What are we willing to die for?
A movie that came out in 1981 told the story of a young sculptor who had the misfortune of being involved in a tragic accident. The wreck left him hospitalized, paralyzed from the neck down and incapable of ever being able to practice his art again. The man requested that he be allowed to die. His doctor ignored the man’s wish, and set out to do everything that could be done to keep the man alive.
The movie, “Whose Life is it Anyway?” raised the question of who ultimately has authority over life. Sadly, like a bad multiple choice test where none of the choices given are correct, the answer focused on both the doctor and the patient both of whom are accused of playing the answer--God.
The wicked tenants in today’s gospel suffer a similar identity crisis. They act as though they are the owners of the vineyard rather than its tenants. Jesus tells the parable in response to the chief priests and elders question as to what gave him the authority to do the works that he did (especially in light of his temple cleansing incident the day before).
Jesus uses an image from Isaiah (today’s first reading) that would have been familiar to them, namely that of an owner who plants a vineyard. The owner then goes on a journey after handing over the operation of the vineyard to tenants who are free to enjoy its fruits as long as they return a percentage of the produce to the owner. This is where the problem begins.
Since the owner is far away, the tenants don’t see any reason to bother with the payment. Instead they abuse all of the collection agents that the owner sends. Finally the owner sends his son thinking that the tenants will obviously fear him. But they reason rather foolishly that if they kill the son the vineyard will be theirs.
Jesus then asks the question, “What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?”
The audience the very people who are plotting the death of Jesus quickly give the answer. The evil tenants will be evicted and put to death for the murder of the son. Unfortunately they do not learn its lesson. Are we able to make the next logical step that the chief priests and elders were not? Are we able to examine ourselves and connect our behavior with that of the tenants?
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done,” Jesus tells his hearers. The stone may have appeared too heavy to lift by the builders who rejected it, but soon they realized that its size was needed to function as the chief building block to the foundation. So too the events of our life present us with many choices that left to our own estimation we may reject because they seem too burdensome, but in the end we may realize the absolute necessity of embracing them.
What is our attitude about what God has given us?
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