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Isaiah’s Song of the Vineyard

Isaiah 5:1-7

August 17, 2025

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In the mid 1970s a church’s high school youth group decided to hold a fundraising dinner. But this wasn’t going to be an ordinary dinner. They called it a “Hunger Feast.” Tickets were sold for $5 apiece, which according to the CPI Inflation Calculator on the internet, would be the equivalent of almost $28 today. In other words, this was to be a rather expensive event. 

 

They sold somewhere between 60 and 70 tickets and the guests were seated according to the color of the ticket each guest had bought. The five guests at the blue table were served first. They received a piece of chicken, a cup of rice, peas and a cup of tea. And they were not happy with the portions, but they proved to be the lucky ones. 

 

The next two tables had eight people each and they received a half cup of rice, a tablespoon of peas and a half cup of tea. But they, too, could be considered among the lucky ones. All but the last two tables were only given teaspoon of rice, no peas and a cup of water. The next-to-the last table received nothing but a quarter cup of water. Finally, the remaining guests received nothing at all.

 

The dinner proved to be to a dramatization about world food distribution and hunger. And, as the guests consumed their meager meals, several of the youth group members spoke passionately about the various degrees of hunger and poverty in the world. They definitely made their point, and a few of the guests were supportive of the youth and their so-called feast. One couple was very touched and contributed $100 to the project.

 

However, the vast majority of the attendees were very unhappy. One couple went so far as to storm out of the feast and even resign their membership in that congregation. For the next three months, that church’s governing board — their equivalent of our Session — spent time discussing the ethics and method of the project.

 

Ultimately, the youth group was commended for its enthusiasm and the vividness of their presentation, but they were also cautioned that “the end does not justify the means.” The youth group’s director was called on the carpet and told by the council president, “It just wasn’t right that some people didn’t get anything to eat!” (For the record, he was one of those who only got a tiny amount of water, which may have had something to do with his response.) 

 

The youth group director’s response was, “I agree sir. And it also is not right that thousands of children will face tomorrow and the rest of their tomorrows until they die without anything to eat!”

 

Whatever you may think of that youth group’s unexpected tactics, you will find a similar unpleasant surprise in today’s Old Testament lesson. Isaiah starts by saying that he will sing a love song, but almost immediately adds a mild surprise by adding that the song isn’t about his beloved, but about his vineyard. 

 

That instantly clues Isaiah’s listeners into the fact that this song will prove to be symbolic, perhaps even allegorical. Nevertheless, since it was said to be a love song, the listeners presumably expected to hear a ballad with a happy ending. But that’s not what they got. 

 

Instead, as the song goes on, the tone grows progressively darker and darker until the final notes have become ones of bitterness and destruction. In modern terms, it was as if you had purposely tuned your radio to a station that played nothing but easy listening pop ballads only to have it suddenly shift into a blaring, raunchy and discordant heavy metal scream fest. 

 

Consider how carefully Isaiah wrote his song, working to gently capture his listeners’ attention by describing how tenderly his beloved had prepared his vineyard to give it every possible chance of success. He found fertile land, cleared it of all obstructions and planted the finest quality vines in it. 

 

He even built a watchtower in it to protect it and erected a wine press to be ready for the tremendous harvest he anticipated from it. So far the song is a beautiful, if quirky love ballad about a vineyard. But it’s no more quirky than that of the Beach Boys writing hit love songs in the 1960s about their cars. 

 

But then Isaiah’s song veers off in a radical and shocking direction. James Howell describes it this way:  “Isaiah 5 is couched as a love song, beginning in tender joy (with verbal echoes of the Song of Songs), but it turns quickly to scathing critique, featuring wickedly harsh wordplay. 

 

“God looked for mishpat (justice) but found only mispach (bloodletting); God sought zedekah (righteousness) but found only ze’akah (a yelp of pain). These are memorable, haunting words that cannot have been well-received by the smug [crowds] who first heard them.”

 

By this point, it would have been clear to any of Isaiah’s listeners that the beloved Isaiah was singing about was God. After all, who else could say, “I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon [the vineyard].” And obviously, if the gardener is God, then the vineyard stands in for the people of Israel. 

 

That’s the reason Isaiah presents his story in the form of a love song, because Isaiah knew that God’s relationship with the people of Israel was not one of king and subjects or even master and slave, but  it was a relationship built solely on love. And that makes God’s harsh reaction at the end of the song one of a jilted lover, not that of a vindictive judge. 

