The Vineyard Owner | Follow-Walking in the Way of Jesus | Sunday April 26, 2026

I think it is really easy for us to claim Jesus as our savior. He saved us from sin and death. We are invited to spend eternity with him, but to claim him as lord, as the one who has actually the right to my whole life, everything that I have, everything that I am. He has the right to instruct. He has the right to direct. He has a right to demand good fruit from me. Fruit of righteousness and justice, that's where it actually gets hard. That's where I think we regularly need to be looking in the mirror and saying, am I claiming you as my savior, or am I claiming you as my savior and lord of my life? [00:47:14] (51 seconds)  #SaviorAndLord

Through his rejection, humiliation, and death, Jesus brings about this reconciliation and restoration and the establishment of a new humanity, a new household that welcomes all in. And as Paul says in Ephesians two, says that it's built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. That, it was what was going on. That's what God was doing even when it looks like, ugh, they were winning. Even when it looked like evil was winning, and there was no end in sight. God was at work. [00:44:27] (40 seconds)  #GodAtWork

I don't know about you, but when I read stories about the religious leaders and Jesus' anger and frustration with them, I don't wanna be associated with them. I don't wanna see myself in them. But I think there's something significant about taking the time to seriously look in the mirror. Because I think what is universal in this story, what is universal when we look in this mirror, is that we all gravitate towards protecting what we perceive as ours, our autonomy, our possessions, our status, our reputation, our dreams, rather than recognizing that everything belongs to God and that we are only stewards. We are not the owners. [00:46:22] (53 seconds)  #WeAreStewards

And it's not because they don't recognize who he is. They understand who he is, and that's why they kill him. Jesus is foretelling his own death at the hands of these religious leaders, a death that doesn't occur because of a misunderstanding of who he is, it's actually the opposite. They understood, and they didn't like understood what he was asking of them, and they did not want to release that control, the power that they had enjoyed. [00:41:51] (37 seconds)  #RejectedForAuthority

That's the good news that we have, that we can look at our rebellion. We can look at our resistance to the rightful owner of our lives, the one who created us, the one who sustains us, and we can say, you came and died for me in my rebellious state. When I feel this urge, when I feel this need to grab hold of my life and say, you have no right to this, we can be reminded, no, you died for this very reason. You died to free me from this, to allow me to experience the abundant life that you have designed for us to live that is not on our own, that's actually built on Jesus, the cornerstone. [00:51:16] (48 seconds)  #AbundantLifeInChrist

But for those of you here today, who you've done that, but there is that temptation to just slowly pull it all back. Slowly say, this one I'll keep. That I give him. This is mine to keep. May you be reminded of the great mercy and love of God who pursues but also demands. That is actually his love. That is actually his mercy to us to say, I will settle for nothing less than all of you. [00:53:44] (44 seconds)  #GiveHimEverything

This is how good and gracious our God is. And so when we read this parable, yes, it is a parable of judgment. It is a parable where we see how God will accomplish justice, that he is not going to allow his people to be forever under the oppression, under corruption of leaders who are not surrendered to him. This is good news, but it's also good news for those of us who know that we have been rebellious. It is God's mercy that we see here, that over and over and over again is pursuing to the point of giving up his own life. [00:52:16] (45 seconds)  #JusticeAndMercy

And the farmer said, what am I supposed to do with this? I did everything, I gave it everything it needed, and yet it still produced bad fruit. So he takes down the wall. He abandons the vineyard and allows it to be trampled by others. In verse seven of Isaiah five, the song continues, and it says, for the vineyard of the lord of armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah, the plant he delighted in. He expected justice. He expected good fruit, but he saw injustice. He expected righteousness, but he heard cries of despair. [00:33:54] (41 seconds)  #FruitlessVineyard