Readings (Year A):
Isaiah 5:1–7
Psalm 80:9, 12, 13–14, 15–16, 19–20
Philippians 4:6–9
Matthew 21:33–43
Reflection: We are co-workers in God’s vineyard
Oh boy, this feels like another one of those moments where we’re in trouble. God seems to be complaining, in the reading from Hebrew scripture, that humanity has not responded to God’s loving care. Jesus sounds angry, too, that we’ve rejected God’s prophets, turning them away time and time again and greedily keeping the gifts of God to ourselves. But…
Lately I’ve been noticing who Jesus is speaking to in the scriptures. Sometimes we’re told that he’s speaking to his disciples, sometimes to a crowd, sometimes to Peter, James, and John. Sometimes, our scriptures can make us feel like speaking right to us, right here and now. But in today’s gospel reading, he’s speaking directly to the Chief Priests and the elders of his community.
When our story opens, he’s already pretty deep in trouble with these same authorities. He’s mounted a dangerous counter-protest right into the center of town and right under the noses of the Romans, to whom the leaders of the synagogue have become beholden. He’s turned over tables in the courtyard of the temple, accusing the priests and scribes there of taking advantage of worshipers, and then he’s cursed a fig tree, an ancient symbol for Israel.
Now, he’s in an argument with the leaders he’s been calling out, and he spews a succession of three tough parables that put them on the defensive. Matthew tells us, in the verses just after our reading today, that this was personal, and the chief priests and scribes took it personally. He says they “realized that he was speaking about them” and they wanted to arrest him.
At the heart of Jesus’ frustration, and the anguish we hear from God in the reading from Isaiah, is of course their deep love for their people. Jesus isn’t angry because we’ve screwed up, he’s calling out the leaders God put in charge, the tenants who had agreed to care for the vineyard, who were leading from places of greed and selfishness. He’s singling them out for not practicing what they preach; instead of caring for the poor and the marginalized, they are caring about receiving praise and honors for themselves. Instead of joining Jesus in healing, they condemn him for breaking Sabbath laws. Instead of producing fruit that should be shared with those in need, they are hoarding those resources for their own benefit.
Jesus is not painting with a broad brush in today’s gospel, but that does not mean that we can sit back and relax. We still are invited to pay close attention to this scene, this riled-up Jesus and the trouble he’s causing in and for his religious leaders. We are being called to join God in God’s frustration.
Because sometimes our own leaders, civic and religious leaders, lose the plot. We can see it happen all around us: when our church leaders work harder to preserve their buildings and budgets than they do to serve the poor, or when our civic leaders make life-altering decisions that hurt the poorest among us the most. It’s happened over and over throughout the history of this church and this world, and God knows it will happen again.
And the structures and hierarchies around us can make us feel there’s not much we who are not in positions of leadership can do, but we do have agency, as individuals and as communities. Our individual votes and voices are powerful ways to speak up and speak out against injustice and corrupt leadership. And together, collectively, is where we can combine the gifts that God has given us to pursue “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, lovely, gracious.” God does not call us to work that we can’t possibly do, and the mission of Jesus belongs to you and me as much as it does to anyone holding positions of power.
We all have a part in how the church participates in Jesus’ mission, and how our nation treats its people most in need, and we are all responsible for the prudent use of God’s gifts. Although you and I are not the people being personally called on the carpet in these readings, we are co-workers in God’s vineyard, and we can make a difference by doing our own part as individuals and as neighbors and as worshiping communities, to be responsible, and generous. And so today, we resolve again to do what we can, when we can, to be faithful to the mission of Jesus and do our part to tend the vineyard so that together we can produce abundant, blessed fruit for all who hunger.
