The Tuesday after the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 4, 2025 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 21:28-44 (NKJV)
21:28 “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ 29 He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?”
They said to Him, “The first.”
Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.
33 “Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 34 Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. 35 And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. 37 Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?”
41 They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.”
Devotion
Jesus addresses the ‘lodge’ of Judaism: they think their bloodline membership and self-devised works of righteousness entitle them to inherit God’s kingdom. They claim obedience to His Law; He most desires what they truly need, but reject: not the Temple sacrifices themselves, but what they signify and deliver. They deliver the One who comes as the Lamb of God to carry away their sins, the “Chief Cornerstone” of God’s eternal Temple. They don’t look to the Lord’s mercy in Him, so they do not show it toward others and lead them to receive it. In this way, they do not render the promised service of sons in the vineyard, but are as the thieves who would steal the vineyard from the heir.
Jesus warns them that “the Day the Lord has made” (Ps. 118) is coming upon them, in which the righteous rejoice while those rejecting the Lord’s mercy are crushed by the very thing that would save them. In that psalm, the Messiah declares (of Himself and of all who trust in Him) that when the unbelieving surround Him, swarming like bees and flaring like a raging fire, He cuts them off “in the name of the Lord,” revealing His will. Not the usual word for ‘cut’, but the word for circumcision is used there. It is the action that rids Him of His enemies. His serpent-destroying death for sin on the cross will transform those who trust in it from enemies to friends and beloved children!
Collect: Grant, we beseech Thee, Merciful Lord, to Thy faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve Thee with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
