Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Love Song Gone Sour
5 I[a] will sing to my love—
a song to my lover about his vineyard.[b]
My love had a vineyard
on a fertile hill.[c]
2 He built a hedge around it,[d] removed its stones,
and planted a vine.
He built a tower in the middle of it,
and constructed a winepress.
He waited for it to produce edible grapes,
but it produced sour ones instead.[e]
3 So now, residents of Jerusalem,
people[f] of Judah,
you decide between me and my vineyard!
4 What more can I do for my vineyard
beyond what I have already done?
When I waited for it to produce edible grapes,
why did it produce sour ones instead?
5 Now I will inform you
what I am about to do to my vineyard:
I will remove its hedge and turn it into pasture,[g]
I will break its wall and allow animals to graze there.[h]
6 I will make it a wasteland;
no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground,[i]
and thorns and briers will grow there.
I will order the clouds
not to drop any rain on it.
7 Indeed,[j] Israel[k] is the vineyard of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
the people[l] of Judah are the cultivated place in which he took delight.
He waited for justice, but look what he got—disobedience![m]
He waited for fairness, but look what he got—cries for help![n]
7 O God of Heaven’s Armies,[a] restore us.
Smile on us.[b] Then we will be delivered.[c]
8 You uprooted a vine[d] from Egypt;
you drove out nations and transplanted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it;[e]
it took root,[f]
and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered by its shadow,
the highest cedars[g] by its branches.
11 Its branches reached the Mediterranean Sea,[h]
and its shoots the Euphrates River.[i]
12 Why did you break down its walls,[j]
so that all who pass by pluck its fruit?[k]
13 The wild boars of the forest ruin it;[l]
the insects[m] of the field feed on it.
14 O God of Heaven’s Armies,[n] come back.
Look down from heaven and take notice.
Take care of this vine,
15 the root[o] your right hand planted,
the shoot you made to grow.[p]
4 —though mine too are significant.[a] If someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials,[b] I have more: 5 I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee.[c] 6 In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless. 7 But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. 8 More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things—indeed, I regard them as dung![d]—that I may gain Christ, 9 and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness[e]—a righteousness from God that is in fact[f] based on Christ’s[g] faithfulness.[h] 10 My aim is to know him,[i] to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings,[j] and to be like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow,[k] to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Keep Going Forward
12 Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.[l] 13 Brothers and sisters,[m] I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded:[n] Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, 14 with this goal in mind,[o] I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God[p] in Christ Jesus.
The Parable of the Tenants
33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner[a] who planted a vineyard.[b] He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then[c] he leased it to tenant farmers[d] and went on a journey. 34 When the harvest time was near, he sent his slaves[e] to the tenants to collect his portion of the crop.[f] 35 But the tenants seized his slaves, beat one,[g] killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them the same way. 37 Finally he sent his son to them,[h] saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!’ 39 So[i] they seized him,[j] threw him out of the vineyard,[k] and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will utterly destroy those evil men! Then he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his portion at the harvest.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.[l]
This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?[m]
43 For this reason I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people[n] who will produce its fruit. 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and the one on whom it falls will be crushed.”[o] 45 When[p] the chief priests and the Pharisees[q] heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds, because the crowds[r] regarded him as a prophet.
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