27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD (Mt 21:33-43)

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.
The landowner is God. The vineyard is Israel. The hedge is a wall of stone to protect the vineyard from animals and from flash floods. The grapes were pressed at the winepress and stored in vats for fermentation. The tower is for the guards.

Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
The tenants were the leaders of Israel. Absentee landlords were common in Israel.

He sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.
The servants were the prophets. In the bible the Early Prophets were from Joshua to 2 Kings; the Later Prophets were from Isaiah to Malachi.

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’
The son is Jesus. If the owner has no other heir, when he dies the estate will really go to the tenants.

They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
Jesus was crucified in Calvary outside Jerusalem.

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.
In 70AD Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. The other tenants are the Christians who now form the new Israel.

REFLECTION

Many years ago a softdrink snatched a significant share of the market from a leading brand. This second placer came up with the idea of marketing a family size product. I heard that the leading brand fired a top executive because he failed to meet expectations. Someone replaced him. The mission: bring back its market share.

God replaced Israel because it failed to give the fruits expected of it by God.

We who belong to the New Israel can not be complacent. Having good intentions is the first step. But it is not enough. We need to bear good fruits. As someone said: "The road that leads to hell is paved with good intentions.