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In the name of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Judge between me and my vineyard, what more could I have done for my vineyard

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that I have not already done? When I looked for it to produce grapes, why did

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it produce wild grapes? Or as Dr. Bartelt translates it, stench. Why did it produce

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stench? Why? What and why? These are the questions that the Lord God has for his

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people. As Isaiah stands there in Jerusalem prophesying to this people of

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woe, they were supposed to be the people of promise. But as you've read and if

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you've read Isaiah you've seen it, there are some woes. Later in chapter 5 there

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are six woes that Isaiah gives to this people and I want to share with you

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two of my favorites. These are my two favorite woes. Woe number one, woe to

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those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink,

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who quit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of his right. And my

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favorite woe, woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for

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light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

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This is a people of woe. What's going on Judah? Why is it that this vineyard only

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produces stench? Is this what Judah truly has become? And that's why God is asking

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them, what more could I have done for you that I haven't already done? Think about

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everything God has done for this woeful people. How he delivered them from the

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shackles of Pharaoh, how their feet passed through the sea on dry ground.

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They filled their bellies with manna, with bread that fell from heaven. The Lord

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quenched their thirst from a thrice-struck rock. They're following a

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pillar of cloud and fire, and God disciplines them with sword and serpent,

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but he always forgives and restores them with blood and with that bronze death

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lifted high. But still, this people always seems to chase after woe. They pass into

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the land that Abraham was promised and watch as the Lord delivers all their

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enemies unto death before them, gives them the land. And this people of promise

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keeps chasing after woe. So God has to send judges, judges that lead his people

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back to the promises for a while. Eventually they need another judge and

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another. At some point this woeful people ask God, why don't you just give us a

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king? That would be better. So God gives them King Saul and Saul turns aside

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and he, to his own woe, so the Lord anoints another, a king of promise, a

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young man through whom every promise of God will be fulfilled. And this promised

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king, this anointed man David, David who loves God with all his heart, David who

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God calls his righteous son, even David turns aside to his own woe. And wearing

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sackcloth covered in ashes, his knees on the ground, David begs God for the life

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of his son. Doesn't he know? Doesn't he know it's the other way around? That's

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the promise. But so through David, through Solomon, the Lord God built

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Israel into a great nation, a nation of riches and power beyond compare. This is

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the vineyard planted on a very fertile hill, planted with every hedge and

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protection God could muster. The Lord God himself attends this vineyard, pruning

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where he must prune, watering where he must water, making sure that this vineyard

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has everything it needs. For generations and generations the Lord God cultivated

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this people of promise. He cultivated this vineyard for his greatest purpose,

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to save the world, to bring salvation to all of creation. So why does this vineyard

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just yield stench? As Isaiah asked the people in Jerusalem, this people that

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deserve nothing but woe, what more could God have done for you? And these are good

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questions. When the Lord has given his faithful people all they need to be

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faithful, they should be faithful. They should produce the fruit of that

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faithfulness. So why doesn't it seem to work that way? You see it too. We see it

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all the time. In fact, you and I see it in church of all places. In the church we

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see people hold the promises of our God in their very hands. They eat and drink

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the promise. And then the next day, well you can start to smell the stench. And as

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their pastor, deaconess, professor, or even just their friend in Christ, you do

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everything you can to help them. You want to help them. And so you dig up the

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stones and till the soil. You build the watchtower of accountability. You hew

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out the wine vat to receive all the good fruits of their faith. And what are you

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left with after all that hard work and heavy labor? What are you left with after

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you've given them everything you could? Stench. That's all you get. Stinky fruit

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and stinkier messes. So you fold your arms, you roll your eyes, and you say

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right along with Isaiah, I mean what more could I have done here? It's a good

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question. It's the kind of question that keeps you up at night when late at night

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you wonder, are these rotten apples ever gonna get their act together? When are

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the people of promise gonna start acting like it? And if you're brave

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enough, maybe honest enough to ask, you find yourself asking, am I rotten? Do I

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stink? You know that's the funny thing about smell, about our sense of

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smell. You really get used to your own stentions. In our text what starts as a

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love song ends in destruction. The vineyard will be destroyed and even the

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clouds will be commanded to stop raining on the vineyard, on this house of Judah,

