There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it,
dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.
The tenants were provided with a good and well ordered vineyard, about which the Lord said, "What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it?" (see Isaiah 5:4). Yet the tenants quickly forgot what a wonderful gift it was. Something Paul wrote to the Corinthians could have been addressed to them, "What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" (see First Corinthians 4:7).
When vintage time drew near,
he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.
When one makes use of the landowner's vineyard, one has an obligation to the landowner at vintage time. The landowner did not desire his produce merely for his own sake. He would not have given the lives of so many servants just to satisfy his own desires. Rather, he desired that the ones set over his household would "give them their food at the proper time" (see Matthew 24:45). But the tenants of the vineyard appeared to be interested only in themselves.
But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat,
another they killed, and a third they stoned.
Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones,
but they treated them in the same way.
The landowner gave the tenants invitation after invitation to freely choose to relinquish their stranglehold on the fruit they hoarded for themselves but which was never meant for them alone. He did all he could to demonstrate the goodness of his intentions. But they choose to cling instead to greed for their present riches.
Finally, he sent his son to them,
thinking, 'They will respect my son.'
How could they not respect his son? How could they not trust that his intentions were good if he was willing to go so far as to send his beloved son to them to plead for the fruit which they should have given freely? But they refused to see any of that. They only perceived another opportunity for selfish gain, thinking that with the son out of the way their would be nothing further to interfere with their complete control over the vineyard forever.
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?"
They answered him,
"He will put those wretched men to a wretched death
and lease his vineyard to other tenants
who will give him the produce at the proper times."
Those who were guilty of the very sins to which Jesus alluded in his parable were able to recognize those sins in the abstract, but not in themselves. They had grown too comfortable controlling a vineyard which they only ever truly had on loan and as stewards. Any threat to that control and that comfort short-circuited their ability to think clearly about their moral obligations. Fortunately, God would not leave the fruit of his vineyard to be squandered by vicious tenants.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?
Of course this parable is about the Jewish leadership in the time of Jesus, and not ourselves, right? Right? Well, perhaps we are not entirely excused. We too have been entrusted with a great stewardship. Any ability we have to find and enjoy fruit in our lives is a gift from God. And any gift of this sort is not intended for ourselves alone. Let us at least listen to the invitation of the prophets and that of the Son to share our own fruit at the proper time.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good (see First Corinthians 12:7).
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