 

No matter the amount of love God lavished on the people of Israel, no matter the blessings God granted them and the hardships he had rescued them from, they had never learned that what God wanted in response was an equally loving reaction to the people around them. 

 

As Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson put it, “God expected and hoped that his people would ensure that there was justice for everyone in the nation. Instead of justice, the wealthy class of politicians and business people were killing society’s weakest and most vulnerable citizens. Blood was on the hands of the rich and powerful members of society, since their wealth was gained by cheating and robbing society’s poorest class. God expected and hoped for righteousness from his people. Instead he heard a cry from the poor and oppress-ed. God expected his people to look after the poor and oppressed; after all, those who were now blessed with wealth and the good life — had they and their ancestors not cried out to the LORD when they were poor and oppressed as slaves in Egypt? Had God not heard their cries and delivered them from their Egyptian slavery? Why now had they abused their freedom and become selfish and greedy? They, with their blood-money and ill-gotten riches were no better than their enemy oppressors — the Egyptians.”

 

Anne Le Bas adds, “Instead of the rich harvest of justice — love and peace which overflowed to neighbouring nations so that the light of God could spread through the whole world — there was bloodshed. Instead of seeing Israel as a beacon of hope, a place where wrongs were righted, there were cries of terror and despair as the rich oppressed the poor. 

 

“[…] Love, he suggests, can only be real if it is returned — it can make no difference unless people let it take root in them. […] The messes that confront us in the world start in the human heart and in our relationships with one another and with God. Either we let God change us, healing the wounds that give rise to sin, or we carry on as we are, producing sour gifts of strife and sadness. It’s up to us.”

 

Our nation isn’t all that different from ancient Israel. We live in a time when the wealthy manipulate our government to reduce their own taxes by shifting the burden onto the poor who can least afford it. And they justify their selfish insensitivity to the obligations of community by claiming that the poor are responsible for their own plight, a charge that is rarely true. 

 

Meanwhile so many other people are often forced to work longer hours for less pay per hour. Those demands on their time often distract them from the opportunities they have to make a difference in the world. But isn’t making a difference the real point of our lives as Christians? In fact, isn’t that the true meaning of life? 

 

Scottish theologian Dr. John Bailie once wrote a book called A Diary of Private Prayer. One of the prayers in that book is a prayer in which Bailie thanks God for what he calls “the great and mysterious opportunity of my life.”

 

Like the ancient Israelites, we are being called to bring hope into a world that is often sorely lacking in hope. How well are you and I living up to that “great and mysterious opportunity” that has been given to us? How effective are we being at leaving the world a better place than the way we found it?

 

I’d like to end this sermon with a scene from the 1998 Steven Spielberg movie, Saving Private Ryan. The heart of the movie is the story of what happens to a group of eight men led by Captain Miller when they are ordered to find a Private James Ryan, who had parachuted behind enemy lines during the D-Day invasion.

 

All three of Private Ryan’s brothers had been killed in the D-Day invasion and he was the only one left to take care of his mother. So Captain Miller’s group was ordered to find Private Ryan and get him out of harm’s way so that he could be returned safely to his mother.

 

Of course in the midst of all the danger and confusion of battle, it was far easier to give that order than to obey it. So, over the course of the movie, many of the people in Captain Miller’s squad lose their lives trying to rescue a man whom none of them knows.

 

Near the end of the movie, the remainder of the squad has found Private Ryan and they’re engaged in one final battle to bring him to safety. Captain Miller is mortally wounded in that battle and, as he lays there dying, he says to Private Ryan, “Earn this.” Ryan isn’t sure what he said, so he asks the Captain to repeat it. This time Captain Miller orders Ryan, “Earn this!”

 

In other words, don’t let our sacrifices for you be in vain. Do something with your life. Make the most of this opportunity. 

 

What a powerful image that is! Just like Private Ryan, we have been given the opportunities of our lives at a tremendous cost — the cost of Jesus’ life. There’s no way we can truly earn that opportunity but, at the same time, it’s only when we share the benefits of our opportunities that they truly become real to us.

 

How are you using the “great and mysterious opportunity” of your life? Your answer to that question is truly your answer to the question, “What is the meaning of life?” Amen.

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by Jim McCrea