Pentecost 21 - Year A

Gospel Reading: Matthew 21:33-46

33 ‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. 34When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” 38But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” 39So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ 41They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’

42 Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures:
“The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
   and it is amazing in our eyes”?
43Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. 44The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

The Gospel today is of course one of the parables of Jesus.  It is one of only three parables that occur in all three of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  The three parables are: the parable of the sower, the mustard seed and today’s reading about the vineyard.  Given this, it would seem worthwhile to explore its meaning in some detail.

Also it is the second of a set of three parables one after the other in Matthew’s Gospel all with a related theme of the responses to God – the response of the people at the time – but also the parables invite us to reflect on our own responses – and we will think about this a bit later

Last week we had the parable of the two sons. You may remember that the first son refused to follow the instructions of the Father but then changed his mind.  The second son appeared to willingly agree but then did not follow through.

This week we have the second parable of the vineyard with the tenants refusing to hand over the rent or a portion of the produce to the owner.

Next week we have the parable of the wedding banquet where the invited guests fail to turn up and also one of the guests, who does, is not correctly attired.

To explore what today’s parable might mean for us it is necessary to clarify the context a little.

The immediate context is the day after Jesus had driven the moneychangers from the temple.  The next day Jesus is in the temple teaching.

 …the chief priests and the elders came to Jesus as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?"

We need to remember that, by this time, Jesus had spent two to three years teaching and healing. He had been powerfully confirmed in his ministry. At the start of his ministry, at his baptism, he heard God say:

"This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17)

After this, Jesus had been tested in the wilderness. He had performed extraordinary miracles. He had taught with wisdom of a new order. Not long before the current events, he had taken Peter, James and John to the top of the mountain where the transfiguration had taken place and again he heard God the Father say:

This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; LISTEN TO HIM (Mt 17:5)

From what Jesus said to the disciples, it was clear that he knew that he was about to embrace great suffering. Even so, in obedience to the Father’s will, Jesus turned his face to Jerusalem to accept the cross.

And now we have the context for today’s parable. And they said to him:

“By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?     

 (We might wonder how Jesus would have been feeling at this time)

Jesus replied with three parables. The second being today’s Gospel. When we hear the parable of the vineyard today, we might need to do some thinking to understanding it. But the hearers of this parable would have known quite clearly what Jesus meant straight away. In this parable of the vineyard:

33 ‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner (God) who planted a vineyard (Israel), put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants (Leaders of Israel) and went to another country. 34When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves (prophets) to the tenants to collect his produce. 35But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36Again he sent other slaves (further prophets), more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37Finally he sent his son (Jesus)to them, saying, “They will respect my son.”

The reason the meaning of the parable would have been clear to those listening is that the parable is grounded in the Book of Isaiah. There are quite a few references or links with Isaiah in Matthew’s Gospel.

For example:

Mt 3.3

3This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
   make his paths straight.” ’

Mt 4:13-16

13He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15‘Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
   on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
16the people who sat in darkness
   have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
   light has dawned.’

Mt 12:17-21

17This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
18‘Here is my servant, whom I have chosen,
   my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased. (cf at Jesus’s baptism)
I will put my Spirit upon him,
   and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
19He will not wrangle or cry aloud,
   nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
20He will not break a bruised reed
   or quench a smouldering wick
until he brings justice to victory.
21   And in his name the Gentiles will hope.’

The connecting point for the vineyard parable is built on some verses from Isaiah:

Isaiah 5:1-2

Let me sing for my beloved
   my love-song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
   on a very fertile hill.

2He dug it and cleared it of stones,
   and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watch-tower in the midst of it,
   and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
   but it yielded wild grapes.

In case there is any doubt, a few verses later:

7For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
   is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
   are his pleasant planting;
he expected justice, but saw bloodshed;
righteousness, but heard a cry!

Being able to connect a reading such as today’s to other existing scripture is quite valuable for several reasons.

Firstly, it helps in the interpretation.

Secondly, the link of the vineyard to Isaiah reminds us of the continuity between the Old and New Testaments - the God of the OT is the same God as in the NT.

Thirdly, one way of helping the task of interpretation is to recognise the continuity of ideas. God’s message does not change – it is simply expressed in new ways in new contexts.

One of the very clear lines of thought or themes that runs through both Old and New Testaments is that of justice and righteousness.

Indeed it is quite explicit in the Isaiah reference:

7For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
   is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
   are his pleasant planting;
he expected justice, but saw bloodshed;
righteousness, but heard a cry!

Given this we are able to say with some confidence that the expected produce, the fruit of the kingdom, that was not being delivered by the tenants of the vineyard (the leaders of Israel) was in fact justice and righteousness. Indeed, if we go to the beginning of Isaiah, we can see the reason for Isaiah being called as a prophet.

Isaiah 1

2Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth;
   for the Lord has spoken:
I reared children and brought them up,
   but they have rebelled against me.
3The ox knows its owner,
   and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know,
   my people do not understand.)

Also we see very similar ideas in Micah. In Micah 6:3-4, we hear the lament:

‘O my people, what have I done to you?
   In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
4For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
   and redeemed you from the house of slavery;
and I sent before you Moses,
   Aaron, and Miriam.

Micah 6:8

8He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
   and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
   and to walk humbly with your God?

Doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with our God does seem to be God’s call on us and appears to be the fruit of the kingdom mentioned in the parable. Indeed it has been God’s call on us all the way through:

From the start of creation,

to the Covenant with Abraham, 

to the time of Jesus,

to our time today.

The call for justice is quite explicit in the ministry of Jesus:

Mt 12:17-21

17This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
18‘Here is my servant, whom I have chosen,
   my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased. (cf at Jesus’s baptism)
I will put my Spirit upon him,
   and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

Matthew 23

23‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practised without neglecting the others.

 The call for justice still applies to us. It is easy in our society to be safe and secure and to not worry about others. I think it is a good discipline for each of us to ask the questions on a regular basis about what our individual / personal responsibilities are in this regard.

Justice is certainly a long running theme in the Old and New Testaments. There is also a parallel theme associated with justice and righteousness and this is that of relationship.

In OT covenant language such as: You will be my people, I will be your God. We see this picked up in the Micah reading from before as:

   and to walk humbly with your God?

The call to be in relationship with God is quite clear.

It seems clear that God has wanted to and still wants to build a relationship with the people he has created. God has bent over backwards to try to get the message through. The life and work of Jesus is a continuation. So when the elders and the chief priests say:

“By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?

it has quite a sharp edge to it.  

In telling the three parables, Jesus is reflecting on some of the types of responses that there have been from humankind to God – even outright rejection. Jesus even quotes from scripture (Ps118) using the phrase:

The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the cornerstone;

Now it is easy enough for us to look back in history and come to our own conclusions about the ancient Israelites and the people at the time of Jesus.  However, we need to realise that their history is also our history…their behaviour is our behaviour…their story is part of our story.

When we turn away,when we just pretend that God is not there, when we get all consumed with what is happening in the financial world and conveniently forget the conditions of many in the world, when we commit to something and fail to deliver, when we fail to respond to the invitation to build our relationship with God, we are also saying, with the chief priest and elders, to God, to Jesus: “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?

And we are rejecting the cornerstone.

Also, we need to understand that when we reject the invitation to be in relationship with God, we are actually rejecting the capacity to live with justice and righteousness.

So, God calls to us – each of us. God waits for us, to welcome us home, to rejoice in us doing God’s will.

Please do not reject the cornerstone.

And let’s not keep God waiting too long.