Through the First Reading (Isaiah 5:1-7), the Responsorial Psalm (80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20), and the Gospel Reading (Matthew 21:33-43), we see vineyard as a common theme.
What does vineyard stand for in the biblical context?
For the First Reading and Responsorial Psalm, the
vineyard is a metaphor for the house of Israel (Isaiah 5:7; Psalm 80:9).
God brought a wine out of Egypt and plant it in
Canaan, upon preparing the land for the house of Israel, by driving away
nations that would be obstacles (Psalm 80:9). This refers to the Exodus, from
Passover to crossing the Red Sea, wondering in the wilderness for 40 years and defeating
opposing nations, to the settlement in the Land of Milk and Honey, upon
crossing the Jordan River. Namely, the Israelites’ settlement in the promised
land in Canaan is the making of God’s vineyard as the house of Israel.
So, beloved God had a vineyard in the fertile land on
a hillside (Isaiah 5:1), referring to the area around the Mt. Zion. What He
prepared the land, making it fully equipped with a watchtower and a winepress,
and planted the choicest vine, (Isaiah 5:2a) brought from Egypt (Psalm 80:9).
The choicest vine symbolizes the Israelites, God’s
first beloved, delivered out of Egypt. And God the vineyard maker and owner
hoped that the vine in His vineyard would yield abundant high quality crop of
grapes for the choicest wine to be made, but it only bore bad fruit (Isaiah
5:2).
Of course, God, who worked so hard over 40 years,
rescuing the vest vine out of Egypt, clearing the land, removing all obstacles,
making it a complete vineyard, was so disappointed. He even built a winepress,
in the hope to enjoy the best wine. But how could He have the choicest wine
when the vineyard only yielded bad grape?
So, God decided to deconstruct the vineyard, with a
curse of briers and thorns (Isaiah 5:3-6).
This section of the vineyard song (Isaiah 5:1-6)
concludes with these words:
The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the
house of Israel, the people of Judah, His cherished plant; He waited for
judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry!
(Isaiah 5:7).
Though God once cherished His vineyard, the house of His
beloved Israel, He now has to send judgement on it for its failure to produce
good grape for the choicest wine. The vineyard produced bad grape because its
workers (Israelites) brought bloodshed of righteous ones among them (e.g. 1
Kings 21:1-29; Isaiah 1:21-23). God the vineyard owner has heard their outcry,
and those who have committed injustice shall be punished for justice.
In this, there is a Hebrew word play: for judgement (mishpat/
מִשְׁפָט ), but see bloodshed (miespah/ מִשְׂפָח)!,
for justice (righteousness) (sedaqah/ צְדָקָה),
but hark the outcry(se’aqah/ צַעֲקָה)! God will bring judgement for the
bloodshed of righteous people, and bring His justice (righteousness) to have
heard the cry of those whose blood was shed. And this jusgement statement of
God is made in accordance with these words of God:
Anyone who sheds the blood of a human
being, by a human being shall that one’s blood be shed; For in the image of God
have human beings been made (Genesis 9:6).
Thus, God gave this commandment:
You shall not kill
(Exodus 20:13).
Turning the vineyard into the land of murderous blood,
rather than the land from which the choicest wine is brought, reflects how the
Israelites sinned against God, as they seemed to have lost their sense of
gratitude to God for delivering them from Egypt and for His providence
throughout the Exodus.
God the vineyard maker and owner provided everything
for His beloved Israelites. Thus, they should have been humble and obedient
workers in His vineyard to produce a good grape for the best wine. Instead,
what came out of the vineyard was the blood of the righteous and the innocent,
instead of the juice of good grape from the winepress. The grape they produced
was bad because they turned out to be bad stewards of God’s vineyard, not
obeying His commandments.
The Gospel Reading (Matthew 21:33-43) echoes what is
metaphorically described in the First Reading (Isaiah 5:1-7): a failure of
stewardship.
The Gospel Reading, which is known as the parable of
the wicked tenant workers of the vineyard (Matthew 21:33-46), is another parable
directed to the chief priests and the scribes, who were entrusted by God to
serve as stewards of God’s Temple and His people, the Israelites, following the
Gospel Reading of the previous Sunday (Matthew 21:31-32), which is known as the
parable of the two sons.
Basically, Jesus is speaking these parables to
confront the hypocrisy and wickedness of these religious leaders of Israel.
They have turned the house of prayer, the Temple, into a den of robbers (Matthew
21:13). And their service to God was nothing but a lip service as they twist
the Law for their own benefits (Matthew 15:3-11).
