The Tenants Who Killed the Owner’s Son

Pastor’s Column

27th Sunday Ordinary Time

October 5, 2014

In this century, science has helped us discover our place in the universe. It always helps to know how things really stand and what is really important in our lives. Our Lord helps us to understand by telling us the parable of the owner and the tenants in the vineyard (Matthew 21:33-43). The owner took great care to get everything ready for his tenants, protecting the vineyard and providing a tower to live in, a wine-press to work with, grapes and land to cultivate and a wall to keep intruders out. The tenants received all of this with the expectation that they would share some of the fruit with the owner at harvest time: in other words, they had to pay rent. The owner set all this up with great care and then went away but he monitored things from a distance.

But when the owner sent delegates to collect the rent, they were beaten up or killed, one after the other. What is the problem here? The workers in the vineyard forgot that they were tenants.

We all find ourselves as residents of this earth. We did not create it. We are here for a specified time and a specified purpose. If we forget that we are tenants, temporary residents here, we may become selfish and think everything belongs to us to do with as we please. We begin to neglect the needs of others or our duties to God.

When God sends us reminders that our rent is due, we can respond with hostility and hardness of heart like the tenants in today’s gospel. In each of our lives, God wishes to provide what we need to bear fruit for him. Sometimes his providence takes the form of good times and pleasant things, and sometimes suffering, but all of this is given to us for a time so that we might bear fruit and share it with him and others. Thus the point of life is ultimately not to amass a hoard for our own use, but to offer a fruitful life to God which takes the form of sharing with our neighbor.

Periodically, God will send a “servant” to test us and see if we have some fruit to give him. These often take the form of tests. For example, we may wake up with a headache; we bear fruit by not dumping that headache on everyone else! We are at work and a co-worker needs help; we offer it in a spirit of love, even though we have other things to do. We are in traffic and show patience. We take the time to listen with interest to our aunt who has told the same story 100 times already. And so on!

God shows almost infinite patience with us. He waits for us to learn generosity with him and others and to discover the real meaning of life. At the end of our time as tenants, God will appear to ask us for our “rent!”

Father Gary

Reflections from Scott Hahn

Living on the Vine: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted by Dr. Scott Hahn on 10.03.14 |

Jesus on the Cross 2

Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:9, 12-16, 19-20
Philippians 4:6-9
Matthew 21:33-43

In today’s Gospel Jesus returns to the Old Testament symbol of the vineyard to teach about Israel, the Church, and the kingdom of God.

And the symbolism of today’s First Reading and Psalm is readily understood.

God is the owner and the house of Israel is the vineyard. A cherished vine, Israel was plucked from Egypt and transplanted in a fertile land specially spaded and prepared by God, hedged about by the city walls of Jerusalem, watched over by the towering Temple. But the vineyard produced no good grapes for the wine, a symbol for the holy lives God wanted for His people. So God allowed His vineyard to be overrun by foreign invaders, as Isaiah foresees in the First Reading.

Jesus picks up the story where Isaiah leaves off, even using Isaiah’s words to describe the vineyard’s wine press, hedge, and watchtower. Israel’s religious leaders, the tenants in His parable, have learned nothing from Isaiah or Israel’s past. Instead of producing good fruits, they’ve killed the owner’s servants, the prophets sent to gather the harvest of faithful souls.

In a dark foreshadowing of His own crucifixion outside Jerusalem, Jesus says the tenants’ final outrage will be to seize the owner’s son, and to kill him outside the vineyard walls.

For this, the vineyard, which Jesus calls the kingdom of God, will be taken away and given to new tenants - the leaders of the Church, who will produce its fruit.

We are each a vine in the Lord’s vineyard, grafted onto the true vine of Christ (see John 15:1-8), called to bear fruits of the righteousness in Him (see Philippians 1:11), and to be the “first fruits” of a new creation (see James 1:18).

We need to take care that we don’t let ourselves be overgrown with the thorns and briers of worldly anxiety. As today’s Epistle advises, we need to fill our hearts and minds with noble intentions and virtuous deeds, rejoicing always that the Lord is near.

