I wonder how many times I've read it? For that matter, I wonder how many times I've preached on it? And yet, only this week, did I realize that I'd been misreading the parable that Jesus tells today. ...

Jesus' life is almost over. He's already entered Jerusalem as God's humble but victorious king. He's cleansed the Temple by driving out the buyers and sellers of goods. And, with only days to live, he's been wrestling mightily with his opponents.

Today, those opponents are the chief priests and the Pharisees.

Three of our readings today--the first, the psalm, and the gospel--talk about vineyards. And they talk about vineyards because, on the one hand, every community had a vineyard; vineyards were as familiar to them as stoplights are to us. And, on the other hand, the reason why three of our readings today talk about vineyards is because vineyards were a way of talking about the relationship between God and his people.

In the first reading, what begins as a love song ends as a dirge. The love song begins as God sings about how lovingly and how devotedly he has planted, cared for, and tended his garden. The song ends as a dirge as God confesses he is so frustrated with what his garden has produced (his people) that he vows to tear it all down and start over again!

Today’s psalm is Part 2 of that story! Part 1 was God's vow to tear up his vineyard and start over. Part 2 is God's people--God's vineyard--responding to that threat.

“Restore us, O God of hosts,” they plead; “let your face shine, that we may be saved.

“You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land. ...

“Why then have you broken down its walls, so that ... all that move in the field feed on it? Turn again, O God of hosts,” continues their plea; “look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted.”

When the Bible talks about vineyards, it’s talking about the relationship between God and his people. So far, we’ve talked about two steps in that relationship: God being so frustrated with his people that he threatens to start over again, and God’s people begging God not to give up on them.

Though there may have been other steps in this complicated dance between God and God's people, today's gospel reading--Jesus' parable of the vineyard--supplies Part 3 of this story. And it is this part that, despite how many times I've read it or preached on it, I've been misreading!

For all these years what I’ve failed to do is simply this: pay attention to who’s talking where! Specifically, I’ve failed to notice where Jesus stops talking and where his opponents start!

“Listen to another parable,” Jesus says to the chief priests and the Pharisees. “There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.”

So far, Jesus is using traditional language to describe God’s relationship with his people. Jesus continues, “When the harvest time had come, [the landowner] sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ...”

In other words, Jesus is saying God’s people rejected God’s messengers, the prophets. Time and time again, they rejected them!

“Finally,” Jesus says, “he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

“Now,” says Jesus, “when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? ...”

And now Jesus stops talking! It’s taken me over thirty years to notice, but what comes next--the harsh, judgmental interpretation to the parable--comes, not from Jesus, but from his opponents!

They say to Jesus, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” And the question is--the question it’s taken me thirty to years to ask is--have the chief priests and the Pharisees answered Jesus correctly? Is death and destruction the way that the owner of the vineyard will react to the death of his son?

A couple of things about God ... I mean, about the owner of this vineyard. First, he’s a fool! Only a fool--only someone crazily in love with this vineyard--would act the way God--I mean, the owner of this vineyard--has acted with this vineyard!

How does Jesus put it? “When the harvest time had come, [the owner of the vineyard] sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.”

Shouldn’t that have been enough? If you were running this business (if you were doing God’s business for him--wouldn’t that have been enough?

But how does Jesus tell the story? “Again [the owner of the vineyard] sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way.”

Had enough? If I were running God’s business for him, that sure would have been enough! “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!”

But, has the owner of Jesus’ vineyard had enough? Does God run his business the way that we would run his business?

No! “Finally,” Jesus says, [the owner of the vineyard] sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

“Now,” Jesus says, “when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

In baseball, three strikes and you’re out. Is that the way it is with God? “Fool me once, shame on you; you shouldn’t fool me. Fool me twice, shame on me; OK, I made a mistake. Fool me three times and, it’s over!”?

If we were doing God’s business for ourselves--if the chief priests and Pharisees were doing God’s business, yes, it’d be: three strikes and you’re out!

But we don’t even need to say “What would God do?” We can say, “What did God do?” Not only is God crazy enough to send his own son to renew his vineyard, but the death of his son was a part of the plan all along!

Putting him to death was what the vineyard thought would get rid of father and son--owner and heir--once and for all. But, guess what? Their plan backfired! The crazy, crazy love of God prevailed over all of the violence of the world ...

And it is available to one and all, even today! Let God be God! Don’t try to do God’s business for yourself; you’ll fail. Let God work the wonders of his crazy, relentless love on you!

Take St. Paul’s words from today’s second reading as your own: “I am single-minded,” he says. “Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

In Jesus’ name. Amen!