The world belongs to God
The earth and all its people
How good and lovely it is
To live together in unity
Love and faith come together
Justice and peace join hands
Song “Compassion hymn”
Let us in silence remember our faults and failings
Christ
have mercy on us, and deliver us from our sins and may we amend our lives
Amen.
We say the Lords Prayer in our own language
Reflection on Matthew 21v33-46
The parable today in Matthew is a kingdom parable, a gospel riddle. It comes immediately after the questioning of Jesus’ authority. It is a parable about judgment. Gods judgement.
The Talmud states that people who have worked land that is not theirs for over three years have gained rights for it. In this case, the owner may then be treated as an intruder. So the bad tenants in the story are claiming the land. Its colonization.
Jesus draws out the moral that bad behavior will be punished - the tenants will lose their living and the vineyard handed to new tenants.
Bad people will come to a bad end and the vineyard given to other tenants.
In our story, the owner of the vineyard sends his son to reclaim the vineyard from wicked tenants and they kill the son. Very bad people.
The obvious explanation of the parable is that Israel is the vineyard, Israel's religious leaders are the farmers, the servants are the prophets and the son is Jesus. They threw out and killed Jesus, the Son of God. The hearers thought it meant that. Isaiah 5:1-7 and Jeremiah 7:25-26 are background texts.
Matthew is emphasizing that Israel's religious leaders have rejected the Messiah so the kingdom is given to others. Jesus is baiting the chief priests and the Pharisees.
The "people" are the Gentiles and the people of the land, the peasants, the poor people.
The prophecy about the corner stone is from Daniel 2:34, 44-45. When the Messiah judges those who have rejected him, they will be ground to dust. It’s pretty harsh!
The capstone or cornerstone is a top stone keeping walls together, or the corner foundation stone. The builders rejected it as unsuitable, but from God's perspective, it works perfectly-just like the ordinary people who have been rejected by the religious leaders. The rejected stone is now the cornerstone. In the Psalms, Israel is the stone. The Aramaic words for son and stone are similar so there may have been a deliberate play on words.
It’s difficult not to see that tenants or leaders in some countries have taken power and are bad tenants of Gods world. They are the bad boys but one day there will be a reckoning. That may be sooner rather than later. In the mean time we live in a Covid dystopia, facing injustice and environmental destruction. Its difficult not to think that we are in the end times. But Jesus tells us not to predict but to watch and pray. So that is what we must do. And we will meanwhile be faithful to the gospel.
“Lord from sorrows deep I call”
We pray for people and situations we are concerned about including, our country, our friends and families and those who are marginalised in our communities, the poor, the refugees and homeless. May we not fail you. Amen
The blessing of God be upon you
On those you love and those you meet
This day and forevermore. Amen
With thanks to the ©Iona Community adapted