27th Sunday: Once upon a Vineyard

A landowner who planted a vineyard . . . and went on a journey

Is 5: 1-7

Phil 4: 6-9

Mt 21: 33-43

The Word for Sunday:

http://usccb.org/bible/readings/100514.cfm

On his 21st birthday, I encouraged one of my nephews to try a nice glass of wine. He had already sipped from the chalice at Mass during the reception of Holy Communion so I knew that he had at least tasted this ancient and ever new “fruit of the vine.” But I knew that he had never really taken the time to enjoy the flavors of a fine vintage.

I personally enjoy the reds so I offered him what I thought would be a good example. He took one sip and that was about it. The expression on his face was somewhat surprising and maybe a bit purposely over the top.

I said, “Maybe you need to try a white wine. They’re not as strong.” Still it seems that he will likely never be much of a wine connoisseur. His younger brother, now also 21, had a very different reaction. “Ok, that’s enough!” I thought with him.

The taste of wine is somewhat subjective, I suppose. Depending on your personal likes and dislikes, the food you are eating, and the vintage itself, you enjoy what you enjoy in the end. But, there is no doubt that the vineyards of today compete mightily with each other to produce the finest vintage and taste possible.

Our readings this Sunday once again speak of a vineyard but in more harsh terms than we’ve heard the last two weekends. The prophet Isaiah poetically speaks of a vineyard, carefully tilled and pruned but what the vineyard master hoped for “the crop of grapes” turned out to be “wild grapes.” Maybe that glass of wine I offered to my nephew came from those wild grapes.

Then God speaks an ultimatum: “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard . . .” God expected that his people would be faithful and produce rich fruit by their loyalty to his covenant. Yet instead God decides to, “take away its hedge, give it to grazing, break through its wall, let it be trampled!” Ouch!

Historically, the city of Jerusalem during the time of Isaiah had been destroyed by the Babylonians so their experience of destruction was interpreted as God’s judgment for their unfaithfulness and idolatry.

Likewise, after the earthly ministry of Jesus was completed and the new Way laid its foundation through the Apostles’ ministry, in the year 70 AD, the city of Jerusalem was once again destroyed by the Romans and along with it the sacred Temple where Jesus himself had preached. The early Jewish converts to the new Christian Way had been expelled from Temple worship and were now left ever more vulnerable and unprotected for rapid persecution. Unlike Judaism, this new sect was not tolerated by the Roman authorities and the legendary persecution of Christians was about to become history.

As the Gospel this Sunday speaks of this vineyard, the chosen people of God, Jesus warns in his story about their well-known abominable treatment of the Old Testament prophets. They “seized” them, they “beat” them, they “stoned” and “killed” them. Yet God continued to attempt a renewal of the covenant as he drew closer to the sending of his own Son. Hoping, according to the story, that at least his son would be respected and treated well. Yet, like the prophets of old, the tenants said: “Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance . . . they threw him out of the vineyard” (Calvary outside the walls) “and killed him.”

But, all is not lost for now God will “lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.” (The gentile communities who embrace the faith and the Jewish converts now left on their own.)

Lest we become anti-Semitic, however, remember to whom Jesus was speaking in this story: the “chief priests and elders of the people.” Those self-righteous leaders of the people who rejected Jesus and his message and led the people far from the covenant.

Still, the warning as such is also at the same time a word of mercy. God doesn’t give up. He continues to offer and invite everyone to his vineyard. God has not rejected the Jewish people as a whole. The “Jews” did not kill Jesus with foresight and intent. A race of people cannot be blamed for the sins of others. The Church continues to see them as the first chosen by God. Yet, the expansion of the covenant has come through stages as it were - from one people to many.

What this reminds us about is that we too must not take our faith for granted. The vineyard of our Christian faith is ever as precious as what we hear in Isaiah and Matthew this weekend.

God has supplied the tools we need to remain faithful and to come to know him more and more. The Sacraments of our Church, the richness of our prayer tradition, the call to service especially to those in great need, the support of our brothers and sisters in the faith, our heroes the Saints who plead for us and through whose example we can learn.

What we must provide is a willingness to do what needs to be done to bear good fruit. All is grace as has been said. And indeed God has provided in and through his Church what is needed to be a holy people. Maybe not perfect but a great work in progress for sure.

As Mother Teresa has said, God calls for our faithfulness not our success. How is your vineyard doing? Is the wine a joy to drink or has it gone bad?

Almighty and ever-living God,

who in the abundance of your kindness

surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you,

pour out your mercy upon us

to pardon what conscience dreads

and to give what prayer does not dare to ask.