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on the people of Israel, the people of promise. Now this land promised to

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Abraham is going to be a wasteland. The woe is for more than its people. The

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creation itself suffers because of the evil of these creatures. For when the

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Lord looked for justice, behold, he found bloodshed. The stench of the vineyard

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comes from its corpses and this is a woeful people. This is a vineyard that

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really stinks. What more could God have done? Now I'm gonna say something rather

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uncomfortable here. Imagine with me if you and I were in Jerusalem that day

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when Isaiah gets up to sing this love song. You and I are there in Jerusalem

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hearing this question and you and I have an answer to this rhetorical question. We

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have something to say. What more could you have done God? You could die for me.

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You could take on yourself every woe that I deserve for the evil that I've

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done. You can take the curse that was meant for me upon your own body and die.

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Like Abel's innocent blood spattered the soil, you could shed your blood for me.

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What more could you have done God? You could offer up your only Son as a ransom

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for many. Give your boy as a sacrifice for my sins. God why don't you suffer and die so that I can live?

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Can you imagine actually saying that in Jerusalem that day to Isaiah? Saying that to your God?

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It sounds sacrilegious. It's way too bold. I'm uncomfortable saying it now

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and it's the right answer to God's question

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because Jesus could do more. Jesus Christ would do more. Jesus Christ needed to do more for you.

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The Lord Jesus Christ needed to die for your sins and mine. He had to die on that cross for stinky

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rotten apples like you and me and now in dying as blood poured forth from His side

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something happened. Something changed and the vineyard was never the same.

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The Lord's vineyard could never be the same and the change it needed was greater than anything

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the people of Israel could have ever imagined because our God has done more than plant us in

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his vineyard. He has planted his Son alongside us and now this vineyard grows forth from Christ's

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cruciform trellis. Now from Jesus Christ life flows into this vineyard into the branches

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branches like you and me and from the death of this one comes life for us all

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and now through you dear branches Jesus Christ produces the fruit he's always been looking for

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without Him apart from the vine

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you and I can do nothing but because Jesus Christ abides in you you produce that fruit.

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Because Jesus abides in you and me the vineyard of our Lord is becoming what it was always supposed

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to be the people of promise you have finally received that promise and you abide in your Lord

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already now and forever just as the Lord Jesus abides in you.

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Dear brothers and sisters you abide in Christ you belong to Christ the one who died for you.

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Now let me end this morning with a bit of history about the chapel of Saints Timothy and Titus.

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And i should apologize in advance this could be an apocryphal story but but at least it's how I heard

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it. When this chapel was built it looked different and it wasn't just the windows the pews were very

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different too. If you look up at the ceiling at those wood slats up there that's what our pews

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looked like that that was generally the color of these pews but but something happened. You see

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when they finished construction on the building there was a problem the roof leaked. And so water

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would drip and drop onto the ground and onto some of the pews and as tends to happen the the pews

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began to change they grew stained discolored some even say it developed a bit of a stench.

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And so while they fixed the roof but you know at this time Concordia Seminary did not have a budget

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for uh extra pews there wasn't a lot of extra pew money lying around. So what do you do? Well they

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sanded it down and they painted these pews this this veridian green at least i think that's what

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the shade of green is. It's not the same green as our banner or other greens I'm really glad by the

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way they didn't go with gold or yellow can you imagine walking into chapel with gold or yellow

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pews? But so i don't know why they chose this shade of green but today i know why the pews

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that you sit in are green. Look around do you see how the green matches the flowing greens of the

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windows. It's almost like they were always supposed to be this color. You see how these discolored and

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stained pews have been painted the vineyards green. How not only the stains but the stenches have been

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covered up and now these pews live at the center of this story they fit right in to the story our

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windows tell us.

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So it is with you.

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You those spoiled rotten stained maybe a little stench you have been covered you have been brought

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to the vineyard and grafted to the vine and from that vine you receive life. Now you have been

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placed in the middle of a story greater than you could have imagined

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and through you the vine will bear fruit in the vineyard. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

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I'm so excited i can't wait to see what kind of fruit Jesus is going to produce through you.

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In the name of that risen lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Christ is risen.

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He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

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Amen.