TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY OF YEAR "A"

TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY OF YEAR   I

Mt. 21, 33 - 34: The Master of the Vineyard

Some people get a kick out of saying, “Jesus was the greatest man who ever lived.” But that won’t wash. The writer C.S. Lewis put it this way: “You must make your choice. Either this man is the Son of God or else a mad man or something worse.”  Experts agree that the proof of a superior story does not consist in its original telling, but in its retelling. On this count, today’s Parable of the Tenants must qualify as world class.  It is narrated not only by our Mathew but also by Luke and Mark. It is recounted on Tuesday of Holy Week, and is a parable of defiance. Jesus knew he was about to be taken away, tried and killed. But unbent and uncowed by his murderers, he calls their bluff. He has no intention of running scared. None of the points of this parable went over the heads of his audience that day.

The Master was describing a situation not rare in Israel. The nation was troubled as it is today.  Wealthy absentee landlords were a dime a dozen. Some farmers renting vineyards declined to pay rents. Worker’s problems and rent strikes are not a 21st. century phenomenon. Thus, when the landlord sent his agents and even his sons to pick up his rents, the hapless fellows were often mugged and disposed of. Jesus’ audience understood the underlying meaning of this parable. The vineyard was clearly a stand-in for the people of Israel. The vineyard boss is the Heavenly Father. The farmers are the rulers and priests who supervise the country. The servants are the prophets sent throughout the centuries. Their untimely disappearances make up an unbroken obituary throughout the Scriptures. The son here is clearly Jesus.

The tale tells of God’s confidence in his people. He loans his land to us. He does not stand over us like a bullying policeman or even a benign dictator. He is patient with us, too. He sends us not one but many messengers. Even when we ignore him, he, unlike ourselves, will suffer insults for a long, long time. God has broad shoulders. The patience of God surpasses all understanding.

We are sometimes near to despairing of the Church. It is like a vineyard that produces only sour grapes or one that is exploited by rapacious tenants. There never was a “golden age” of the Church. Bad bishops, bad popes, bad priests and religious and bad lay people. It’s an old story. And we despair perhaps because we imagine that God has lost control of his Church. But that despair is itself a sin; the illusion that God can be expelled from his own creation, and that human beings can succeed in their take-over bid. “There is no need to worry”, says Paul, in today’s 2nd. reading, for “the peace of God will be with you.”

The prophets and the saints may go unheeded, the beloved Son may be rejected and killed, but that Son has turned the rejection into final victory.  Picture to yourself the stone-cutters at work, the hammering and the noise, shaping and selecting the stones for building. Each stone has to be just suitable. One stone is thrown aside as unsuitable. And that one precisely is the stone that a master-builder has spotted, selects and uses for the main stone or the keystone for the arch he is constructing  -  the one stone without which the arch will collapse. That stone is Jesus Christ, supporting the new Temple. You must believe that you are not alone, that he cares for and is with you and for you.

But God is not a patsy, a soft-touch sissy.  He is equal parts patient lover and just judge. Today’s story does warn us of a time when God will call in all debts. If we have been shabby and third rate, the land will be handed over to others. We will be left out in the cold (or heat !) with our noses pressed on the glass, looking in at the grand party.  Where’s the difference between those in and those left out ?  The difference is Jesus Christ.

This parable contains one of the clearest claims Jesus ever made to be absolutely unique, miles above the greatest who came before him. They were but errand boys. Our feeble language betrays us when we try to speak correctly of him. Mathew’s Gospel tells of the sacrifice of Jesus. Even though he knew the score, he willingly kept his tryst with death, with both eyes openly intent.  He was not a passive participant in his own death, but it was a freely accepted sacrifice. Jesus was a person who tested life and was tested by it, searching out life’s meaning by listening carefully to what makes life really valuable, and he lived and died trusting that life and death are not bad jokes.

Witnessing to Jesus Christ is not a piece of mimicry, but a challenge to live our human adventure as authentically as he did.  So, trust in the Lord. The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot help you. 

PRAYER (Miss Nicola Slee):  Lord God, I meet you in the mystery of life, in the sudden silences, intensity of presence that makes me stop, catch my breath, lift up head high to catch the glory of your moment, and then bow low, lost in the misery of my meagre self, so small, so weak, so far from you. God, you are of a grandeur and glory I long after and shrink from. Have mercy !  In your glory let your pity touch me.