Vultus Christi

Dixit Dominus Domino meo

Sunday, 05 October 2014 12:49

The Lord said to my Lord

Psalm 109 figures prominently in today’s Holy Mass and Divine Office. At Mass, we receive Psalm 109 from the very lips of Our Lord Himself:

And the Pharisees being gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying: What think you of Christ? whose son is he? They say to him: David’ s. He saith to them: How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word; neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. (Matthew 22:41–46)

This evening’s Magnificat Antiphon, graced with an exquisite 4th mode melody, repeats the words of Jesus:

Quid vobis videtur de Christo? * cujus filius est? Dicunt ei omnes: David. Dicit eis Jesus: Quomodo David in spiritu vocat eum Dominum, dicens: Dixit Dominus Domino meo: Sede a dextris meis?

What think ye of Christ Whose Son is He * They say all unto Him The Son of David. Jesus saith unto them How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand?

Christ Enthroned

An allusion to the very same Psalm 109 recurs at the very end of Saint Mark’s gospel: “So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mk 16:19). Again, on the morning of Pentecost, Saint Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, preaches the mystery of the risen and ascended Christ saying:

David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I make thy enemies a stool for thy feet.’ Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. (Ac 2:34-36)

In the New Testament

Psalm 109 is the ground of some of the important Christological doctrines of the New Testament. Saint Paul alludes to it in Romans (8:34), Ephesians (1:20), and Colossians (3:1). We discover Psalm 109 four times in the Letter to the Hebrews.

In the Liturgy

From the time of the Apostles, Psalm 109 has been a mirror wherein the Church contemplates the mystery of Christ. The Church, by her use of Psalm 109 in the sacred liturgy, continues Jesus’ own understanding of it passed on to the Apostles. Deep in her collective memory the Church cherishes the incomparable seventh mode antiphon that, for centuries, has opened the evening sacrifice of praise on Sunday: Dixit Dominus Domino meo: Dede a dextris meis (Ps 109:1). The Church hears the voice of Christ repeating for her what the Father said to him on the day of resurrection: “Sit at my right” (Ps 109:1).

Christ’s Divinity, Humanity, Kingship, and Priesthood

The medieval monastic psalters place a Christological title at the beginning of each psalm. These old titles of the psalms — there are many series of them — say, in some way, “Here is the mystery of Christ in this psalm. Contemplate his face as in a mirror, and hear in this psalm the sound of his voice.” The old Cistercian series of psalm titles has this for Psalm 109: “Of the divinity, the humanity, the kingship, and the priesthood of Christ.”

Bitter Sufferings and Resurrection

Going through the psalm, verse by verse, we see in verse 1 Christ enthroned at the right hand of the Father, an image that recurs in the Gloria of the Mass and in the Te Deum. In verse 3 we hear the voice of the Father saying, “From the womb before the daystar I begot thee” (Ps 109:3). Verse 4 is the declaration of Christ’s eternal priesthood: “Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech” (Ps 109:4). Verses 5 and 6 describe the triumph of Christ over the powers of death. In the last verse of the psalm the whole mystery of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection is summed up: “He shall drink of the torrent in the way — the torrent of his bitter sufferings — therefore he shall lift up his head — in the glory of the resurrection and ascension” (Ps 109:7).

In Life

How does all of this relate to life? When we begin to see the face of Christ in the psalms as in a mirror, we can begin to relate them to our own journey as well. We are all of us called, in some way, to “drink of the torrent in the way” (Ps 109:7). At the same time, our indefectible hope is that like Christ and with him, we too shall “lift up our heads.” All that is said to Christ by the Father is spoken to us. All that was accomplished in Christ our Head must fulfilled in his Body and in each of his members. And so we live from one Holy Mass to the next, and from one Hour of the Divine Office to the next, singing the psalms of David, the psalms of Christ, as we advance.

Vultus Christi

Diabólica vitáre contágia

Sunday, 05 October 2014 17:37

Da, quaesumus, Dómine, pópulo tuo diabólica vitáre contágia: et te solum Deum pura mente sectári.

Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that Thy people may avoid all contact with the devil: and with pure mind follow Thee, the only God.

A Twofold Petition

Today’s Collect is concise and incisive. It begins straightway, not with the usual form of address but, rather, with a bold petition that forms the whole of the prayer. The petition is twofold: first, that the people belonging to God — that is, the faithful — may avoid all contact with the devil; and second, that they may follow the only God with pure minds.

