A Tale of Two Vineyards

The reading from Isaiah and the parable of St. Matthew’s Gospel from today’s liturgy present us with a little bit of a problem.  Isaiah is clearly being critical of Israel (which is identified as God’s vineyard), and St. Matthew is clearly condemning the chief priests and elders of Israel (who are identified as the tenant farmers) for their failure to produce a rich harvest of grapes in due season.  The temptation would be for us to simply look at these readings as being meant for someone else.  Yet we know that the readings of the Lectionary for Sunday Mass were chosen because they have an application for us and for our daily lives.  So how are we to apply these readings to our current situation?

Perhaps the best way would be to look at the actions of the vineyard owner who is obviously meant to represent God.  In both the Isaiah reading and the parable from St. Matthew, the vineyard owner does everything possible to insure that the vineyard would be fruitful.  Isaiah writes: He spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted the choicest vines; within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press (Isaiah 5:2). St. Matthew almost copies Isaiah word for word: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower (Matthew 21:33b).  In other words, this grape farmer provided all that was necessary by working the soil, clearing it of any impediment, planting strong vines, even going so far as to build a tower to protect the vineyard from marauders.  What more could the vineyard owner have done?

Isaiah includes a telling detail.  If the vineyard had failed to produce a rich harvest, one could find many ways to explain away the poor harvest.  Perhaps there was not enough rain.  Perhaps there was too much.  Perhaps the soil was inadequate after all.  However, Isaiah does not say that the harvest was poor.  Rather, he writes that the vineyard produced wild grapes.  The indictment against the vineyard is more than clear.

St. Matthew takes us in a different direction.  He cites the greed and the avarice of the tenant farmers in their desire to gain the vineyard as their own.  The parable does not claim that the harvest is poor.  Instead, the tenant farmers are accused of not giving the landowner his due.  Again, the indictment is very clear.

Happily these two readings are accompanied by a reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians.  The entire letter betrays Paul’s love for this community.  Some of his most rhapsodic language is used to communicate with this community which has eagerly accepted the Gospel Paul preached.  Let us remember that Paul could have been accused of being one of the evil tenant farmers as he was clearly a participant in continuing the suffering endured by the Body of Christ which he came to embrace later in life.  However, he has found peace, and he shows the Philippians the way to peace.  That peace comes when we place our trust in God’s merciful love and providential care, the kind of care that God exhibited in planting the vineyard.  Herein lies the application for us.  There is always the danger that we can become poor tenant farmers in God’s reign just like the chief priests and elders of Israel.  However, if we follow Paul’s advice, that will not happen.  Happily, we will come to realize the peace that Jesus has won for us by his redemptive death on the cross.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator