A LOVE GONE WRONG SONG

 

“A Love Gone Wrong Song”                                         

“Hey, won’t you play another somebody done somebody wrong song… A real hurtin’ song about a love that’s gone wrong… “  It was a big hit for BJ Thomas in 1975, but it wasn’t the first “love gone wrong song.” Isaiah wrote the first “love gone wrong song” nearly 3000 years ago, and his song went like this: I will sing a song about his vineyard for the one I love: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it and planted the choicest vines. He built a watchtower and cut out a winepress as well. He looked (forward to) a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. So his beloved cried out…  What more could I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? I chose a wonderful spot for my vineyard. I worked hard to clear the stones and I planted only the choicest vines. Everything looked right, but when I looked for justice (mishpat), I saw bloodshed (mishpakh). I looked for righteousness (tsedaqah), but heard cries of distress (tse’aqah).

Tsedaqah/tse’aqah. Mishpat/Mishpakt. A clever play on words, but I’m not sure that the song has many rhymes. However it’s a powerful and sad song of a love gone wrong. God loved His vineyard (Israel) and He planted it in His promised land. He cleared the ground and removed the stones and debris. And He watched over it and protected it… so that it would bear the good fruit of justice and righteousness! So that His people would treat others fairly and look after those who were vulnerable. Of course, in Isaiah’s day the people of God had dietary laws and laws that governed their worship. But… the fruit that God was looking for (and still looks for) was mishpat and tsedaqah.

He looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit, which is a polite way of saying that the grapes were toxic, rotten, and stinky. He was looking for justice which focuses on the poor, but he saw back-breaking taxes, dishonest schemes, and no interest at all in lifting up people who needed help. And He looked for the sort of righteousness that emphasizes doing the right thing to and for others. Mishpat and sedeqah are not measures of good intentions or self-control. They are relational words because it doesn’t make sense to talk of justice which leaves out the very people God calls us to look after! Mishpat is associated with people who are susceptible to exploitation, such as widows, orphans, and the poor. Widows and orphans were extremely vulnerable in Biblical times and God made it clear that they will surely get His attention if we abuse or ignore them. Immigrants didn’t fit in either and nobody wanted to associate with the poor, but Mishpat is all about “our posture towards the poor,” where giving the poor and the vulnerable help has nothing to do with modern political parties.

God gave His people a Law- a way of living that would please God, strengthen their community, and improve the lives of those who are left out. God sent His prophets to warn His people about their lack of justice and righteousness, but the people grabbed what they could, took advantage of others, worshiped themselves, and either ignored or burdened the very people who have a special place in God’s heart. The people tried to please God… by showing up at the temple when they had too, while they trampled on others and gorged themselves. As Jesus noted, they tithed the smallest of things, like their spices, while ignoring what he called the “weightier” matters of the law, like justice and mercy- mishpat and sedeqah.

 

The vineyard went bad for lack of love- a love that would honor God and respond to the needs of God’s people! A love that welcomed and cared for others, especially those who needed it most. Faithfulness is a way of living, which includes building up our faith through Bible study and prayer… and expressing our faith by loving the very people Christ loved… the hungry, the thirsty, the people in rags, immigrants and others who don’t fit in, and those who are sick and/or imprisoned  

 

Carrying our cross and following our Lord, then, must include feeding the hungry, healing the sick, giving drink to the thirsty, dining with sinners, forgiving others, empowering those who have been forgotten and held down, restoring people who are disabled, and/or possessed… because these actions and things like them bear the fruit we are called to bear!