In the parable of the wicked tenant vineyard worker
(Matthew 21:33-46), as in the vineyard story of the First Reading (Isaiah
5:1-7), the vineyard owner is a metaphor of God, who is the Creator. And he planted
vine in His vineyard, put protective measures (hedges) and equipped it with a wine
press (Matthew 21:33; cf. Isaiah 5:2). And he leased the vineyard to the
workers and went away on a journey (Matthew 21:33). This means that God, the
vineyard owner, is not a so-called “micromanager” of His workers. He entrusts
them to take good care of His vineyard for a good harvest.
In this context, the vineyard symbolizes the house of
Israel, for which God entrusts the chief priests and the scribes, as well as,
other religious leaders, such as the Pharisees, take care of it so that it will
remain faithful to Him and His Law, producing abundant fruit of faith. However,
it turns out not so.
Then, as the harvest time drew near, God the owner
sent His servants to the vineyard to check how the fruit was bearing (Matthew
21:34). But these workers they assaulted and murdered the servant sent by the
vineyard owner (Matthew 21:35), because there was no good fruit, for they were
not working as instructed. When another batch of the vineyard owner’s servants
were sent, it turned out the same result (Matthew 21:36). So, the owner sent
his own son, hoping that the workers would be more compliant to his intention
to check on the fruit and respect his son (Matthew 21:37)
Did they finally become obedient and cooperated with
the owner’s son out of respect? No. They murdered him in order to take his
inheritance for themselves (Matthew 21:38-39).
Through this, Jesus was pointing to the chief priests
and the scribes that they were at least as wicked as those who killed prophets
and judges, as reflected in Isaiah 5:1-7. And they were about to kill him, the
Son of God, the son of the vineyard owner. When Jesus spoke this parable, his
passion and death were drawing nearer.
Then Jesus asked the chief priests and the scribe,
what the vineyard owner would do about this (Matthew 21:40), and they answered
that the owner would put these wicked workers to death and let better workers bring
good fruit (Matthew 21:41).
In response, Jesus said to them, citing from Psalm118:22–23:
Did you never read in the scriptures: “The
stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has
this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes”? Therefore, I say to you, the
kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will
produce its fruit. The one who falls on this stone will be dashed to pieces;
and it will crush anyone on whom it falls (Matthew
21:43-44).
At that point, the chief priests and the scribes
realized that Jesus was rebuking them through this parable (vv. 33-44) in connection
to Isaiah 5:1-7 (Matthew 21:45) and began to try to seize him (to have him
killed) but was afraid to do so at that time because many people already
regarded him as a prophet (Matthew 21:46).
Throughout the parable in the Gospel Reading (Matthew
21:33-43), we see that what the chief priests and the scribes were doing and were
about to do, were addressed allegorically as the wickedness of the tenant
vineyard workers. And it was they who pronounced the judgement they deserve for
their wickedness (Matthew 21:41). Their wickedness had turned grape bad, thus,
doomed to receive God’s due judgement, as reflected in the First Reading
(Isaiah 5:1-7).
So how does the Gospel Reading (Matthew 21:33-43), in
connection to the First Reading (Isaiah 5:1-7), apply to us?
To us, God’s vineyard can be God’s Creation, for which
He entrusts us to be its stewards (Genesis 1:26, 28), as well as, the Church
that Christ has built for us (Matthew 16:18), which Paul describes as one body
of Christ with many parts, and we are this body (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). Thus,
our stewardship to Christ’s Church, the body of Christ, also means taking care
of ourselves as one body of Christ with many parts. If we fail, we cannot abide
in him as one, and we must produce good fruit (John 15:1-17).
How are we serving Christ’s Church? How is the fruit
of our stewardship coning out? Is it in good quality? How are we taking care of God’s Creation? Are
we taking care of God’s creatures so that they can also praise God, as in St. Francis’
reflection on Psalm 148?
God entrusts us to be the stewards of His vineyard,
which can be symbolic to His Creation and the Church, until the time of the harvest,
which is the judgement (Revelation 20:11-15).
If we are working in God’s vineyard as we are supposed
to, as God hopes us to, then, there is no need to worry, as we just need to
keep up with the good work, as we have learned from Christ and through his
Apostles, as reminded by the Second Reading (Philippians 4:6-9). Let us
continue to work diligently and faithfully in God’s vineyard for good harvest
and good wine! Let us guard God's vineyard from the blood of murders!
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