“ANOTHER Vineyard Parable??” by Amilee Beer, Fiat Ventures
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
If you’ve been paying attention to the readings the last few weeks, you’ll have noticed that this is “yet another” parable about a vineyard and a landowner. And if you’re like me, you might be thinking, “Are you kidding me? ANOTHER vineyard parable??” But it’s important to remember why Jesus used parables to teach in the first place.
During Jesus’s public ministry, he often taught using parables, which are extended metaphors intended to help those listening (and us!) to understand the Kingdom of Heaven. Those he taught were not necessarily scholars, and so using simple farming metaphors helped to get his message across in a way that was easy to understand and remember.
At first glance, the parable this week can seem a little gruesome. At harvest time, the landowner sends three of his workers to collect the harvest, but the tenants on the land kill and torture them, because they were greedy and wanted to keep the produce for themselves. Not quite what the landowner had intended. So he sends more, hoping that a larger number will be more successful. But again, no dice.
At this point you might be thinking, “Why doesn’t the landowner go there himself and straighten out these wicked and greedy people?” Well in fact, that’s basically what he did. He sent his own son to the tenants, thinking they would respect him. But the tenants were so greedy, they killed the son, hoping to gain his inheritance.
We can see the connection right away, but it probably wasn’t so clear to the chief priests and elders. For us, it seems obvious that Jesus is alluding to God sending prophets to the world, and ultimately sending his own Son to us. And what did “we” do but sentence him to death. But at the time when Jesus was teaching, the public had not yet turned against him.
In a way, this parable was a huge red flag for the people of Jerusalem, but unfortunately they did not heed the warning. Indeed, “the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Though Jesus was rejected, God makes him the cornerstone of our lives, the stone that is the most important and greatest support.
So where do we fit into the parable? Sometimes we can be like the groups of workers the landowners sent – God might ask us to speak a hard truth to someone like the prophets did, and we might be rejected even though we do it in a loving way. Other times we might be like the tenants who ourselves are the ones rejecting God’s messengers to us because we don’t want to hear it or we’re just stubborn. One thing to gleam from this parable is that the Christian life can be difficult – difficult both to share our faith with others, and to receive input and correction with how we’re doing living it out. But in both cases when we do what God asks and go out despite the hardship, or receive his word to us though it might be challenging, it is absolutely worth it!
