Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Song of the Vineyard
5 I will sing about the one I love,
a song about my loved one’s vineyard:(A)
The one I love had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones,
and planted it with the finest vines.(B)
He built a tower in the middle of it
and even dug out a winepress there.
He expected(C) it to yield good grapes,
but it yielded worthless grapes.(D)
3 So now, residents of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
please judge between Me
and My vineyard.
4 What more could I have done for My vineyard
than I did?(E)
Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes,
did it yield worthless grapes?
5 Now I will tell you
what I am about to do to My vineyard:
I will remove its hedge,(F)
and it will be consumed;
I will tear down its wall,(G)
and it will be trampled.
6 I will make it a wasteland.(H)
It will not be pruned or weeded;
thorns and briers will grow up.(I)
I will also give orders to the clouds
that rain should not fall on it.
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts
is the house of Israel,(J)
and the men[a] of Judah,
the plant He delighted in.
He looked for justice
but saw injustice,
for righteousness,
but heard cries of wretchedness.
7 Restore us, God of Hosts;
look on us with favor, and we will be saved.(A)
8 You uprooted a vine from Egypt;
You drove out the nations and planted it.(B)
9 You cleared a place for it;
it took root and filled the land.(C)
10 The mountains were covered by its shade,
and the mighty cedars[a] with its branches.(D)
11 It sent out sprouts toward the Sea[b]
and shoots toward the River.[c](E)
12 Why have You broken down its walls
so that all who pass by pick its fruit?(F)
13 The boar from the forest tears it
and creatures of the field feed on it.(G)
14 Return, God of Hosts.(H)
Look down from heaven and see;
take care of this vine,
15 the root[d] Your right hand has planted,
the shoot[e] that You made strong for Yourself.(I)
4 although I once also had confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised the eighth day;(A) of the nation of Israel,(B) of the tribe of Benjamin,(C) a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law,(D) a Pharisee; 6 regarding zeal,(E) persecuting(F) the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law,(G) blameless.(H)
7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value(I) of knowing Christ(J) Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ(K) 9 and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law,(L) but one that is through faith in Christ[a]—the righteousness from God based on faith.(M) 10 My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings,(N) being conformed to His death,(O) 11 assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
Reaching Forward to God’s Goal
12 Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold(P) of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers, I do not[b] consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind(Q) and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly[c] call in Christ Jesus.(R)
The Parable of the Vineyard Owner
33 “Listen(A) to another parable:(B) There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower.(C) He leased it to tenant farmers and went away.(D) 34 When the grape harvest[a] drew near, he sent his slaves to the farmers to collect his fruit. 35 But the farmers took his slaves, beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.(E) 36 Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first group, and they did the same to them. 37 Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’(F) 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”
41 “He will completely destroy those terrible men,” they told Him, “and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his produce at the harvest.”[b](G)
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.[c]
This came from the Lord
and is wonderful in our eyes?(H)[d]
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its[e] fruit. [44 Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces;(I) but on whoever it falls, it will grind him to powder!]”[f]
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables,(J) they knew He was speaking about them. 46 Although they were looking for a way to arrest Him, they feared the crowds, because they[g] regarded Him as a prophet.(K)
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