Photo: unsplash.com/Jehyun Sung
We read a parable in the gospel of St Matthew this Sunday in which Jesus accuses the Pharisees and leaders of the people of not recognising him and the message he brings from God.
Indeed they decide to kill him rather than listen to him.
God is the owner of the vineyard and he builds it with love and care and then leases it to tenants and leaves the country. The produce of the vineyard is supposed to be collected by his servants at harvest time but the tenants reject them.
In Israel’s relationship with God, we can read how often they rejected God, going their own way and worshipping false gods. The son of the vineyard owner comes to collect the harvest. The owner assumes wrongly that the tenants would respect his son but they kill him instead. (They may have had some mistaken idea that they could claim the land).
We recognise Jesus as the Son who dies, who is murdered by the tenants. The tenants are punished and ejected from the vineyard. St Matthew is writing that the leaders of the Jewish people are being rejected too, they are like the tenants. New leaders will be taking their place.
Then and now. History tells us that Jesus came to call the Jewish people and all people to worship the Father in spirit and truth. Leaders and people rejected Jesus but after his death, his resurrection changed everything.
A new community of people, the new spiritual children of the Jewish people accepted Jesus as the Messiah. They formed new communities, that included Pharisees, rich and poor, slaves, and most of all, gentiles – people who were from outside the Jewish faith. The Church was born led by the Holy Spirit.
So much to learn and understand from different perspectives. Eventually, the Christian communities, which still met in the synagogues, were expelled from them and the people became known as Christians. They gathered in their own houses to worship.
They continued to reflect on what these events had meant, the vineyard belonged to God who loved and continued to love it. Jesus the son who was killed, was responsible for them becoming the new tenants. God’s love for the vineyard had not changed but the leadership had changed.
Today, now, we review the history of the vineyard. Much has changed, but much remains the same. God still loves his vineyard, wants the tenants to produce fine grapes the work of their hands.
We understand how the grapes are precious - offered to our faithful God as a response to God’s love for us. In the Eucharist offering the grapes, they have become wine taking on a deeper symbolical meaning.
There is the question of leadership, Jesus said the vineyard would be taken away from the leaders because they missed their opportunity and therefore many people who trusted them missed their opportunity.
Leadership is important. Let us pray for the leaders of God’s people.
Columban Fr Gary Walker is currently living at the Columban house in Sandgate, Brisbane.
