Isaiah 5:1-7
Philippians 4:6-9
Matthew 21:33-43
Jesus Christ is the Cornerstone of our lives
Dear brethren in Christ, if we look back to the beginning of this dialogue in today’s gospel passage, we will find the circumstances in which Christ was talking, and to whom He was addressing His instruction. Jesus was in the Temple in Jerusalem, and was being questioned by the chief priests and the elders. He had entered the place where they had power and authority, and He had started to teach the people who were present; as a consequence of this, the priests and elders started questioning him, and today’s parable forms part of His response to them.
When our Lord started describing the scene, when our Lord talked about a man planting a vineyard, digging a wine press and building a tower, their minds would immediately have turned to the prophesy of Isaiah which we read as our first reading. And so they would have known the outcome, and the message contained in the prophesy: Isaiah is quite clear in the interpretation of the prophecy: “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the House of Israel.” For failing to produce the fruits of justice, honesty, mercy, peace, and many other virtues, but instead being known as corrupt, violent, full of hatred – in a word, bitter, just as the grapes are described – Israel will be destroyed.
After God’s prophets were ill-treated by the kings, priests, and elders of Israel, God sent his son. But when the tenants see the son coming, they plot together to kill him. Perhaps that reminds you of the passion of Christ. outside the walls of Jerusalem. Then Our Lord quotes to them from the book of the Psalms, about the stone which the builders rejected becoming the head of the corner. This prophesy of Christ is very important, and is later repeated by Saint Peter when he is on trial before the Jewish court of priests and elders. Because of their unfaithfulness, the Kingdom of God will be turned over to others who will give God the fruit he expects his vineyard to yield. With the benefit of hindsight, we can recall the destruction of the Jerusalem temple some forty years after the time our Lord was standing in it, and, with its destruction, the complete removal of the authority of the priests.
And so the parable has a relevance to us too: Christians in all ages should see this parable as exhorting them to build faithfully upon Christ and to make sure that they do not fall into the sin of those old religious leaders. The words of Isaiah join the words of Paul to the Philippians to encourage us to seriously look at our daily lives and our response to Jesus today. Does our faith in Jesus make a difference?
May the good Lord grant us the grace to follow the example of those who have gone before us– and lead lives of faith-filled humility, gratitude, and service. Amen.
Fr Joseph Osho
