Third Vineyard Parable in Matthew and the Coming of the King for the Harvest– 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

It is already the 27^th Sunday in Ordinary Time in Year A of the Liturgical Calendar!  As a liturgical year ends with the week of the 34^th Sunday in Ordinary Time on all cycles, Year A, Year B, and Year C, this liturgical year is coming to its conclusion. On the last Sunday of Liturgical Year, 34^th Sunday, we celebrate Parousia , return of Christ as the King of the Universe in advance. And as the Book of Revelation envisions, the Kingdom, which he reigns, will be consummated upon his return.

As the end of Liturgical Year draws nearer, Gospel Readings for Sunday Mass have a theme of the Kingdom (25^th Sunday, 26^th Sunday, 27^th Sunday, 28^th Sunday, 32^nd Sunday, 33^rd Sunday), and Jesus likened the Kingdom to the vineyard for the Gospel readings of the 25^th Sunday, 26^th Sunday, and 27^th Sundays. For three Sundays in row, from the 25^th the Sunday to the 27^th Sunday, we read about Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom likened to the vineyard. So, what do we learn from these vineyard parables to teach something important about the Kingdom, which is to complete at Christ’s return, as we have begun to prepare for the conclusion of a Liturgical Year?

Namely, these vineyard parables, Matthew 20:1-16; 21:28-32; and 33-44, are about how we, as vineyard workers, are to conduct ourselves for the harvest time. Through these parables, the vineyard is a metaphor for the Kingdom, which is to be consummated with the harvest. And, the harvest time is the eschaton and the time of the judgement, as we are judged for the fruits that we have produced according to our faith.

Through these three vineyard parables to teach what we are to do to keep the Kingdom (vineyard), as the citizen of the Kingdom (as vineyard workers), Jesus teaches what we are not to become and what we are not to do. And, it reflects our problems, which may risk the forfeiting the Kingdom. And, these problems are: envy, infidelity, and greed. In Matthew 20:1-16, 25^th Sunday’s Gospel Reading, Jesus teaches us not to be like the vineyard workers complaining about their wage out of envy. It also teaches that our envious heart make us ungrateful to God’s grace. And, envy in us makes God’s generosity to those whose needs are greater unfairness to us. In Matthew 21:28-32, 26^th Sunday’s Gospel Reading, Jesus reminds us that we must be true to what we have promised through our deeds.  Superficial lip service may result in losing the Kingdom before its consummation. What about the Gospel Reading for the 27^th Sunday, Matthew 21:33-44, the sequence to the Gospel Reading for the 26^th Sunday, vv.28-32?

In the Gospel Reading for the 27^th Sunday, Matthew 21:33-44, unlike the first two vineyard parables (Matthew 20:1-16 for the 25^th Sunday; 21:28-32 for the 26^th Sunday), Jesus does not describe different types of workers or different types of responses to a command to work in the vineyard. Rather, Jesus zeros in on problematic workers to draw our attention to the judgement. And, this parable reflects how greed to gain the ownership of the vineyard by killing its legitimate hair, the son of the landowner, who established the vineyard, upon killing all of his servants, entail. The parable teaches that those tenant vineyard workers’ attempt to hijack the vineyard ownership by killing the landowner’s servants and son will result on the expulsion from the vineyard. It reminds us that God’s justice prevails over any evil, no matter how offensive it may be.

In this parable, the landowner is a metaphor to God the Father, while the servants represent God’s prophets, and the son is the Son of God, Jesus. The how the landowner set up his vineyard may reflects God’s work of the Creation, as out of the Creation, the Kingdom is established on earth as it is in heaven. Just as God will the earth that He created with creatures, including the humans, the landowners hired tenant workers so that his vineyard would not be an idle land to be wasted.  God the Creator does not want the earth of His Creation to be wasted either. For this reason, He has chosen and commissioned the humans to serve as the steward of His Creation, as Pope Francis reflected in his “Laudato Si”(paragraph 66) on Genesis 1:26, 28. Likewise, the landowner must have expected the tenant workers he hired would take a good care of his vineyard so that their workmanship will bring a good harvest in the vintage time. However, these tenant workers killed all sent by the landowner, including his son, along with his servants. The servants and the son of the landowner were sent to the vineyard to inspect the condition of the vineyard and the workmanship of the workers. The fact that the workers killed them all suggests that they did not want their workmanship to be reported to the landowner for their poor work. The fact the workers killed the landowner’s son to illegally gain his inheritance reminds that they are not only unfaithful to their promise to the landowner but greedy to a point of committing murders to gain what they desire.

Unfaithfulness and greed are at least two vices represented by the tenant workers of the vineyard. And, unfaithfulness – infidelity is a theme to reflect in the Gospel Reading of the 26^th Sunday, Matthew 21:28-32, and greed may stem from envy, which can be a theme to reflect in the Gospel Reading of the 25^th Sunday, Matthew 20:1-16. In fact, the vineyard parable of Matthew 20:1-16 is given to his disciples in response to the self-righteous rich young man’s inability to follow Jesus (Matthew 19:16-30). And it is about this paradoxical teaching of Jesus: “the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matthew 19:30; 20:16) to remind that God’s generous grace can put those who are treated as the least in the world before those who are treated as the first in the world and envy those who are least in the world receiving God’s generous grace. The theme of envy in Matthew 20:1-16 is now reiterated as greed, along with infidelity theme from Matthew 21:28-32, in Matthew 21:33-44. Now, see how these three parables on the vineyard can be connected as the first two parables can lead to a point in the third one.

The third parable of the vineyard for the 27^th Sunday, Matthew 21:33-44, is not only about how infidelity and greed, stemming out of envy and jealousy, may result in the kind of judgement to have every privilege revoked and to be expelled from God’s domain, which is the Kingdom, symbolically represented by the vineyard. It also reflects what will follow God’s judgement on those who offended God with their infidelity and greed, given vv. 42-44.

As recorded in Matthew 21:42, immediately following the parable, Jesus cites Psalm 118:22-23, to speak of himself, as well as his impending death and what will follow his death, as he is fully aware that these religious leaders, to whom he confront and debate and speak the parable, are dying to kill him. Those who reject the stone are also those who killed the servants and the son of the landowner and received the due judgement.

To the new tenant workers of the vineyard, the stone rejected by the previous evil tenant workers become the delight cornerstone, juxtaposing the cornerstone for the restored Kingdom for the good harvest in the vintage time, while the stone will smash those who rejected and did evil to the vineyard and its owner’s servants and son into pieces. As the new tenant workers of the restored vineyard with the cornerstone, which was rejected by the previous workers, are the workers in the New Covenant, while the those who did evil to the previous vineyard and its owner’s servants and son, represent the hypocrites of infidelity and greed in the Old Covenant.

How God, the landowner, who set up the vineyard in His land and brought tenant workers, will judge the workers of infidelity and greed in the Gospel Reading for the 27^th Sunday, Mathew 21:33-44, is prophesized in the First Reading, Isaiah 5:1-7, more than 600 years before Jesus’ teaching of this. The workers of vices, lacking fidelity to the vineyard owner, cannot bring good harvest. And this will result of the owner’s revocation of all privileges of the workers, including their right to be in the vineyard. So, the Second Reading, Philippians 4:6-9 calls us to fidelity with no anxiety but with prayer, praise, and gratefulness to God, who provides everything so that we can keep up with the good work for abundant harvest in the fullness of time for the Kingdom. This is to keep us from falling into infidelity and other vices.

The Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20, is taken from Psalm 80, which is Israel’s lamentation and prayer for God’s restoration. In this Psalm, the Israelites see themselves as God’s vine and Israel as the vineyard, saved by God from a terrible soil of Egypt, recalling Passover into Exodus, upon lamenting how their infidelity to God, who saved, damaged their relationship with God – damaging their nation, God’s vineyard.

God’s response to this prayer in Psalm 80 is to bring the rejected stone in the time of the Old Covenant as the cornerstone in the New Covenant, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, as his blood from the Cross, filling the chalice of the Communion symbolizes the New Covenant ( Matthew 26:28; 1 Corinthians 11:25). Because it comes with the accidence of wine made from good fruit of the vineyard as a result of the hands of faithful workers, through transubstantiation, the blood of Christ in the communion chalice calls us to these three vineyard parables. Therefore, the Holy Eucharist shall be the food and drink for us to remain faithful to keep up our good work in God’s vineyard until its vintage time, when the vineyard owner’s son returns to judge us, upon Parousia, when his Kingdom becomes complete on earth as it is in heaven.

Yes, the Kingdom is at hand (i.e. Matthew 3:2; 10:7; Luke 10:9, 11). The harvest time is at hand. The King is coming for the harvest. Are we getting ready to meet the King on the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year for the harvest in the vineyard of the New Covenant?