Avoiding Devilry

The Church would not have us pray to avoid all contact with the devil unless such contact were (1) possible, and (2) posed a real threat to souls. The Church always treats of devilry and all such related matters soberly and discreetly. One of the best theological treatments of the whole question is found in Chapter 13 of Dom Cipriano Vagaggini’s classic Theological Dimensions of the Liturgy, “The Two Cities: The Liturgy and the Struggle Against Satan” (The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 1976).

Contact with Below

If the Church makes us pray to avoid contact with the devil, it is because such contact is possible. The very mention of contact with the devil conjures up images of Pan Twardowski and of Faust, of Madame Blavatsky and of Huysman’s Là–bas. Sadly, contact with the devil is not limited to the infernal dalliances of philosophers, artists, theosophists, and decadent aesthetes. If there is a weak point in any man’s life — and there always is — the devil will find it and use it, be that man lettered or unlettered, rich or poor, young or old, believer or unbeliever, impious or devout, clerical or lay.

One can come into contact with the devil either by deliberately seeking it, or inadvertently by taking foolish risks or by placing oneself recklessly in harm’s way. I shall not address the first possibility; it lies, to my mind, among those things that Saint Paul says, “should not so much as be named among you” (Ephesians 5:3). The question of foolish risks, however, must be named; such risks include everything related to the occult, including Tarot cards, fortune–telling, the ouija board, spiritualistic practices, and superstitions. (See my post on Blessed Bartolo Longo here.) This is, by no means, an exhaustive list. One engaged in the illicit pursuit of possessions, pleasure, or power can be certain that the Evil One is lying in wait for him along the way. The devil is always ready to ambush the unsuspecting adventurer. He bides his time. He “goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8), but he also slithers along silently like a deadly viper quick to strike.

Contact with God

The second part of the petition is that we, with a pure mind, may follow the only God. There is, in this phrase, an echo of the First Commandment: “I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me”. There is also, I think, an echo of Our Lord’s Priestly Prayer: “Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). To follow God is to walk in His ways; it is to obey His commandments, and to seek His Face. The man who prays is following God. One follows God in proportion to one’s perseverance in prayer, and prayer itself is God’s free gift to those who would follow Him.

Choose Life Then

One might summarize the content of today’s Collect as a prayer asking that we may avoid contact with the devil and seek contact with God. Contact with God is not something difficult. In some way, the Collect we are praying today is the lectio of Deuteronomy 30:11–20, turned to meditatio in the light of Christ, and become oratio.

This commandment, that I command thee this day is not above thee, nor far off from thee: Nor is it in heaven, that thou shouldst say: Which of us can go up to heaven to bring it unto us, and we may hear and fulfill it in work? Nor is it beyond the sea: that thou mayst excuse thyself, and say: Which of us can cross the sea, and bring it unto us: that we may hear, and do that which is commanded? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayst do it. Consider that I have set before thee this day life and good, and on the other hand death and evil:

That thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways, and keep his commandments and ceremonies and judgments, and thou mayst live, and he may multiply thee, and bless thee in the land, which thou shalt go in to possess. But if thy heart be turned away, so that thou wilt not hear, and being deceived with error thou adore strange gods, and serve them: I foretell thee this day that thou shalt perish, and shalt remain but a short time in the land, to which thou shalt pass over the Jordan, and shalt go in to possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live: And that thou mayst love the Lord thy God, and obey his voice, and adhere to him (for he is thy life, and the length of thy days,) that thou mayst dwell in the land, for which the Lord swore to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give it them. (Deuteronomy 30:11–20)

Regnum Christi

The Darkness of Selfishness

U. S. A. | SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY

October 5, 2014 Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 21:33-43

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."

Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, you are the master of the universe and yet you wish to listen to me and guide me. You know all things past, present and future, and yet you respect my freedom to choose you. Holy Trinity, you are completely happy and fulfilled on your own, and yet you have generously brought us into existence. You are our fulfillment. Thank you for the gift of yourself. I offer the littleness of myself in return, knowing you are pleased with what I have to give.

Petition: Lord, grant me a deeper humility that seeks you and not myself in all that I do.

