The Vineyard turns dark

This will be the third week in which the image of the vineyard takes a central place in the gospel account. Two weeks ago, we heard the story of the labourers who were contracted to work in the vineyard. The first group of workers who were picked early in the morning, felt hard done to by the landowner when he chose to pay them the same amount of money as those who had worked for less time and in much more comfortable conditions. Jesus told the story to emphasise the generosity of the landowner as he provided for the all the daily needs of each of his workers. Last week we listened to the story of the father who asked his two sons to go and work in the vineyard and of how one said “yes” but didn’t go, and the other who said “no” but then did go. The point that Jesus wanted to emphasise here was that the call to act which he gives to each of us, is a moral choice, to be made in a positive and life enhancing way. Today however, we read a very different story, an altogether darker tale in which the vineyard itself becomes a place of danger and violence. It is a story which ends with the death of the son of the landowner. What are these three parables telling us about the vineyard and what it represents?

Each of these stories take place in the vineyard, which by correlation, becomes the landscape in which we all live and move and have our being. God calls us all to be generous with our love, and to be challenged by our calling so that we think deeply about our response. We are to see the vineyard and its environment, which we shape and mould, as being defined by how we carry out our tasks. Am I as generous as I can be with my gifts and talents? Does my commitment to my calling, my moral compass, swing this way and that way, with different emphases, depending on how I feel at any particular time? Do I treat the vineyard as my own possession, to do with as I please. Or do I see the vineyard as a shared and precious resource not to be abused, but to be cherished and cared for?

These are important considerations which will inform how we continue to build and grow in our vocation as disciples. In our coming to knowledge about the identity of the foundation on which our faith is built, the radical approach that Jesus offers reveals something fundamental to us. It is the stone rejected by the builders which becomes the keystone. Just as Jesus pointed out to Peter, as followers of Jesus, we must stop thinking like man and begin to think like God, because God’s ways are not our ways. Jesus shows us a way that is more compelling, more radical. Only when we have worked out and understood the meaning of this and have begun to put it into effect, will the vineyard become the place where a majestic vintage will be harvested.