27th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A October 8, 2023
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
Why didn’t they just give him some of the grapes? No one likes it when it’s time to pay the rent. But how much sense does it make that their first response is to beat, kill, and stone the messengers? No request for leniency, no negotiation. It’s not like the landowner is unreasonable or impatient. He tried again, even after they murdered his servants. He sent his own Son. Clearly, if these tenants had even tried to work out a deal of some kind, he would have been willing to work with them.
Why did they so quickly resort to so drastic a response? We have some clues if we use the context. Our first reading gives us another parable about a vineyard and its produce. In that story, however, the landowner is mad at the vineyard itself because he put all this work in and got wild and sour grapes. So God punishes the vineyard.
Perhaps that’s why the tenants don’t turn over the fruit to the owner of the vineyard. Perhaps it’s because they don’t have any fruit to give him. That might explain the overreaction. It may not have even been on purpose at first. With their failure suddenly exposed by the messenger, maybe they panicked like a rookie thief who, before he realizes it, has knocked out the person he was trying to rob. Think about it, when suddenly faced with your failure and shame, it’s easy to act irrationally. Shame and fear turn to anger and you say or do something you regret. Shame, fear, and ager get worse and lead to worse choices.
We even see this progression in how they treat the servants: first was a beating. Then they killed the next guy… maybe because that fear, shame, and anger caused them to get carried away when he asked why the beat up the first guy. By that point, they were in too deep. The third guy gets stoned, implying they attacked him even before he got close.
By this point, the tenants might have hoped the owner would just give up on them or run out of servants to send. Either way, what began as a mere failure to pay what they owe has turned into willful murder. When the Son finally arrives, they are so far gone they actually think they can just steal the whole vineyard by killing him: “we’ll get to keep the vineyard; then it will be no one else’s business what we produce.” That might have worked in real life if the landowner only had limited resources and no help. In this fallen world, injustices like that do happen and people do seem to get away with it. For the purposes of this parable, however, it doesn’t work because the landowner does have the power to give these men what they deserve. And they do deserve it.
But, if the details are correct, it’s kind of sad isn’t it? These men end up executed because they had a bad crop and were too ashamed to admit it. Maybe they didn’t mean to become hardened criminals at first. But that’s just how sin works, isn’t it? No one starts as a cold murderer. Trauma, fear, shame, rash choices and more can all lead a mostly decent person down a path to outright evil. Some fall more quickly and suddenly, but we can’t pretend that those circumstances erase their responsibility. At some point, your bad decisions are your bad decisions and the excuses fall away.
This is us, of course. It’s a parable about going to Hell if we refuse to give to God what we owe him. But it isn’t because God is a greedy tightwad who looks for an excuse to get us. He tries again and again to give us a chance. The whole story of the bible is one attempt after another. At least five covenants where God said “okay, let’s try this again.” Is it His fault that we prefer to cover up our failures with more injustice? Is it His fault that we are ashamed and afraid? No. These tenants didn’t even try because they were ashamed.
If you’ve ever read the Gospels, you might wonder why people killed a poor, itinerant preacher who only talked about love. He even stopped people from starting a revolution. He wasn’t dangerous, so why kill him? Because his mere presence exposed their sins. The leaders of the Jewish people knew they had failed to produce the fruit of the covenant… to give God what they owed him in exchange for being his chosen people. They resorted to hypocrisy, convincing themselves and others that nothing was wrong by making it look like they were holy.
Jesus’ integrity, his Divine holiness and presence cast a light on the disconnect between outward appearances of holiness and an internal lack of genuine love of God and neighbor. To the people who already knew they failed, it was a chance to ask for help and mercy. To the people who thought they could hide their shame, it eventually led to murderous anger. I have no fruit to give you, but if I kill you, then no one will be around to care. But we can’t actually kill God, can we?
Where is your fruit? How many people have become disciples of Jesus Christ, have stayed Catholic, or become a better disciple because of you? How many people have you fed, clothed, and visited without personal gain? How much have you grown in virtue and holiness.
Don’t be a fool. Do not think there’s any number you can give that means you’re safe. Because we don’t just owe God some percentage, we owe him everything. It is not possible to produce enough. But that’s not actually the problem. The problem is that, because of shame and fear, we often don’t even try to produce anything. Or that we get it into our heads we don’t owe him, so we begin to take whatever it is we think will make us happy. If I can just kill my conscience, I can run my life how I want in peace. But you will just end up choosing Hell for yourself.
So what is the answer? “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” Admit that you can’t save yourself, can’t produce enough. Admit that you owe a debt you cannot repay, but do not be ashamed of it! Guilty, sure, but not ashamed and afraid. What you can always give is gratitude: gratitude for the things you cannot repay.
The Lord is asking you for the harvest. Maybe your life, your share of the vineyard is a mess. Don’t hide it or flee in terror. Instead, be grateful for your share, ask for grace and mercy to do better, and be grateful that you are forgiven and strengthened. When you stop trying to carry a hidden burden of shame alone, you’ll find that God wasn’t waiting to crush you with that burden, he was waiting to help you lift it.
Then you’ll discover the truth; that is the fruit he wanted all along: your gratitude and your contrition. Yes, sincere gratitude and contrition come with the effort to do better, to pursue “whatever is true,” honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent or worthy of praise, but you’ll be able to pursue those things best with God’s grace, a grace not earned, but given to those willing to admit their shameful weakness, ask his mercy and help, and then produce the fruit of praise and thanksgiving for his great gifts. Do not be afraid, for our God is not out to destroy you, but to save you from the very fruitlessness you’re so worried about.