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A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it,
dug a wine press, and built a tower.
Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey.
The man clearly cared for his vineyard and provided all that was necessary for its fruitfulness and protection. The tenants were meant to ensure these things in an ongoing way. But they quickly realized that they could exploit the fruit of the vineyard for their own purposes. They probably came to see the way they used their positions for selfish ends as justified, imaging it to be payment for their efforts. But the vineyard did not belong to them, nor the fruit. There was a proper time and a proper purpose for the fruit. But when that time arrived and messengers came to collect they responded violently. Their egos were wounded by the very idea that they were behaving selfishly, and they lashed out in order to distract themselves from their guilt.
This parable about the vineyard is about the problems that corrupt leadership can bring. Regardless of the original good intentions behind the vineyard, regardless of the quality of the vines, there could be no abundance of fruit if the leaders were hording it for themselves. The individual fruit might still grow, but could not be well utilized. Thus God addressed himself not only to individuals, but to the corrupt systems holding those individuals back from living fully for their purpose. He could not leave leadership in the hands of those who say, "'My master is delayed in coming,' and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk" (see Luke 12:45). But the way he addressed it was not by responding to the violence of the tenants with an overwhelming show of force. That would be the human strategy. That is what we would probably see as the only option in a case like this. But God instead attempted appeals that appeared to be increasingly unsuccessful.
Again he sent them another servant.
And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully.
He sent yet another whom they killed.
So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed.
God kept trying because he cared about the tenants as well as the individuals with whose care they were entrusted. The point was not merely to replace them, but to convert them. He would take action even as drastic as sending his own Son to do so. Those who had failed to recognize how bad they had become in earlier interventions might at least see the problem if they responded to the Son with violent rejection. They might well pierce him first, committed to the sunken cost of their rebellion. But they might look on him whom they pierced and be converted. There was no guarantee since their response still required free cooperation on their part. But it was possible.
We hear a parable like this smugly enjoy the way it critiques, not only the religious leadership of Israel of the past, but even corrupt systems of our own political milieu. Yet while it certainly does critique politics and religious leadership both ancient and modern it also addresses us as individuals. We too have stewardships that we can chose to co-opt for selfish purposes, but that are meant to bear fruit for God. We may not exercise authority of any kind over anyone. But we still have some measure of influence that we are meant to wield for God's purposes. Moreover, we ourselves are in some way both a tenant and a vineyard meant to bear fruit. We can horde that fruit for selfish enjoyment, even to the point of violently protecting our atomistic individualism. Or we can contribute it a greater form of enjoyment in which we and others all share, a truly common good.
After all, the goal of life and devotion is not merely to receive a little piece of divinity ourselves, but to "share in the divine nature". It is not a blessing we can have as isolated egos, since God himself is basically the opposite of an isolated ego. This is basically the doctrine we celebrated on Trinity Sunday. But it does take what seems to be individual effort: "make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love". Yet this effort of ours is predicated on the fact that God has already "bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion", just as with the vineyard prepared so well for the tenants. All he asks is that we remember the reason for the gift and live, insofar as possible, to be worthy of it.
Indelible Grace Music (featuring Matthew Smith) - Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
