The gospel for Friday of the second week of Lent is taken from Matthew 21st, chapter 33, 43 verse and 45th to the 46th verse. Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people, hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants, and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned again.
He sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, thinking they will respect my son. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance. They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?
They answered him, he will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper time. Jesus said to them, did you never read the Scriptures? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone by the Lord. Has this been done. And it is wonderful in our eyes. Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them. And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet, as a priest. This kind of story always gives me a pause. Because if you look at the owner of the vineyard as God establishing a kingdom, a church, a way of life, and all of us who want to help that to take place are like tenants. We’re not the source of the goodness that we want people to feel. But in this story, you see the tenants not being successful at what they were called to do.
In fact, they become robbers and murderers to the message, to the value, to the gift that is in the promise of the kingdom that God comes to establish. Please pause and reflect upon these images. And then I will close with a prayer. Foreign closing prayer. Father, bless my ministry. Bless all of us.
Help us to realize any weaknesses that we have that might block the fruitfulness of our work. Make us fruitful, make us generous. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Sa.