1. The Stone Rejected: Just a few days before, a great crowd had acclaimed Jesus as the Messiah as he triumphantly entered Jerusalem. However, the chief priests, scribes, Pharisees and Herodians see Jesus as a threat to their own position of leadership. Though they have not yet let it be known to the people, they have decided to reject Jesus and are already plotting together to kill him. In the meantime, they are pretending to be making a “thorough investigation,” to find the “truth” about what the crowds have acclaimed – that Jesus is the Messiah. What they are really doing is trying to ruin him, to catch him in some mistake, so as to denounce him as a fraud before the crowds. They seek to break the people’s support for him. They practice the kind of toxic politics we are so familiar with today: Instead of seeking the common good or the truth, they only seek themselves and their own glory.

2. The Cornerstone: Jesus sees what his detractors are trying to do. He tells them a series of parables, hinting that if they continue to oppose him, they will lose. In the parable of the vineyard he tells them that they can kill him; but even so they will still lose. Then he quotes Psalm 118, comparing himself with the rejected stone that becomes the cornerstone. What Jesus is hinting at goes beyond just the quoted verses. The whole psalm – which Jesus’ enemies would have known from memory – tells of Yahweh fighting for his faithful one. The faithful one will not be abandoned to death, and the enemies of Yahweh will be defeated. It is as if Jesus throws down a challenge: “You cannot beat me. Even if you kill me as you are planning to do, my Heavenly Father will not abandon me to death. He will fight for me and I will become the cornerstone. You would do better to join me.”

3. Jesus Is True Progress: Jesus won. He continues to win today. His enemies still insist on smashing themselves to bits. When we survey history, we see what becomes of one group after another that oppose Jesus and his Church. They disappear into oblivion. Jesus is the future of the whole world. He won. He continues to win and will win in the end. Since Jesus is the future of the whole world, progress can only mean progress toward him, toward the civilization of justice and love he wishes to establish. Those who seek their own special interests are seeking a return to the past, to the Dark Age before Jesus. They seek to return to when humanity tried not just to know what was good and evil (eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), but to DECIDE it – to be gods themselves.

Conversation with Christ: Lord, help me to be humble. Help me to accept you as Messiah and Savior – and as my future. So many times, instead of seeking you, I seek myself. I try to influence everything so that what is good and true is defined according to my will rather than yours. Please be patient with me and help me to change.

Resolution: In what area of my life is it hardest for me to accept the way God has organized things? Where do I most want to set up a system opposed to God’s plan in order to get my way? My resolution today has to be one that helps tear down this “structure of sin” in my life.

By Father James Swanson, LC

A Gloomy Love Song

Dr. Mark Giszczak

shutterstock_10933687

October 5, 2014
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Isaiah 5:1-7
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100514.cfm

Love songs conjure up happy thoughts: affection, romance, fulfillment. People like listening to love songs for those positive emotions, but conversely some of the most powerful love songs are the dark ones—the ones that start off rosy and end up blue. In this Sunday’s reading from Isaiah, we find such a love song. It begins with such hope and promise, but ends on a sour note.

Context

Isaiah 5 comes toward the beginning of this book of judgment. The prophet puts the people of God on trial before heaven and earth (Isa 1:2) and they are found wanting. He calls them to account for violating the covenant of the Lord and bringing upon themselves the deserved covenant punishment. Here, near the beginning of the book, Isaiah uses many metaphors to describe the people’s unfaithfulness and this love song is one of the most potent.

The Beloved

The prophet opens the song with reference to “my beloved” or “my friend.” The Hebrew word underlying these translations is yadid, normally used to indicate one who is loved (e.g. Deut 33:12). The word is closely related to dod, which is used by the lovers in the Song of Songs to refer to one another. The fictive voice of the poet in Isaiah 5 could be the prophet as the Lord’s “best man” singing about his unfaithful bride. On the other hand, it could be Israel herself, singing to the Lord, as “my beloved,” the tragic love song of their relationship. Either way, the song of Isaiah 5 has many vocabulary links to the Song of Songs—love, vines, vineyards, fidelity are all common themes. While the Song of Songs shows the bright side of Israel’s loving relationship with the Lord, here we see the troublesome dimensions.

