Daily Reflection Friday of the Second Week of Lent

Today’s gospel passage brings the tumultuous twenty-first chapter of Matthew to a close. Chapter 21 began with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (found in all four gospel accounts), followed immediately by the Cleansing of the Temple. Then Jesus, challenged by the Pharisees, refuses to answer them unless they say who John the Baptist was. That is followed by the Parable of the Two Sons and then today’s passage, the Parable of the Tenants which is then followed by chapter twenty-two’s rather dark Parable of the Wedding Feast.

I give all that as prelude because there is a definite, inexorable movement going on in Matthew 21 that will continue until the crucifixion. It is as if each event, each teaching of the Lord’s is another step forward towards its fulfillment. The Parable of the Tenants is one of the few parables that Jesus leveled directly at the Pharisees and will culminate in Matthew’s seven woes to the Pharisees and Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem in chapter 23.

The parable’s metaphorical meaning seems evident enough, even to the Pharisees, for it is all about them, or their forebears, and how they treated the prophets. Yet the Pharisees seem to fall into a trap by telling Jesus what the owner of the vineyard should do to the evil tenants (the religious leaders). Jesus then quotes Psalm 118:22-23 to them and even the Pharisees then realize that he is referring to himself both as the stone rejected by the builders as well as the son of the owner of the vineyard, while also revealing that the Pharisees’ complicity in their forebear’s past persecution of the prophets is evidenced by their persecution of Jesus now.

Jesus concludes by telling the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from them and given to those who will bear good fruit. It is interesting that the liturgical reading omits verse 44 (which is absent from some ancient manuscripts), “And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” An even sharper rebuke of the Pharisees.

However, if we could hear all this with less a feeling of condemnation (of the Pharisees) and more as a warning to the Church that we must all seek to bear that good fruit Jesus speaks of or risk somehow losing that Kingdom ourselves. But even though Jesus tells the Pharisees that the Kingdom will be taken away from them, it does not necessarily imply forever. We will indeed suffer spiritually if we cease striving to practice loving our neighbor (the good fruit Jesus speaks of,) but the invitation to turn away from selfishness towards others is always given again and again by the Holy Spirit. Like another parable, the Father is always watching and waiting for the return of his beloved prodigal, always ready to rush to greet the foolish rebel no matter how long he may have to wait. Let us pray we will never be tempted to take advantage of that great love and patience.