Gospel Delights!

Sunday, October 8, 2023

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Is 5:1-7; Phil 4:6-9; Mt 21:33-43

The twenty-seventh Sunday invites us to reflect on responsible discipleship through the parable of the tenants. Three different characters deserve our attention. 

The Landowner: The detailed description of the landowner’s hard work and meticulous care for his vineyard gives us an understanding of how he considered it priceless. It remained close to his heart. The details need our attention – the landowner planted it; put a fence around it to protect it; dug a wine press to reap the harvest; and built a watch tower to keep it safe from outside enemies. 

However, the irony is that the threat to his inheritance comes not from the outside but from the insiders whom the landowner believed to be trustworthy. It looks as if it would have been easier for the landowner to tackle the outsiders than those he trusted with his treasured vineyard. 

The Tenants: These are the people the landowner finds trustworthy. But his trust is misplaced. They turn out to be traitors not just because they breach his trust but also because their betrayal takes on a violent form. Their disloyalty turns them into murderers. 

It is good to note that the landowner was seeking what was ‘agreed upon’ when the land was given for lease. If justice is paying the other his/her due, the wicked tenants act unjustly through their greed and homicide. 

The Son: The son is innocent. But when he comes representing his father, the wicked tenants shed his innocent blood. The one who ‘came to do his Father’s will is killed unjustly.’ 

It is good to note the description of the Son’s killing. ‘They seize him, throw him out of the vineyard, and kill him.’ With regard to the killing of the servants, the description is about their ill-treatment and killing. Whereas in the Son’s killing, ‘throwing out of the vineyard’ contains a symbolic message. By their wicked act, the tenants implied that the vineyard was not his inheritance. Not even his dead body belonged there. Thus, the one who deserved the utmost respect was treated with the utmost contempt, so he was killed outside his property. That is how vicious the crime of the tenants is.  

The theme of the vineyard remains the preferred imagery to explain God’s faithfulness and people’s disloyalty in the Old Testament. The first reading highlights this truth when the landowner finds only ‘wild grapes’ in return for his diligent care of the garden. On the part of the landowner who gives everything toward the vineyard, his expectation of a good yield is justified. However, the outcome is appalling. 

The first reading and the gospel are known for their profound implications. 

Implications for God’s People: In the Old Testament, God is the Landowner. Israel is the vineyard. Tenants are the Israelite leaders. One of the dominant themes of the Old Testament is the unrequited love of God. 

Christological Implications: The parable of the tenants is about Christ whose innocent blood is shed on the cross. God is the landowner. God’s people are the vineyard. The tenants are the Jewish leaders – namely, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Scribes who kill God’s Heir. 

Implications for Christian Life: The parable of the tenants is also a metaphor governing Christian life. God is the author of our life. Our very life is the vineyard. We are the tenants. As tenants, the choice of being wicked or responsible lies with us. If we are unfaithful as tenants, then we will reap the consequences.

In the second reading, St. Paul guides us to be ‘responsible tenants.’ 

It is better to take note of the ‘inversion’ in the second reading. Before his conversion, Saul was a ‘wicked tenant,’ seeking to destroy God’s vineyard – the Church which is the community of the Chosen and Called. However, after his conversion, Paul is transformed into a ‘responsible steward’ of the same vineyard he was seeking to destroy. This is a striking and beautiful inversion. Moreover, Paul evolves into a wonderful model of discipleship when he invites the Philippians to ‘keep on doing what [they] have learned and received and heard and seen in [him]’ (Phil 4:9). 

Let us beseech God’s grace to grow into responsible stewards! 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar