Reflection
Gospel
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: "Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way.
Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, 'They will respect my son.' But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.' They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?" They answered him, "He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times." Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”
Matthew 21: 33-43
Reflection
In the gospel we hear a continuation of parables, which in this case is really an allegory in which every element of the story is rather easily accounted for, there are no dangling threads left to ambiguous interpretations.
While it is easy to see what Jesus is telling His listeners, imagine how revolutionary this image is. The people of Israel knew the image of themselves as a vineyard. They were familiar with the prophets. Here stands Jesus again predicting that the Owner had sent His Son and the tenants were to kill the Son and dominate the vineyard as their own. Jesus asks the religious leaders, (the “tenants”) what will the Owner do? His hearers answer prophetically that the vineyard will be handed over to others who will bring forth fruit in proper time.
The Owner had sent “servants” (prophets) and they were beaten and killed. The Owner sent His Son and they took Him outside the vineyard, (Jerusalem) and killed Him. Now the Owner was not giving up on the preciousness of the vineyard, but rather protecting it. What was rejected will endure. The foundation-stone is the long-lasting love of God and that love will bring about the wine of life from the fruit of faith in that same ever-lasting love.
There may be a temptation, and in fact there has been in our Christian history, to interpret this passage as indicating that Christianity is superior to and supersedes Judaism. This is a dangerous and incorrect reading and understanding of who Jesus was and is. A very important truth here is that God’s love for and covenant with the Jewish people has not been taken away or replaced by God’s love for those following Jesus. This is the teaching of our Church. Matthew presents Jesus as sent to the people of Israel, the Jews, to call them back to their original experiences of God’s saving love and formation of them as God’s chosen people. The people of Israel and the people of Christianity are reminded of just who they are in God’s eyes and how they are to respond. The response then and the responses now indicate a similar human resistance to our proper human image. We are the vine, the vineyard planted or created for a just relationship with that Planter.
Julie Leonard Religious Education Leader/Wellbeing Leader