TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2023)
Readings:
Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalms 80:9, 12-16, 19-20
Philippians 4:6-9
Matthew 21:33-43
The first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, indicates how steeped Jesus is in the prophets teaching. We should not underestimate the diligence of Jesus’ parents, who insured that Jesus was raised in a home where the tenets of the Jewish faith really mattered, and Jesus’ time spent in the Temple listening to the scholars of the Jewish faith surely had great effect in boosting Jesus’ full grasp of the Law and the Prophets. We see Jesus’ dependence on His knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures throughout what we call the New Testament, but no where is it more evident in the gospels than when “Moses and Elijah,” the “Law and the Prophets,” appear with Him on Mount Tabor at His Transfiguration, divine testimony of Jesus’ dependence on the Jewish Scriptures.
This weekend there is no need to ask where the material for Jesus’ parable comes from, for it comes from our first reading from Isaiah whose “friend” builds a vineyard. One can read into Isaiah’s account the care and concern his friend had to build the finest of vineyard’s on this “fertile hillside.” He turned the ground over, he cleared it of stones, he planted the choicest of vines, built a watchtower, and even hewed out a wine press in anticipation of the grape’s harvest. “What more could the vineyard owner have done for his vineyard, that [he] had not done?” Yet, at harvest time, in spite of the love and care of the owner, the vineyard produces nothing but useless wild grapes. Isaiah does what Jesus seldom does – he comes right out and explains his story; “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished plant.” God’s people were a disappointment.
The vineyard image is used again in the responsorial psalm, indicating how familiar the image was to the Jewish people.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus takes the familiar image of the “vineyard of God” and places it in the context of a parable for His disciples. Jesus’ primary way of teaching in the gospels is through parables, and in this parable He takes Isaiah’s image and turns the focus away from the grapes, and onto the tenants to whom the land was leased. Jesus’ vineyard owner lavishes the same care and concern in building the vineyard that we saw in Isaiah’s account, and in this case it might be fair to assume that the vines yielded the kind of fruit that the owner of the vineyard would expect. The disappointment of God (the vineyard owner) is not focused on the harvest of the grapes, but on those to whom He leased the vineyard. He had every right to expect the tenants to hand over the produce to His servants, but instead “one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned.” The owner sent more servants who were treated in the same way, and so it was not unreasonable to expect that they would “respect my son,” who He, too, sent to obtain His produce. But arrogance and a total disregard for how blessed they were, caused them to seize the son, throw him out of the vineyard, and kill him as well. Jesus asks: “What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when He comes?”
The wretched and unfaithful tenants will suffer a “wretched death,” but more importantly, the land will be leased “to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.” Once again the parable is addressed to “the chief priests and the elders of the people,” people who considered themselves privileged, the caretakers of all things Jewish. Their growing ire over Jesus’ ministry was not the “good fruit” Jesus expected from them, and their role in the deaths of John the Baptist and Jesus showed an antagonism to the owner of the vineyard who sent His only Son into the world in order that He might teach men and women how to produce good fruits.
When the baskets of good fruit are gathered up after we are called from this world, will there be enough to have been a significant benefit to the world in which we live? As laborers in the vineyard of God, are we working hard to spread the message of our Teacher? Are we caring for the vineyard where we are privileged to live with the kind of care that will insure we will be able to pass the vineyard down to our heirs? Is the fruit we produce robust and healthy, and of a certain abundance that others come to know the generosity of the God we worship? Jesus’ parable today, like all parables, is not just meant for the disciples within earshot, it is meant for us as well. May we who have been asked to work in the vineyard at this particular time, make every effort to produce an abundance of fruit, so that God never regrets leasing the vineyard to us.
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