The Vineyard

Notably, the Lord’s relationship with his people is described in a metaphor wrapped in a metaphor: It is like a loving couple, which is like a vineyard. The Lord is portrayed as the vintner, diligently preparing a field for his vines: digging, clearing, planting, watching, building. (Jesus invokes this passage by repeating these ideas in Matt 21, but then he adds a new twist.) The vintner makes sure that all of the conditions are right for his vines to flourish—in the same way that the Lord prepared and promised a special land for his people to dwell in, to flourish in. Yet despite the vinedresser’s hard work, the vines yield only wild grapes. Here wild grapes are sour grapes. “Wild” here does not indicate organic, locally-grown, vine-ripened grapes as a luxury product, but the nasty side of wild grapes, ones that are so sour you can’t even swallow them. Wild grapes like this are not what you expect when you prepare your field so well. They would be a huge disappointment, a whole year’s work down the drain! The vintner would likely have to go into debt just to make it through the winter since he could not sell his worthless crop or make decent wine with it. The quality of the fruit is essential.

Destruction

When the vines produce sour grapes, they need to be destroyed. Isaiah extends the metaphor to show the vintner taking down the hedge around the vineyard, so that it is given over to prairie grass for animals to graze on. It shows him neglecting it by refusing to hoe or to prune, so the vines revert from a cultivated state back into a wild one. Eventually the vineyard will be covered with thorn bushes and be totally useless for winemaking. While the prophet draws the allegory out and ratchets up the drama, he is illustrating how Israel’s chosen status and the blessings that go with it are being undone by the nation’s own disobedience.

Judgment

Just like a vineyard is a specially cared for piece of property, God’s people were cared for in a special way. Now that God’s judgment is coming upon them, their land will be over-run. In effect, they will become just like any other nation, common, trampled, dry. The blessings of the Lord: land, prosperity, life in his presence, will be revoked during the time of exile. The song ends with two dramatic wordplays. The Lord looks for mishpat, justice, but gets mishpach, bloodshed. He wants tzedaqah, righteousness,but gets tze‘aqah, outcry. The people have not only failed to live up to his expectations, they’re headed in the opposite direction.

I suppose we can draw a little hope from the fact that God’s plans can sometimes backfire. Despite his utter faithfulness to them, they were not faithful to him. But I think this passage can cause us to look inside ourselves to see whether we find mishpat or mishpach. We not always great at being God’s friends. Lastly, though, just as God tilled the soil, and cleared the stones from his ancient “vineyard,” he prepares our hearts too. And even if we find ourselves producing wild grapes, he always is ready to receive us back and turn that despairing love song back to its original aspiration.

One Bread, One Body

Language: English | Español

All Issues > Volume 30, Issue 6

<< Sunday, October 5, 2014 >>

27th Sunday Ordinary Time

Isaiah 5:1-7
Philippians 4:6-9
View Readings

Psalm 80:9, 12-16, 19-20
Matthew 21:33-43
Similar Reflections

GRAPES OF WRATH?

"We will no more withdraw from You; give us new life." —Psalm 80:19

The owner of the vineyard gave the tenant farmers several opportunities to give him his share of the grapes (Mt 21:34ff). Likewise, the Lord has given us several opportunities to die to ourselves and bear fruit for Him (see Jn 12:24).

The owner of the vineyard eventually had to punish the tenant farmers. Because they did not give him the fruit of his vineyard, he gave them the fruit of their rebellion, that is, the wages of sin which is death (Rm 6:23). Likewise, the Lord will let us punish, destroy, and damn ourselves if we refuse to repent of our sins.

The owner of the vineyard sent his son to the tenant farmers. This was their last chance. Likewise, God the Father, the Vinegrower, sent us His Son, the Vine (Jn 15:1, 5). Jesus promised that those who live in Him and He in them will produce fruit abundantly (Jn 15:5). Otherwise, they will be "thrown in the fire and burnt" (Jn 15:6).

Repent! Believe in Jesus! Bear fruit for Him or die the second death (see Rv 2:11).

Prayer: "Once again, O Lord of hosts, look down from heaven, and see; take care of this vine, and protect what Your right hand has planted" (Ps 80:15-16).

Promise: "Finally, my brothers, your thoughts should be wholly directed to all that is true, all that deserves respect, all that is honest, pure, admirable, decent, virtuous, or worthy of praise." —Phil 4:8

Praise: Praise You, Jesus, King of kings! You have won the victory over sin and death, and You sit at the right hand of the Father (Rv 3:21). We sing Your praises forever!

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