Isaiah 5:1–7
The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 4, 2026
Life in Christ Lutheran Church, Grand Marais, Minnesota
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. 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? 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. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!” (Isaiah 5:1–7, ESV)
Grace and peace to you, from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Isaiah’s message is harsh. It is meant to be. The Law is harsh because it exposes and condemns sin. There is no way around it. God means to destroy the vineyard. It is like the text in Revelation 3.
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. (Revelation 3:19, ESV)
God is angry about sin and will be until it is finally gone. He sets His Law before people, and they break it. The Old Testament uses the image of God’s nose burning in anger against sin. Isaiah leaves no doubt about the vineyard’s immediate identity: ‘The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting.’ In Matthew 21, Jesus takes up this vineyard image against Israel’s religious leaders and speaks of God’s kingdom. Therefore, the warning also reaches the Church today: God still seeks the fruit of faith from those gathered around His Word. With love and care, God established His vineyard, with a hedge to keep trouble out. But when God’s people act no differently than the world, He tears down the hedge. The vineyard is trampled by foreign invaders. The crops are destroyed. They were only sour grapes anyway, but nonetheless, they are trampled to nothing.
It is easy to identify sour grapes in other churches and in the world around us. But Isaiah does not give us a safe place outside the vineyard. Before we judge someone else’s fruit, God’s Law turns us toward our own church and our own lives.
The church, especially the Lutheran Church, sometimes speaks clearly about grace while treating God’s Law as though it were meant mainly for somebody else. We excuse our anger, repeat gossip as “concern,” hold tightly to old grudges, defend our sexual sins, protect our money, and overlook the neighbor who needs our time and care. We know the right words, but our lives still produce the sour grapes of pride, selfishness, and lovelessness.
It is only natural to want to pass over our sins very quickly. They are ugly and terrible. They leave our lives in shambles. So, our sins deserve more than a cursory examination. The Law exposes and condemns them. The Gospel forgives sinners for Christ’s sake and creates the new life that begins to hate sin and delight in God’s will. The prophet Micah makes the Law personal; he speaks directly to individuals.
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8, ESV)
God does have requirements for His people. We may not like to hear that, because His Law exposes how far short we fall. That is why Micah’s final phrase matters: “walk humbly with your God.” Humility begins by confessing that we have not done what God requires and by receiving what He has done for us in Christ—the forgiveness of all our sins.
We say it with our confession,
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8, ESV)
If you believe that you have conquered sin or that your sins are of little concern to God, you deceive yourself. That is not walking humbly with God. You may change your outward behavior, but sin reaches deeper than behavior. It is the darkness within the human heart that resists God and His will. You cannot reform the old Adam or free yourself from him. He must be put to death—and that struggle will continue until God raises you on the Last Day, forever free from sin.
The passage, our confession continues,
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, ESV)
This is not a one-time thing; confession continues throughout the Christian life. Luther said that the Christian life is one of repentance. That means struggle against our human nature. A struggle against sin. An ongoing trip to the cross of Christ. There we continually receive His forgiveness. But the old Adam remains with us throughout this earthly life. To deny that continuing struggle would be to deceive ourselves and contradict God’s Word.
The Bible is full of God’s faithful people struggling with sin and losing: Adam, Eve, Moses, David, the prophets, the disciples both before and after the death and resurrection of Jesus, Paul, and more. If you think you are spared from this ongoing struggle you are mistaken.
After describing his own continuing struggle with sin, Paul cries, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24, ESV). Christians should expect this struggle to continue throughout this earthly life. But Paul immediately directs us to our deliverance: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25, ESV).
That is exactly why the Gospel must never become an excuse for taking sin lightly. We are an evangelical church—a good-news-preaching church—and the good news is Jesus Christ. Jesus fulfilled the Law we could not keep, carried our sins to the cross, and rose to save us. This sweet message was purchased at a terrible cost. Jesus bore not only bodily pain and death but also God’s judgment against your sin and mine. He cried, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ We cannot comprehend the cost. He died not only for the sins already behind us, but also for those we have not yet committed. Every sin shows why Jesus went to the cross, and the cross shows how completely He has answered for every sin.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus takes up Isaiah’s vineyard again. The owner sends servant after servant, and the tenants beat and kill them. Finally, the Father sends His Son. Sinners cast Him outside the vineyard and kill Him. But God raises the rejected Son: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.’ The vineyard’s hope is not better tenants trying harder. Its hope is the crucified and risen Son.
Ye who think of sin but lightly
Nor suppose the evil great
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed,
See who bears the awful load;
’Tis the Word, the Lord’s anointed,
Son of Man and Son of God. (LSB 451)
The Church is a grace place—a mouth house where God speaks His promises. Here He continually tells you of Jesus: His life lived on your behalf, His death in place of yours, and His resurrection promised to you. God promises that Christ has dealt with your sin and that it will not condemn you to eternal death. Christ has borne the Law’s condemnation in your place. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Your sin will not condemn you, because Jesus has answered for it completely.
God is also present with you in your struggle against sin. You do not fight alone. Through His Word and by His Holy Spirit, He directs you, strengthens you to resist, and comforts you with the Gospel when you fail. This is the Trinity at work in your life and in your continuing struggle against the old Adam, your sinful nature.
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. . . . So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:3–5, 11, ESV)
Notice how Paul pushes everything back to Jesus: your Baptism, the death of your sinful nature, and your resurrection to new life. You are His; you should live differently. And when you fail, and you will, you return to the cross and receive forgiveness there. That forgiveness is the power to live your life differently. That forgiveness is life-changing.
So, as construction continues and this congregation prepares for a vacancy, is it a fair question to ask what God requires of us? Of course it is, especially considering all that He has given us. Our confidence is not that we have been more faithful than others. Our confidence is Christ alone. He has preserved His Word among us, forgiven our sins, and continued to care for this congregation. He has graced us with this property. We are in an ideal place for a church. He has even placed for our view a symbolic hedge of trees around it. This is all God’s work, a gracious gift from His hand alone.
- Will this continue to be a place where God defies the odds and brings the Good News of Jesus to the community?
- Will this be a place where God’s Word is continually and always taught in its truth and purity?
- Will this vineyard be a place where people hear God’s Law and Gospel, to convict stubborn hearts and gladden troubled hearts?
- Will this hedged-in vineyard be a place where Christians can go with the trouble of their sin and find relief?
- Will this be a place where the Gospel compels us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God?
If the answer to these questions is ‘Yes’—and I believe it is—we have faithful work to do. But the vineyard belongs to Christ. He gives the growth, He forgives our failures, and He remains with His Church. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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