While the vineyard stands for Judah, the people of Jerusalem and Judah are asked to serve as judges between YHWH and the vineyard. The farmer (YHWH) wants to know what more can be done with the vineyard that hadn’t already been done. While the farmer expected that the vineyard would produce cultivated grapes, it produced wild grapes that were not suitable for wine-making. Although YHWH asked the people to serve as judges, YHWH had already decided on a plan of action.

                This is what the farmer/YHWH decided to do: first, the farmer would remove the hedge that surrounded the vineyard, protecting it from marauders. With the hedge gone, it would be devoured. Then, in a parallel move, the farmer declares that he would remove the wall so it could be trampled on. That’s not all, the farmer is going to lay waste to it by not pruning it or hoeing around it. So, the result would be that the vineyard that had been tenderly prepared and cared for would be overgrown with briers and thorns. I’ve seen abandoned vineyards that have become overgrown with vegetation. It’s not a pretty sight.  We’re not quite finished. There is still more. Not only will the vineyard be destroyed by this overgrowth, but the farmer (now clearly YHWH) will command that the clouds not produce rain.

                This song serves as something of a parable. The interpretation is given in verse 7, where we’re told that this vineyard belongs to the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah. While God expected this to be a “pleasant planting,” it had turned out to be anything but pleasant. That is because YHWH expected justice, but instead witnessed bloodshed. While expecting justice (mishpat) and righteousness (tsedaqah), all that was seen was bloodshed, and heard was a cry. As Anna-Case Winters notes, “When these two terms (mishpat and tsedaqah) are used in tandem, the basic connotation is of a society in which the rights of all, including the most marginalized are respected. This is God’s reasonable expectation, given the divine provision” [Feasting on theWord, pp. 342, 344]. The expectation of God is one of social justice, and yet the people resist.

                Since Isaiah 5 is the product of the ministry of the one we call First Isaiah, this oracle would have been produced in the eighth century BCE. This prophet primarily ministered in the southern kingdom of Judah. However, Isaiah understood that God was concerned about the welfare of the northern kingdom of Israel, for the two kingdoms were closely related. They lived in a dangerous world surrounded by stronger, more powerful neighbors, including Assyria to the north and Egypt to the south. Both of which fought over this stretch of land. Of course, these two kingdoms had a long history of warfare with each other. Before too long, the northern kingdom would fall to Assyria and cease to exist as an independent kingdom in 720 BCE. Judah would survive for a time, but it too faced the possibility of extinction. So, if we take this imagery as being descriptive of what happened to Israel, the walls were removed, and the nation was trampled upon.  

                YHWH is said to allow Israel’s fall. The reason for this appears to be that God expected the people would do justice, but they participated in unjust acts. In the verses that follow, we’re told that they “joined house to house,” and field to field. In other words, they expanded their land boundaries by taking over the lands of their neighbors. Because they had acted unjustly, God would cease to protect them from their enemies. As we saw the previous week in the reading from Isaiah 1:10-20, God doesn’t heed the prayers of those who act unjustly.

                So, what is the message here? Might we also be one of God’s vineyards? Is it possible that despite every effort on God’s part, we have produced bad grapes? This prophetic word appears to have come about not long before Israel’s demise (perhaps 734 BCE). Perhaps we can hear in this a reminder that even as God let Israel suffer the consequences of its choices, the same might be true for our nations. So, is there hope for the future? If so, how do we move into that future? Perhaps this word from Jürgen Moltmann’s Ethics of Hope will help.

If we achieve some justice for those who are suffering violence, then God’s future shines into their world. If we take up the cause of ‘widows and orphans’, a fragment of life comes into our own life. The earth is groaning under the unjust violence with which we are exploiting its resources and energies. We are ‘hastening’ towards the Lord’s future when we anticipate the righteousness and justice out of which, on the Day of the Lord, a new and enduring earth is to come into being. Not to take things as they are but to see them as they can be in that future, and to bring about this ‘can be’ in the present, means living up to the future. So looking forward, perceiving possibilities and anticipating what will be tomorrow are fundamental concepts of an ethics of hope. [Moltmann, Ethics of Hope (Kindle, p. 20)].   

But if we’re going to move toward that day when the vineyard is restored to its former glory so it might be productive, we’ll need to turn back and embrace God’s vision for our world.