Lessons                                                                       Bread of Life                                                           3 October 2020

Isaiah 5:1–7

₁Let me sing for my beloved

my love song concerning his vineyard:

My beloved had a vineyard

         on a very fertile hill.

₂He dug it and cleared it of stones,

         and planted it with choice vines;

he built a watchtower in the midst of it,

         and hewed out a wine vat in it;

and he looked for it to yield grapes,

         but it yielded wild grapes.

₃And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem

         and men of Judah,

judge between me and my vineyard.

₄What more was there to do for my vineyard,

         that I have not done in it?

When I looked for it to yield grapes,

         why did it yield wild grapes?

₅And now I will tell you

         what I will do to my vineyard.

I will remove its hedge,

         and it shall be devoured;

I will break down its wall,

         and it shall be trampled down.

₆I will make it a waste;

         it shall not be pruned or hoed,

         and briers and thorns shall grow up;

I will also command the clouds

         that they rain no rain upon it.

₇For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts

         is the house of Israel,

and the men of Judah

         are his pleasant planting;

and he looked for justice,

         but behold, bloodshed;

for righteousness,

         but behold, an outcry!

Philippians 3:4b–14

         If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: ₅circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ₆as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless. ₇But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ₈Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ₉and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— ₁₀that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ₁₁that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

         ₁₂Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ₁₃Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ₁₄I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 21:33–46

         ₃₃[Jesus said:] “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. ₃₄When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. ₃₅And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ₃₆Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. ₃₇Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ₃₈But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ ₃₉And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. ₄₀When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ₄₁They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

         ₄₂Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone that the builders rejected

         has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,

         and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

₄₃Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. ₄₄And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

         ₄₅When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. ₄₆And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.