19th Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:7-15; Philippians 3:4b-14; Matthew 21:33-46
The Wicked Tenants is Matthew’s first of back-to-back parables addressing the shortcomings of the people called to advance and accept the kingdom of God. This is the same as the kingdom of heaven come near for us, announced by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:2) and brought about by Jesus himself (4:17). It is also the kingdom Jesus told us last Sunday was embraced by prostitutes and tax collectors – examples rejected stones – but not by the temple and other religious authorities (21:28-32).
The parable can be unsettling for the Christian believer of today. Can the promise of the kingdom be taken away from us? What is the fruit to be produced? Have we produced it?
The parable would also be unsettling for Jesus’ audience of the time. It would resonate with Isaiah’s image of the vineyard God built and generously gave as a precious gift to the people to care for and use justly. God expected good grapes, but God got injustice and bloodshed instead. For this, the vineyard is laid to waste – an image of the loss of the land, the destruction of Solomon’s temple, and the exile to Babylon.
To the church in Phillipi, Paul declares himself a stone rejected in the eyes of perhaps some of the participants of the kingdom come (vs. 4b – 6), who was made a righteous part of the body solely by the gift of faith in Jesus Christ.
In divine poetry, we sing:
“Turn now, O God of hosts,
look down from heaven;
behold and tend this vine;
preserve what your right hand has planted
(Psalm 80: 14-15).”
Bridging Faith 