WE ARE THE SERVANTS IN GOD'S VINEYARD

Matt 21:33-43

The parable of today’s gospel depicts God as a landowner who prepared a beautiful vineyard and gave it to his people to tend. When harvest time came, he sent his servants but the tenants killed them all. These tenants wanted not just their share of the harvest, but they wanted the whole thing. Lastly, he sent his son because he presumed that they will respect him, but they killed him too. What is interesting in this parable is that the landowner knew already what was happening and yet he still sent his son. In this parable, it clear that the landowner is God, the vineyard is Israel; the servants are the prophets and the tenants are the Pharisees who rejected and killed the servants.

This parable teaches us a lot about God and how God relates to us. Our God is a God who love us without condition. This parable tells us that in our Christian life, God has prepared a vineyard and has equipped us to work in that vineyard. He is the owner of the vineyard but he entrusts it to us. He does not exercise a police-like supervision. He goes away and leaves us with the work.

First, this parable tells us about God’s generosity for His people. God is generous to His people. He gives us gifts of intelligence and all kinds of talents to work in his vineyard. Second, this parable tells us about God’s patience. The vineyard’s owner sends servants after servants to get his share but the tenants kills them all. And yet he does not come with sudden revenge. He gives them chance after chance to respond to his appeal. God is patient we us.

This parable is also a warning to us Christians; it is a warning for each one of us personally. A warning to understand our Christian life and ask ourselves how committed we are in our life. If being a Christian is just fulfilling minimum obligations like Sunday Mass, receiving Holy Communion then we are not on the right track. Christian life is a way of living. Our Christian life should affect everybody around us.

Many Christians always say: “I have not done anything wrong.” I am a good Christian. This gospel teaches us that Christianity is not just avoiding doing the wrong thing. Christianity is mostly a question of what we have not done that we should have done? Christianity is to lose yourself in the service of the others. Christianity is not passive, it is active. We are the servants in God’s vineyard. And if we take our Christian life simply as coming to mass on Sundays and receiving Holy Communion then we are forgetting one of the purposes of the Eucharist: to show our love for God in our day-to-day life; to fight injustice and to alleviate the miseries of our suffering brothers and sisters. By doing so, we become like God who loves without condition.

So let us then work hard to make our faith produce real fruits of justice and love.