By Father Paul Nord, O.S.B.
Sunday Scripture
First Reading: Isaiah 5:1-7; Responsorial: Psalm 80:9, 12-16, 19-20; Second Reading: Philippians 4:6-9; Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43
Isaiah 5 stirs our emotions. “My friend” is a weak translation. “My beloved” is the true sense. The same Hebrew word is repeatedly used in the Song of Solomon — a love song: “My beloved is mine, and I am his” (Song 2:16). Here Isaiah passionately sings a song about “my beloved.”
“Let me now sing of my (beloved)” — he does everything to make his vineyard productive! Admire his efforts! He plants it on a fertile hillside; he digs up the earth and removes stones. Then he plants the best vines. He builds a watchtower to look over it. He makes a wine press to mash grapes for wine production.
“Then he looked for the crop of grapes.” This line emphasizes hope and expectation. “My beloved” expects his work to bear abundant fruit. But … “what it yielded was wild grapes!” To do so much work, and to receive only bad grapes in return, causes disappointment and deep frustration. The love song has taken an unexpected turn!
Suddenly the vineyard owner gives this command: “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard!” This sounds like courtroom language — accusation and a call to judgment. The love language is gone.
Two rhetorical questions follow. Could the vineyard owner have done anything more for the vineyard to produce good grapes? No. “Why … did it bring forth wild grapes?” No answer. These two questions leave the people of Jerusalem speechless. The vineyard cannot be defended.
Next comes the judgment decree: “Now, I will let you know what I mean to do with my vineyard: take away its hedge, give it to grazing, break through its wall, let it be trampled! Yes, I will make it a ruin!” The vineyard owner has pronounced judgment against his vineyard.
The “vineyard” imagery is an extended metaphor. Its meaning is directly stated at the end: “The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished plant.” Judah is the tribe of Israel with Jerusalem and its temple.
God is the vineyard owner. When he speaks to the “inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah” in 5:3, they are invited to render judgment against their own sinfulness. They are unable to defend themselves. The Israelites are called to repent of their sins and to trust in God.
The prophet sings of God, “my beloved.” He sings “my (beloved’s) song concerning his vineyard.” The prophet loves God, and God loves his vineyard — the people of Jerusalem and of Judah. The vineyard was built on a fertile hillside and given a protective watchtower. Jerusalem was also built on a hillside (Mount Zion) and surrounded by protective walls with a watchtower. But God has pronounced judgment against his people for their sins. They have yielded rotten grapes. God did everything to make them his productive vineyard, but they have only produced bad grapes in return.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells a parable which uses vineyard imagery like that found in Isaiah 5. The owner leases his vineyard to tenants. He expects them to give him produce at harvest time. The parable takes a violent turn when the owner sends a servant to collect his produce, but the tenants kill that servant — and then kill two more.
In Jesus’ parable, God is understood to be the vineyard owner, like in Isaiah 5. The killed servants are the prophets God sent to Israel, whom they sometimes killed to silence their words. The climax of Jesus’ parable is the landowner’s decision to send his son to the vineyard tenants, expecting respect instead of violence. But the tenants only escalate their violence — even killing the landowner’s son. This anticipates Jesus’ death on the cross — the Son of God killed as the prophets had been killed.
Jesus cites Psalm 118:22: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Jesus is rejected by the Jewish leaders, “the builders.” Matthew 21:45 says: “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them.”
The early Church wrestled with the fact that the majority of the Jewish people and their leaders did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah and God’s Son. St. Paul, himself Jewish, agonizes over this in his letter to the Romans: “I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kin according to the flesh. They are Israelites; theirs the adoption, the glory, the covenants…and from them, according to the flesh, is the Messiah” (Romans 9:2-5).
God began his plan of salvation with the Israelites. But now Jesus has extended God’s salvation to all the peoples of the world. We who are not Jewish have thus received a great gift. To be truly thankful, to be worthy of God’s kingdom, we must bear fruit for God. This is true of Jew and Gentile alike. May we live as true disciples of Christ Jesus, bearing fruit for God’s kingdom.
The second reading is from near the end of St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians. As Paul closes his letter, he gives them several exhortations. First: “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything … make your requests known to God.” If we trust in God with constant prayer, “Then the peace of God … will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Second, Paul invokes all things true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent and praiseworthy. Then he commands: “think about these things.” If we focus our minds and hearts on these things, then we will not be distracted by all the rest.
Third, Paul reminds the Philippians of all that they have “heard and seen in me.” These things, he commands, “keep on doing.” This will bring them the presence of “the God of peace.” The first command also mentioned “peace” as a gift of God for all who belong to Christ.