Matthew 21:33 - 43
In the early part of the summer of my sixteenth year I had no job and time hung heavy on my hands. I asked my uncle, who owned a farm, whether he had any kind of job for me. It so happened that he was short a worker and offered me the job of plowing a field. I knew how to drive a car so it wasn't a big leap to run a tractor; and with the plow you just raised and lowered it. And since there was no traffic out on the field I couldn't run into anything. So off I drove. When I got about half-way around the first pass, the plow caught a large rock which kept the blade from turning. I stopped the tractor and after much effort managed to get the rock out of the works. Then I noticed the plow was bent and still wouldn't turn. I walked back to the farmhouse and informed my uncle, and we went back to the tractor and ended up bringing the plow back to his shop. I drove the tractor home. As I took my pay for the day I asked when he wanted me back the next day. He told me that his hired hand was returning and my services wouldn't be needed. The vineyard was taken away from me and put in the hands of another!
If you remember the gospel from last week, Jesus was talking to the priests and elders of the people. Today he addresses a second parable to them. You remember how it all started: Jesus asked about whether John’s baptism was from God or from man and they replied, “We don’t know”. Then Jesus asked about the two sons, one who said he would not work in the vineyard for his father, but changed his mind and did; and the second, who agreed to work for the father, but did not. Jesus asks, “Which one did the will of the father?” This time they know the answer and reply that the first son was doing the will of the father. Jesus has indirectly criticized them for not believing John the Baptist even though sinners were being converted by his preaching. And then we come to this story.
In Jesus’ time, people knew that the scriptures often portrayed the nation of Israel as a vineyard. You see that reference in the psalms and in the prophets, particularly Isaiah. And you heard the first reading, which can be roughly summarized: God has done everything he can for his people, but they still aren’t bearing fruit, and that’s the reason he seems to have abandoned them. But last week and this week Jesus turns our focus away from the nation of Israel and toward the people who are supposed to be leading the nation.
Now when I look at this gospel, I am impressed by foolishness. The tenant farmers believe they have the right to the harvest, even though they are under contract to return a certain part of it to the one who owns the vineyard. When the landowner sends servants to gather his share, the farmers beat one, killed another and stoned a third. They must have let one get away, because the landowner decided to send out another delegation -- who were treated the same way. I wonder if the farmers ever stopped to think about who might be coming the third time -- perhaps a delegation of Roman legionaries with swords and spears. So they have shown themselves even more foolish.
And of course when they decide to kill the son, what did they expect? And Jesus’ audience catches on right away, as you can tell by their answer to Jesus’ question. “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end!” A very human reaction to Jesus’ story.
But pay attention. Jesus asks the question, but does not really answer it. Jesus’ answer is to quote the prophet Isaiah: “The stone the builders rejected will be the cornerstone. This came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes”. And he goes on to say that the kingdom of God will be taken from the current leaders of the people and given to those who will bear fruit.
We’ve mentioned the foolishness of the tenant farmers. But there is even more foolishness going on. The landowner, having had his legitimate requests not only denied but punctuated by lethal violence, sends his son. What did the landowner expect by then? Isn’t his thinking strange? That after what they’ve done, they will respect the son?
But in the apparent foolishness of the landowner, I think Jesus is telling us something about God the Father. He will not bring those wretches to a wretched end. Instead, he will simply move on, hiring new farmers and taking the vineyard from the old ones, and keep doing so until he finds some who will bear much fruit, who will honor the covenant.
God does not condemn; he doesn’t have to. We condemn ourselves. We are given everything -- first of all, life, then relationships, then all the natural world -- That’s God’s commitment. Then we are expected to use all we are given to bear fruit. The story even tells us that God only wants some of the fruit. It’s perfectly legitimate for we tenant farmers to keep some of the fruit we cultivate using the gifts God has given us. But to refuse to bear fruit for God, to use his gifts and our talents which he’s given us as though these belong to us and he doesn't have a claim on them is to take part in the killing of the son and to risk having the vineyard taken away from us.
The wonderful thing about being a human being is that God turns over the task of building the kingdom to us. We participate in God’s great work -- the making over of the world he’s given us to resemble the ideal that was in the mind of Jesus and is being carried forward by the Church. And the kingdom will come, that’s a promise. But if I don’t help build it, I’ll have no claim on it.. And my whole life will lose all real meaning.
