Meditation Three Daily Office Readings Morning: Psalms 5, 6; Isaiah 1.21-31; 1 Thess. 2.1-12 Evening: Psalms 10, 11; Luke 20.9-18
In Isaiah 1-5, the prophet set out God’s case against His people Israel, and specifically the Kingdom of Judah and its capital, Jerusalem. The “faithful city” had become faithless and corrupt (Isaiah 1: 2123 RSV). Isaiah 5:1-7 likens the House of Israel to a vineyard: God tended it lavishly, but when He looked for fine grapes, it yielded only bitter wild grapes. “He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry!” In Luke 20:9-18, the parable goes that the tenants of a vineyard kill successive servants whom the owner sends to collect his share of the fruit. Finally he sends his beloved son, but they kill him too. In the same way that Isaiah identified Israel as a vineyard, Jesus identified the Jewish leaders of His day as the tenants in the parable. The Reproaches, sung in the Western Church on Good Friday, during the Veneration of the Cross, recount what God did for Israel and how that has been repaid in the passion of His beloved Son, with the haunting refrain: “O my people, what have I done to thee…?” The third couplet recalls Isaiah’s parable: 18
I planted thee, my choicest vine, and thou hast become exceeding bitter unto me: for when I was thirsty thou gavest me to drink vinegar mingled with gall, and hast pierced with a spear the side of thy Saviour.