27th Sunday 2023
Isaiah 5:17; Psalm 79 (80); Philippians 4:6-9; Matthew 21:33-43
If I was looking for a word to summarise today’s readings, I would settle for “continuity”. There is a thread running from Isaiah through the Psalm, to the Gospel, and continuing to the present day. Vines, fruitful and unfruitful, form the basis of this thread. (Can a thread have a basis? I am not sure, but you know what I mean—I hope.)
Isaiah the prophet, writing in the latter stages of the eighth century BC, provides this beautiful parable of the hard-working landowner who plants a vineyard, equipped with all mod. cons., and is dismayed to harvest nothing but sour grapes. Isaiah then explains the parable very clearly, with no room left for doubt. The planter of the vineyard is God, the vineyard is Israel, the disappointing vines producing sour grapes are the people of Israel.
“Yes, the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the House of Israel, and the men of Judah that chosen plant. He expected justice, but found bloodshed; integrity, but only a cry of distress.”
The prophet is stating explicitly that the people have failed God miserably, but he also warns that they will face consequences. The owner, God, will abandon the vineyard, which will be reduced to a ruin, something which was to happen over and over again in the history of the Chosen People.
Moving to the Psalm, we find a similar theme. This time the vine, representing the people, has been brought from Egypt to flourish in the Promised Land, an allegory of the Exodus of the Jewish people from their Egyptian slavery, and their re-settlement in what became Israel and Judah.
For the Psalmist, the destruction of the vineyard has already taken place. At first, he claims not to understand why this has happened. “Then why have you broken down its walls?” he cries.
Soon, though, he is compelled to admit that he is well aware of the reason. It is the one put forward by Isaiah. “We shall never forsake you again” he claims, an admission that the people have indeed forsaken God; the Psalmist then pleads with God for forgiveness and restoration, promising repentance, a change of heart.
More than seven hundred years after Isaiah, Our Lord borrows elements from his parable. As in the prophetic writing, the landowner, again standing for God, not only plants a vineyard, but adds a winepress and a tower. Once again, the Jewish people are accused of failure: once again, they are threatened with consequences.
Thus, the essence of Isaiah’s parable is repeated, but there are differences. In Jesus’ version, the people--or more probably, their leaders—are represented not by the vines, but by corrupt tenants, whose faults are set out in greater detail. It is no longer a general abandonment of God, but specifically the killing of God’s prophets at which the finger is pointed, and it is prophesied that they will go on to kill God’s Son. Once again, there will be consequences: “the Kingdom of God will be taken from you, and given to a people who will produce its fruit”.
So far, so good, from our point of view, we may think. The Church, the Christian people, is to inherit the vineyard, is to be given the Kingdom. Everything is cakes and ale: or is it? The people who are given the Kingdom “will produce its fruit”. Can we honestly claim that, as individuals or as the Church we are doing, and have done that?
The sins and failings of the Church throughout the ages are well known, whether it be corrupt Popes, the Inquisition, support for colonisers, or whatever, and they are by no means all in the past, as the abuse crisis has shown. And what about our own sins? Have we done, are we doing, any better than the Jewish people, when it comes to bearing fruit? Every bit as much as the Psalmist, we need to pray: “God of hosts, bring us back. Let your face shine on us, and we shall be saved”.
