My Dear People,

Today’s First Reading from Isaiah and the Gospel of Matthew deals with the vineyard. The vineyard represents the house of Israel. The basic meaning of the parable is clear: the chief priests and leaders of the people are the tenants who have failed in their responsibility to care for the vineyard. The servants sent to the vineyard represent the prophets, and the son is Jesus himself. The vineyard owner is God the Father. The judgment on the tenants is a prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem, which was to happen within a generation (AD 70).

Jesus cites Psalm 118 concerning “the stone that the builders rejected.” Clearly this stone is a reference to himself. He is the foundation stone of the temple, rejected by the chief priests—who were, in fact, involved in a massive project of rebuilding the Temple, initiated by Herod the Great and completed about 66 AD.

The chief priests were rebuilding the Temple, but neither they nor Herod, who initiated the project, were properly authorized to undertake such a sacred task. Herod was not even a Jew; he was an Edomite who gained the throne of Israel by collaboration with the Romans. Likewise, the Chief priests at this time did not have the proper lineage and maintained their position of power by manipulation and cooperation with the Romans authorities.

It was the Son of David who was authorized to build the Temple of God (2 Sam 7:12-13). So, Jesus stands as the true temple-builder against the false temple-builders.

The Temple was decorated in its interior with garden imagery, which was intended to evoke the concept of Eden, the original garden-vineyard of God. In fact, a great vine was carved on the gates of the Temple. Some scholars surmise that Jesus was passing the Temple gates, with the great vine image, on the way to Gethsemane in John 15, where he begins his “True Vine” discourse: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower” (John 15:10).

By identifying himself as the True Vine, Jeus is claiming to be the personal embodiment of Israel, the people of God.

At the end of today’s reading, Jesus warns the chief priests, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”

This has sometimes been interpreted as the “kingdom of God” being taken away from the Jews and given to the Gentiles, but there are serious reasons to doubt that such a meaning is intended here. Jesus, his Blessed Mother, all the Apostles, and the writer of this Gospel were Jews. Ethnic Jews have always been part of the New Covenant. In fact, the New Covenant itself is nothing other than the Body and Blood of Jesus the Jew.

It would be better to understand the “people that will produce the fruit” not as the Gentiles per se, but as all those, whether “Jew or Greek” (cf. Rom 1:16), who partake in the Body and Blood of the True Vine, that is, the True Israel, Jesus the Christ, and by partaking become incorporated into the new vineyard, the new Israel. By partaking of the Eucharist, we “abide in him and in us” (1 John 4:13): “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.“ (John 15:5)

[Parts taken from Reflection of Sunday Readings for Year A by Dr. John Bergdsma]

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Vincent Clemente