The parable in today’s gospel reading, is one of only three parables that’s in all three Synoptic Gospels, which leads us to think that it’s probably very important! At first glance we see that the religious leaders are compared unfavourably with tenants of a vineyard who refuse to hand over the produce of the harvest to the landowner, however there’s a lot going on and many people involved, so what exactly are we to glean from this?
It seems that we are safe to believe that the landowner represents God; the vineyard the nation of Israel; the tenants, Israel’s religious leaders, the slaves the prophets, and the son Jesus. The new tenants are most likely the church – with this interpretation the message appears to become a little clearer.
During Old Testament times, God established a covenant with Israel, entrusting his kingdom to them, this is represented by the vineyard. When they got things wrong, God sent the prophets – or slaves as we heard in the reading, to help them sort things out and put them right. Most of them didn’t listen, and instead killed the prophets. God then sent his son Jesus to make clear his message – but as we know, the leaders turned against him and had him killed.
In the parable, Jesus asks the question, ‘what should the owner of the vineyard do?’
Then in the reading from Isaiah, we can recognise the imagery of the vineyard, built to perfection with its watchtower and wine vat, although no good fruit grew, only wild grapes, which rendered it useless and it was left to rack and ruin, reminding us – and the people to whom Jesus was talking, who would also recognise it as being from scripture – just how unfaithful the leaders had become.
The vineyard in the gospel reading is built to similar high standards – but the watchtower, the fence, the wine press – none of this would be needed until the grapes had grown to maturity, apparently this takes at least 4 years –therefore this, appears to reinforce the idea that this is God telling us that he has done everything possible to give his people every advantage; but they messed up; and whilst the vineyard isn’t left to rot and become overgrown, it is instead handed over to new tenants, other farmers who will give him fruit in its season.
In the bible the heading given to this section is ‘The Parable of the Wicked Tenants’, do we recognise ourselves in any of this story, or does it seem to come across as history, something barely relevant now, something that happened in Jesus’ time? As the church, we are the heirs of God’s new covenant in Jesus Christ. We are God’s people now – his feet here on Earth. We have been given the privilege of sharing the Good News of God’s love with others. Didn’t Jesus specifically ask us to: ‘Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’? We are the tenants of the Kingdom of God, it doesn’t belong to us, it’s there for sharing.
In our gospel, the tenants were provided with everything they needed and given the freedom to do the task as they wished – this was an opportunity for growth, but they messed it up. Instead of showing faith, they resorted to greed and their murderous instincts. Their behaviour was the perfect example of humanity’s rebellious response to God’s love. The people of God resisting God’s love, and this is still very evident today! We may be shocked and surprised by the murder of the slaves, not to mention the murder of the son, but we only have to remind ourselves of what we have seen on the news this past week to see the dark side of human nature.
Are we willing to take on the yoke and share our faith? We know that a life lived with Christ at the centre is incredible – but it’s not ours to enjoy just for ourselves and keep to ourselves, but to share graciously with anyone who is willing to listen. We don’t want to be like the tenants and not share the fruit. We don’t want to reject authority as they did, we want to lean into God, build our relationship to enable us to be sustained in our faith.
These wicked tenants forgot that they were merely stewards or managers, and it is easy to forget. We get wrapped up in life with all its pressures and it is very easy to act like we own things; we control things to the nth degree, when in reality God is the owner and controller of all things. We are simply stewards, God’s guests on earth for a limited time! We can enjoy all God gives, all he has placed here for us to enjoy, we just need to share it with all who share earth with us. It sounds simple, but many of us have great difficulty with it – I guess some of that is simply human nature!
Towards the end of the reading, we heard: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’ – Christ is the cornerstone of this new church. If we accept the stone, it becomes our sure foundation, the cornerstone on which our whole lives are built – not a peripheral activity or a hobby, but our whole entire being, all grounded in God; doesn’t that sound wonderful?
However, as we know many reject it, and still many more have never been introduced to God.
Perhaps this parable, as we have explored it together today, has made us think a little about how we might live better, more fruitful lives. My prayer for all of us today, is that in some way, we become more responsible stewards instead of wicked tenants and that we build our lives on Jesus Christ, the cornerstone. So that rooted and grounded in his love we can reach out and share all that we have, in every way that we can. Amen
Service: Reverend Rebecca Yates – 8th October 2023
Referenced Scripture: Isaiah 5:1-7, Matthew 21:33-46