Twenty-seventh Sunday in Course 2023
If God had human emotions–and He certainly did in Jesus’s life–what do you think He would have been feeling in today’s psalm, reading from Isaiah, and Gospel parable? Surely the emotion would have been profound disappointment. “the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry!” I know a little bit of the feeling when we’ve had a bad drought, and I check my tomato plants, and get to watch them dry up and blow away, one at a time. Disappointment.
But St. Paul today asks us to have no anxiety about anything. Instead, he tells us “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.” That’s actually a pretty good prescription for all of us during our sojourn on earth. Let me explain.
If you’ve been around the track a few years, you can think of a time of trouble in your life. So get that in mind. Close your eyes if necessary so you can focus on the event, and re-experience the feeling of anxiety that may have come over you. Now imagine praying through it, FIRST giving thanks to God for whatever outcome He wanted for that occurrence. The prayer can be as simple as acknowledging the presence of God’s person and power. The supplication should be a simple “thy will be done, Lord.” What feelings then take over your heart? Probably not anxiety. Maybe even confidence. And finish with another prayer of thanksgiving. That makes space in your mind and will for the peace of God, which is really beyond our understanding, to take hold and give you a positive outcome for a negative experience.
This is an effective tactic, and not only for the big troubles of life. It is a way we can heed the admonition of Jesus to “pray always.” We stay as Christ does in the presence of the Father, with the Holy Spirit cementing our loving relationship to the Trinity. And whether the moral weather is cloudy or fair, we temper every communication with thanksgiving. We adopt a permanent attitude of gratefulness.
That’s what the parable’s tenant farmers missed. They looked at every communication from the vineyard owner as a threat to their position. When the master’s servants came to collect a portion of the vintage, they felt imperiled, considering the master’s allocation to be harmful to themselves and their families. So they tried to abuse the servants by word and beatings enough to drive them off. But that had two effects. It postponed the eventual reckoning and it poisoned their minds and hearts so the next servants got an even worse treatment. By the time the owner had enough, and sent his son, the tenants had a mind so viciously selfish that they actually killed the young man and thought they could take possession of not just the harvest, but the whole property.
Jesus, bringing his Jewish leader listeners back to the present, asks them to judge the tenants. By now they realize that the tenants are themselves, and that Jesus is asking them to pass judgement on how they are leading Israel as stewards appointed by the Lord. There is only one verdict possible, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons."
Of course, instead of repenting, the Jewish leaders of His day instead conspired with the Romans to put Jesus to death, hoping that Christ’s execution would put an end to the Jesus movement. But three days later they were presented with evidence that the tomb was empty and they had to bribe the Roman guards to keep quiet about what was pretty easy to see–Christ had risen from the dead. The Lord had passed judgement and nothing would ever be the same again.
Thus it is with us. If we selfishly keep control over our lives, our families, our property, our sexuality, our daily occupation, instead of submitting to the will of God, we will lose everything. But if we turn our lives and everything about them over to Jesus Christ, we’ll get more than a great vineyard. We’ll have brothers and sisters in Christ without number, and eternal life to boot.
