Twenty-Seventh Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year A -- 27th Sunday Wicked Tenants

In the First Reading, the complaint was with the grapes, they were too sour to be eaten or made into wine despite the favorable conditions (Isaiah 5:1-7).

In the Gospel, the complaint was with the vineyard workers, in other words, the religious leaders in Jesus' time who often killed the prophets for doing what God sent them to do.

There is an old story about Moishe, a medieval Jewish astrologer who prophesied that the king’s favorite horse would soon die.

Sure enough, the horse died a short time later.

The king got really angry at Moishe, certain that his prophecy had brought about the horse’s death.

He summoned Moishe and commanded him, “Prophet, tell me when you will die.” Moishe realized that the king was planning to kill him immediately no matter what answer he gave, so he crafted a careful answer.

“I do not know when I will die,” he answered. “I only know that whenever I die, the king will die three days later.”

Moishe lived a long life.

The tenants in the parable can mistreat and even kill some of the messengers only if the owner of the vineyard is living abroad. God can seem out of sight and out of mind. However, each of us will be judged and rewarded immediately after death in accordance with our works and what we did and our faith (Catechism 1021), which is called the Particular Judgment (1022).

The arrival of the son allows the tenants to assume that the vineyard owner is dead, and that the son has come to take up his inheritance. If they take him out of the vineyard and kill him, the vineyard becomes ownerless property which they can then claim based on their being first in line. That is a reference to Jesus being taken outside the city of Jerusalem to be crucified.

The application to us is that the parable is about God’s commitment to his people and the unbelieving response of rejection. We can also be inclined to rebellion rather than repentance sometimes.

Speaking of legitimate authority, Romans 13:2 says, "...whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves.”

Lucifer, God’s most excellent creature, the brightest and most glorious angel, who by rebelling against the Majesty of God has become the blackest and most foulest fiend.

By rebellion against the Lord, Paul could recall the revolt of Korah (Numbers 16; cf. 1 Cor 10:10) and the reaction of Aaron.

The alternative to rebellion is dialogue. Those in legitimate authority, civil or spiritual, owe its flock, citizens and beneficiaries (and its derelicts) a determined and unending effort at refinement of its means and ends whenever possible. However, don’t season regret with rebellion. Sometimes the rebel demonstrates all too clearly how really unformed, undisciplined, and relatively contentless that self he shouts for really is.

The stone metaphor of Psalm 118 appears in several places in the Old Testament and has two-fold significance: for some, it is a stone of strength or upbuilding; for others, it is a stone of stumbling. Jesus is that stone. The builders may reject the stone, but they will find that it is the most important stone of all—the one which holds the entire building together.

A Jewish proverb states, “If the stone falls on the pot, alas for the pot; if the pot falls on the stone, alas for the pot!” (Midrash, Esth 3:6). Either way the pot loses and the stone wins. So it is with the cornerstone that is Christ.

In Deuteronomy 32:4, and in chapter 37, the stone rejected by the builders is a metaphor for Yahweh as true God against the false gods of pagan nations. In Isaiah 8:14, and chapter 28, with an Assyrian threat materializing, Israel can either find the stone to be a sanctuary, if they cling to Yahweh in faith, or a stumbling stone, if they fall away by backsliding.

However, the parable shows us that God is still guardian of his vineyard, and there will be a restored people, forgiven through Christ, who bear fruit.

We are tenants in God’s vineyard in this life. The fruit is to be obedient to God’s commandments wherever you are: work, school, home, at play, or alone. It is to consider what is pleasing to God in thought, word, and action and doing what is best for our neighbor.

Amen.