Like Isaiah, Jesus also uses the image of the vineyard. A master plants a vineyard, with a hedge around it, digs a mill, builds a tower and entrusts it to tenants and leaves.
When the time for harvest arrived, he sent his servants to collect the produce. But here’s the crunch: the farmers do not want to deliver the benefits. They mistreat and kill the envoys.
As a final attempt he sends his son, but they kill him too. They are convinced they can be masters of the field that has been entrusted to them.
All the details of the gospel story have a symbolic meaning. The master is the Lord. He lavishes so much care and expresses an immense love for his people.
The hedge is the Torah, the law that God has revealed to his people, to protect them from enemies, or the proposals of senseless life that would lead it to ruin.
The tenants are the chiefs, religious and political leaders, whose task is to place the people in ideal conditions to produce the fruit that the owner expects.
The owner expects works of love for neighbour and social justice as the fruit.
The envoys are the prophets, who warn Israel to be faithful to the covenant. God expresses himself through the mouth of Jeremiah, “From the time I brought their forebears out of Egypt until this day I have continually sent them my servants, the prophets, but this stiff necked people did not listen. They paid no attention and were worse than their forbearers” (Jeremiah 7:25-26).
The tenants wanted to take possession of the field, claimed to manage the vineyard by themselves. They represent those who want to do things without God and consider his gifts as goods to be misappropriated.
The son is Jesus. The time of harvest is the time of God’s judgment, the day of intervention for salvation.
At the end of the parable, Jesus involves his audience and asks their opinion on what behaviour to suggest to the owner. They convincingly respond, “The master will bring those evil men to an evil end.”
But Jesus follows a different logic. God intervenes to make evil serve the good, making it yield a masterpiece of salvation.
You may remember what Joseph said to his brothers who had sold him to the Egyptians: “You intended to do me harm, but God intended to turn it to good to bring about what is happening today- the survival of many people” (Genesis 50:20).
The leaders of the people take the Son and throw him out of the vineyard. This is what happened to Jesus. He was deemed a blasphemer, impure and for this he was brought out of the city walls and executed. But in raising him, God glorified him and made him Lord, the cornerstone of a new building.
The end result of the intervention of the master is the delivery of the vineyard to other workers who will make it produce fruit. This is his gesture of love and salvation.
Today, every Christian is a vine grower from which the Lord expects delivery of the fruit.
Father Fernando Armellini SCJ
Claretian Publications
bibleclaret.org
Translated by Father John Ledesma SDB
Abridged by Father Jijo Kandamkulathy CMF
