The Vineyard

A friend was planning a visit to Japan. lt would be his first visit, and he was a little anxious because 
he couldn't speak Japanese. How would he communicate with the people he came in contact with?
 

Since most taxi drivers do not speak English, someone suggested that it might be a good idea to 
carry with him something bearing the name of the hotel at which he would be staying written in 
Japanese.

 

 

That was exactly what he did. As soon as he arrived in Japan he picked up a box of
 matches bearing the name and address of his hotel. Then he went sight-seeing. Afterwards he got 
into a taxi and did as the friend suggested, he took the box of matches out of his pocket to show the
driver where he wanted to go.

 

There were a few awkward moments before the driver understood.
 Finally his face lit up. Quickly they sped away. Half an hour later, the taxi came to a screeching halt.
The driver turned and beamed at his passenger, pointing out the window. There was only one 
problem. They had stopped, not in front of a hotel, but a match factory!

 

 

 

Have you ever had an
 experience like that? Someone will say something and for whatever reason you do not understand.
 lt's as if they were speaking a foreign language. You want to go back to the hotel and instead find 
yourself in front of a match factory. There were times when Jesus tried to communicate profound 
truths to those around him and they acted as if he were from Mars and they didn't understand
 which is why he talked often in parables — it is like a ticking time bomb inside people's hearts and 
minds as they reflect and think about what he had to say.

 

One time there was a little village in the mountains of Italy where the people grew grapes. The
mountain sides were covered with vineyards and each family in the community contributed to the
making of wine. It was some of the finest wine in the world. Each village had a number of different 
recipes. Each family would bring their wine to the centre of town and pour it into one large keg. As a
result, the wine was a mixture of many recipes which made it very unique.

 

One particular year the 
weather did not cooperate and the vineyards did not produce an abundance of grapes. One of the
 wine makers decided that since things would be tight that year he would sell his wine elsewhere. He 
then filled his barrel with water and poured it into the town keg, thinking that one barrel of water in
 the gigantic keg would go unnoticed and not impact the outcome of the wine.

 

The wine in the keg
 aged for seven years. At the end of seven years the villagers all gathered around that particular keg
 to sell their wine to merchants who had come from all over the world. The entire community 
depended on the sale of their wine to provide for them until the next season. The villagers gathered 
around the giant keg and it was tapped. A pitcher was placed at the tap and out came nothing but 
pure water. It seemed that everyone in the village that year had the same idea and none had put in
 wine.

 

Since everyone held back there was no wine to sell. The villagers refused to share their wine
 with their neighbours and consequently no one ended up with anything.

 

The parable of the vineyard 
is not unlike the villagers in Italy. The servants were to reap the fruits of the vineyard for the 
landowner but were denied that opportunity by the tenants. The tenants refused to share their 
grapes with others. They even went so far as to mistreat the servants and even kill the landowner‘s son. Jesus uses the parable of the vineyard to describe the kingdom of God. It reminds us that we
are here temporarily on earth and that we are God's guests.

 

God wants us to be grateful for all that 
we have and to share what we have been given. And to make the point we have the words of St.
Paul. ln every cliff-hanger action movie, at some point in the chase scene an enormous chasm 
suddenly appears before the hero as he flees the bad guys. The only way across is an incredibly 
narrow, rickety, mostly-rotten bridge. The way forward looks terrible. But the way back is certain
 death. So, of course, our hero bravely steps or drives forward and steels himself to cross the abyss
 on the frail and shaky bridge.

 

 "Cliff-hangers" being appropriately named, the results are pretty predictable. Although the hero
always manages to make it, the bridge itself collapses or is cut down by the bad guys, and the way
 across is lost for all time. There is a reason bridges strike such fear into us at the thought of crossing 
over on them. 

 

I have no problem driving a car across a bridge going 80, 100 or even 110 kmh. Have
 you ever had a problem? When l'm going across l know there are huge drop-offs on either side of 
the bridge, but l never once have hugged the guard-rails or bumped into an iron barrier on the
 way across. l'm never tempted to get close to the edge, and when a car edges me to the side, l
negotiate the side of the bridge as if there were no safety rails.

 

But take away  the guard rails, the concrete and steel side girders, the bumper-
barricades on the bridge and l'm now a different driver. l'm crawling across that bridge 5 or 10 kmh 
at best. Without any protection to keep my car from driving right off the bridge, l'm not sure I could 
even make it 100 yards across any bridge.

 

We all need guard rails and barriers. They help us get across the chasms and abyss of life. But the
 guard rails and barriers work best when they aren't noticed, or celebrated, or even acknowledged. If
 they're there, you don't need them. lf they're not there, you and l can't move, frozen in fear, or we
 risk going off the deep end.

 

Paul wrote his words to the Philippian Christians to warn them that they were worshiping the
guard rails and safety guards rather than the bridge that was carrying them across. Think about who 
we worship.

 

To finish there is a story of a man hurried to the church door one Sunday morning and said, "ls the service over?" An usher said, "The worship is over, but the service is only beginning." Certainly it is a 
judgment against us when we no longer make ourselves useful to our heavenly Father.

 

With keen insight, Jesus portrays us sinners as God's tenants of his vineyard. We see what a great 
privilege it is to be a tenant of God, and have all this given to us. The vineyard was a great one. They 
had everything they needed - hedge, winepress, the tower - which would have made it
comparatively easy for those tenants and could have made possible their doing a very good job. lt's
 good to know that God not only gives us certain tasks to accomplish in our life-time, but he also
 provides for us the means to get them done. In what a generous vineyard our lives are set!