Year A

Matthew 21:33-46

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Fruitful Living

Listen to another parable Matthew writes. His version of the parable of the Wicked Tenants today is the second of a series of three parables that Jesus tells during the final week of his life. Last Sunday, we heard the parable of the Two Sons, and the week before the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. Jesus has entered Jerusalem, acclaimed as the Son of David, and “the whole city was in turmoil.” He goes to the temple where he overturns the tables of the money changers and the next day when he returns to Jerusalem, he curses a fruitless fig tree and enters the temple again where, not surprisingly, he encounters a challenge to his authority by the religious leaders to do the things he is doing and saying.

Today’s parable along with the two previous ones, respond to this challenge of Jesus’ authority and his teachings. Often the stories or parables Jesus tells have a twist that at the end we suddenly see something about ourselves and about God that we had not seen before. Hear then this parable: One afternoon a shopper at a local mall felt the need for a coffee break. She bought a little bag of cookies, put them in her pocketbook, and got in line for coffee. She found a place at a table, took out a magazine to read, and sipped her coffee. Across the table was a man who was reading a newspaper. 

She reached out and took a cookie. As she did, the man seated across from her reached out and took one too. This put her off, but she did not say anything. A few minutes later she took another cookie. Once again the man did too. Now she was getting upset because there was only one cookie left, and apparently the man realized that there was only one cookie left also. He took it, broke it in half, offered her half, and proceeded to eat his half. Then he smiled, arose and walked off. Was she steamed! Her coffee break was ruined. She folded her magazine, opened her pocketbook and there discovered her own unopened bag of cookies.

All the time she had been unknowingly helping herself to the cookies of her gracious host. Actually, it was the man whom she had shared the table with who had every reason to be offended. She had taken what belonged to him without asking or even acknowledging it with a word of thanks. This same mistake but with a bit more vengeance was made by the vineyard tenants in the parable told by Jesus. Like the weary shopper on a coffee break, the vineyard tenants took to be their own what belonged to someone else. So it may be with us. All our lives, whether we have realized it or not we have been helping ourselves to God’s bag of cookies: cookies that come from God.

What have we returned to God for the gifts, the life, which we have been entrusted? Certainly in each of our lives, there are examples of how we have been thankful for the gifts given us by God and also examples of when we have failed to use properly or completely or possibly even abused God’s gifts. Jesus today describes the failure of the Hebrew people to use God’s gifts and to recognize his presence as Messiah and Lord. The tenants did not use the gifts properly. Jesus tells the religious leaders that because the great gift, the inheritance of God, was abused it will be taken away and given to another people that produces the fruit of the kingdom. Even though the Hebrew people are chosen by God to be a nation uniquely God’s own, they did not recognize God’s greatest gift, the gift of the Son and because of this, this gift will pass to the Gentiles. This gospel challenges us to want to use the gifts of God wisely.

We are accountable to produce fruits in God’s kingdom for what has been entrusted to us. What does it mean to produce “the fruits of the kingdom”? The prophet Isaiah points out today the fruits of the kingdom in the OT passage. Isaiah passionately discloses God’s love for the people. God asks “What more could I do for my people than I have done?” Israel was blessed by God and in spite of God’s tender love the vineyard does not produce a good harvest. Isaiah makes it very clear what God wants “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!” The expected harvest of the kingdom is to be “justice” and “righteousness.” But these are lacking.

An indication of the harvest the vineyard owner expects is given in the Lord’s words elsewhere in Matthew about how we have treated the least of our fellow tenants: I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” This is the “rent” the harvest, we are to return for the gift, the privilege of living and working in God’s kingdom. Both Matthew and Isaiah are teaching us today about our ingratitude to God; so much of the scriptures, and the teachings of Jesus, long to turn our hearts of stone into hearts of compassion.

This is what Paul in his letter to the Philippians is trying to convey as he encourages them to continue to demonstrate the gospel in their lives. He uses personal testimony and other examples to authenticate and energize his call to action. He has understood that precisely because the vineyard tenants including himself exhibit the same fatal flaw as the rest of humankind, he must cling to the Messiah, and him alone. In this passage rich with theology and devotion, Paul states his aim: to know the Messiah, to be found in him, to gain him, to trust him, to share his sufferings and his resurrection, to respond in love to the one who has loved him, to follow his call to the life of the age to come.

The primary goal of life in the faith is to know Christ. To know Christ is to follow him into a life of discipleship, a life of compassion that produces the fruits of the kingdom. We need not be like the tenants in the parable, rejecting the word of the Lord. Today we can hear that word and act accordingly. We can join Jesus on the road to the cross. The cost of following does mean we are to deny ourselves and share our cookies. This may mean a few less cookies for us but God’s gifts are given to be used and shared. As Jesus reminds us with the cornerstone image, we are all being invited to become builders of the kingdom where we recognize again our obligations as servants of the one true God. So let us turn to the stone that the builders rejected and seek to use what God has provided to build the kingdom of God in our world. God has prepared everything we need for fruitful living. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes!