by Fr. Tommy Lane
We are familiar with Jesus’ parables in the Gospels. Jesus taught parables to make a point. His parables often contain a surprise or twist or challenge thinking. There is a parable in the first reading today from the prophet Isaiah (Isa 5:1-7). It is easy to understand. A horticulturalist planted a vineyard and did everything he could to ensure his vines would produce good grapes. He planted only the best vines so that he would have the best grapes and he built a watchtower where he could watch over the crop to protect it from intruders, be they animal or human. He built a winepress expecting to make wine from the best grapes. Unfortunately after all his work, the vines yielded only sour grapes. As listeners heard this parable, they would have felt sympathy for the farmer. All his time and effort and expense did not yield the results he expected. Then at the end of the parable comes the unexpected twist. The vineyard is the nation of Israel and the horticulturist planting it is God. God planted a vineyard, Israel, expecting it to yield spiritual fruit, a response to his covenant with them, but it let God down. Through Isaiah, God tells Israel that they have been a disappointment. They have not been living up to their side of the covenant. God has done everything for them, but they have not responded to God in like manner.
In today’s Gospel (Matt 21:33-43), Jesus also taught a parable about a vineyard, but it is a different parable. The landowner leased the vineyard to tenants to take care of it. The landowner sent one servant after another to the tenants for the produce, but the tenants killed the servants. Finally the landowner sent his son, but they even killed his son. This is an unexpected ending. Once again, God is the landowner planting the vineyard, Israel. He leased it to tenants, that is, to the Jewish leadership, to take care of it. God, the landowner, sent servants, the prophets, to get spiritual produce. But they killed them. The prophet Amos was struck on the head for his preaching and died as a result. Isaiah was martyred in a most brutal way (sawn in two, see Heb 11:37) and two chapters later in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus said they had killed the prophet Zechariah between the sanctuary and the altar (Matt 23:35; see Lam 2:20). So Jesus, in his parable, has been telling them their history, their history of not taking care of God’s vineyard, not responding to all God did for them and even worse, rejecting and killing his prophets.
But even more, Jesus said they would kill the landowner’s son—himself. Jesus knew they had it in for him and would not stop until one way or another they would have him killed. In the Gospels, we read of plots by the Jewish leadership against Jesus. Some were plots to catch him out in what he was teaching, for example, whether to pay taxes to Caesar or not (Matt 22:17). But as Jesus got near Jerusalem for the last time, they plotted to kill him. We read in John’s Gospel that before Jesus entered Jerusalem for the third Passover of his public ministry, which would be his last trip to Jerusalem, he raised Lazarus from the dead. After the raising of Lazarus, the Jewish Sanhedrin met and plotted to kill Jesus. The high priest said during the meeting, “it is better . . . that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish” (John 11:50) It is mind-boggling that Jesus raising Lazarus, something over which they should rejoice, provoked them to have Jesus killed. Today’s parable was told by Jesus after that when he was in Jerusalem for the last time during what we call Holy Week. They are already plotting in the background against him as he told that parable.
The summary of history that Jesus gives in the parable continues to our own time. There are tenants now who look after the vineyard, the kingdom of God. I think in particular of grandparents, parents, and teachers who pass on the faith to the children. They are the tenants taking care of the vineyard. In the parable, tenants did not take care of the vineyard. There are also tenants today who do not take care of the vineyard, the kingdom of God. There are attempts today to kill the word of God and stifle it as much as possible. Just as it is mind-boggling that the leadership plotted against Jesus because he raised Lazarus, it is also mind-boggling that there are attempts today to silence and kill the word of God. The leadership in Jesus’ day did not understand him or his ministry. He was not the type of Messiah they had expected. He associated with the wrong people and some of his teaching did not square with theirs. Those who today are attempting to silence Jesus and his message do so because they do not understand Jesus. Some of his teaching, or the implications of his teaching, does not square with theirs. So, silence and kill his teaching.
But after Jesus told his parable, he quoted a psalm:
The stone that the
builders rejected
has become the cornerstone (Ps 118:22)
Jesus is that cornerstone, on which everything rests. Take away the cornerstone and everything crumbles. But thanks be to God for the tenants—grandparents, parents, and teachers—who pass on the faith that Jesus is the cornerstone on which everything rests.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2023
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Year A
God’s love for us: Jesus’ Sacred Heart 2020
Guarding the Deposit of Faith and producing fruit for the Kingdom
Second Reading Related: Following Jesus begins in your mind