God’s vineyard

The first and third readings this week each tell stories about a vineyard, its fruit, and its caretakers. In biblical literature, a vineyard is a frequent poetic image symbolizing one’s beloved. In the first reading, Isaiah recounts the song of his friend (God), who had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. The prophet elaborates in great detail the care this divine owner expended on this agricultural project—spading, clearing, and then planting only the choicest vines. This owner even built a watchtower for protection and surveillance of the vineyard, as well as a winepress for the harvest. Such intensive labor necessarily heightened expectations of a bountiful yield. 

Despite the hard work and care expended by this owner, the plants produced only “wild grapes.” The Hebrew (beushiym), translated here as “wild grapes,” has as its root a word that means “smell bad” or “stink.” Thus, the only yield of this vintage was the bitter disappointment of this owner, who subsequently took away its hedge, trampled the vines, and no longer cared for it. It is only at the end of the poem that we hear the prophet interpret its meaning. Recall that Isaiah prophesied at a time when the divided nations of Israel and Judah were making treaties and alliances with surrounding nations. Instead of trusting in God, they secured themselves with foreign protection and resources against each other and against rising eastern empires. Thus, the prophet identifies the failed vineyard of the Lord as the house of Israel and the people of Judah (Is 5:7).  

Jesus also tells a parable of a landowner whose vineyard was left in the care of tenants. Unlike Isaiah’s vineyard, this one produced good fruit. When it was harvesting time, however, he sent servants to collect the produce but the tenants seized and beat them. When the owner decided to send his own son, the tenants killed him. The vineyard story, which in Isaiah’s parable equated Israel and Judah with “wild grapes” now portrays its own tenants as those who are trying to destroy what Jesus and his disciples have come to do. 

Over the past few Sundays, the readings at mass have spoken about the chief priest and elders who challenged Jesus and his teaching. Such religious authorities threatened the vineyard which, in Jesus’s parable, symbolized the Kingdom of God. The servants that the vineyard owner sends to gather the produce, often thought to be the prophets, may also represent the disciples as well as the Jews and Gentiles who have decided to follow Jesus. He may well have anticipated the harm that would come to him, might also be their fate.  Unlike Isaiah’s parable, the emphasis is not on the abandonment of the vineyard by its owner. Jesus’ parable focuses upon the care and harvest of the vineyard by tenants and the harm that could come to them, especially when the owner or his son is no longer with them.  

So what do these two parables teach us? Despite God’s call and care of a chosen people, their internal strife led to antagonism and division into separate entities, the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah. Matthew emphasizes that Jesus has not only come to “the lost house of Israel” (10:6, 15:24) but also to the Gentiles (24:14, 28:19). Already in the early first-century community we know that conflicts had separated these groups, represented in this parable by the tenants and servants. In our own church history, Christians and their leaders often have succumbed to disagreements and antagonisms that have divided communities. Even in our own time, we, too, must recognize the potential for strife amongst us and need to work to negotiate such differences. For example, some define themselves as Catholic because of fidelity to certain dogmas or doctrines. Others define themselves as Catholic by privileging certain causes, even causes beyond the church itself. Meanwhile, some of the faithful struggle with the changes of the Second Vatican Council, while others find those changes insufficient and long to see even further renewal. These differences, along with many others, need not be divisions that separate us. They may be instructive manifestations of the various forms of belief that characterize the universality of a church called “Catholic.” 

During the last years of Pope Francis’ papacy, he instituted a synod where new ways of listening, ministering, administering, and being community began to emerge that seek to engage gifts of all the faithful. Synodality invites everyone to the table to hear and be heard, to understand and be understood, to thrive in each other’s particularity and presence, and to be enthusiastic about each other’s uniqueness and contributions. Synodality seeks to sideline privilege and hierarchy and instill God-like trust and peace among its members in all their diversity. Only then can the Spirit-filled gifts of all the faithful realize the work of the vineyard and its harvest. If Jesus invited all to participate in his ministry, then all are needed with their various gifts to produce the fruits of the kingdom. What now is required is only that we each say “yes.”