THE PARABLE OF THE TENANTS

Matt 21:33-43

The gospel of today is a parable about a landowner who prepared a beautiful vineyard and gave it to his people to tend. When harvest time came, he sent his servants to obtain his produce but the tenants killed them all. Lastly, he sent his own 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; that the tenants are killing the servants but yet he still sent his son.

This parable is a beautiful summary of the history of Israel, taken from the prophet Isaiah Is 5. Jesus addresses himself to the chief priests, the elders, and the Pharisees, and gives a response to the question which they addressed to him asking about the origin of his authority. Through this parable, Jesus clarifies several things: First, He reveals the origin of his authority: He is the Son, the heir. Second, He denounces the abuse of the authority of the tenants; that is of the priests, the elders and the Pharisees who were not concerned and did not take care of the people of God.

In this parable, we can see that God is the landowner, the vineyard is Israel; the servants are the prophets and the tenants are the Pharisees who rejected and killed the servants. This parable tells us some important truths about God and the way he deals with His people.  First, it tells us of God’s generosity and trust.  The vineyard is well equipped with everything the tenants needed.  The owner went away and left the vineyard in the hands of the tenants to freely manage everything.  God, likewise, trusts us enough to give us freedom to run our life as we choose. He gives us gifts of intelligence and all kinds of talents to work in his vineyard. We are all well equipped to work in God’s vineyard.

This parable also tells us of God’s patience and justice.  Not once, but many times, the vineyard’s owner sends servants after servants to get his share but the tenants kills them all. He forgives the tenants their debts and gives them chance after chance to respond to his appeal. God is patient we us. He forgives and wants us to come back. During this holy season of Lent, Jesus calls us to repent and make an effort to reconcile with God and our brothers and sisters remembering that we are stewards in God’s vineyard.