There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it,
dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.
Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
The parable spoke in a particular way to those in leadership positions in Israel. They had begun to use their position for selfish ends, forgetting that they were meant to provide the fruit, spiritually nourished women and men, to the landowner at harvest time. But instead they used the produce to satisfy their own egos. When God sent warnings against lack of fidelity, the people of Israel often responded by persecuting the prophets he sent to them, much as the brothers persecuted Joseph in today's first reading. But it was something else again with Jesus. He summarized in himself the law and the prophets. As a result he would be the target, even more than the prior prophets. He was the culmination of all that the prophets were and all that they taught. And the suffering and persecution he would face was the full reality of what the lives of the prophets merely foreshadowed. But this was not the end. Though the son of the landowner would be killed, the landowner would ultimately be vindicated. Though Jesus would be put to death, the landowner would give the vineyard to new tenants through his resurrection, ascension, and gift of the Spirit. And what of those who remained steadfast in their opposition to him even after the resurrection? He would "put those wretched men to a wretched death".
At first at may seem that a parable directed to religious leaders doesn't have much to say to most of us. Yet like them we have been entrusted with a stewardship. As with those in the parable of the talents we too will be accountable for how we have used the gifts we have received. Do we remember the reason that our own vineyards exist? As in the parable, they do have defensive features. But these are not to be turned against the Lord from whom we have them. Yes, we must defend what we have been given from our spiritual opponents, the powers of darkness. But we must not come to think of the vineyards as our own even after we exert ourselves to protect them. The produce is meant to serve some larger purpose than gratifying our egos. We need to identify that purpose and honor it. We should be ready, when the son visits us, to respect him, and to give him what is his due. Neither can we shirk responsibility, burying our gifts, as though the vineyard means anything without fruit to show for it. What we have been given is not a trap, and only secondarily a test. It is primarily a gift. The landowner shares his own job and responsibility with the tenants. He does this both for their sake and the sakes of those who can then be blessed thereby.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?
Part of the reason we have problems cooperating with God is that he tends to work through unlikely means. He chooses the weak to shame the strong, the foolish to shame the wise. We tend to assume that the only value of others is their ability, and thus their utility. But what makes others valuable, what makes us valuable, is ultimately the fact that God values us. He can, as it were, raise up children of Abraham from the very dust (see Luke 3:8). It's provocative when the Lord chooses in ways that don't seem strategic. The only way we can get onboard with what he is doing is by faith. Rather than taking offense or being scandalized, and perhaps eventually radicalized, we must give our full and free assent to what he is doing, how and when he is doing it. It may seem constantly on the verge of collapse, ready to fail at any moment. But the word of the Lord always proves true in the end, as it did with Joseph.
They had weighed him down with fetters,
and he was bound with chains,
Till his prediction came to pass
and the word of the LORD proved him true.
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