Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ They said to him, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes”? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.

The connection between the first reading in Isaiah and today’s Gospel could hardly be clearer. Centuries before Jesus walked the land, Isaiah spoke to the people of Judah, describing God’s people as a carefully tended vineyard. God had given it everything necessary to flourish, expecting the fruits of justice and righteousness, yet it yielded the bitter fruit of injustice.

When Jesus tells his parable of the vineyard, his audience would immediately recognise the imagery. But now the focus falls upon the tenants who refuse to give the owner his fruit and ultimately kill his son. Jesus’ warning is confronting: belonging to God is not simply a privilege. Discipleship must bear fruit. That warning reaches us too.

Most of us have probably never worked in a vineyard, although I’m certainly partial to visiting one for a tasting! Yet we understand the temptation to take God’s gifts for granted. Like Israel, we can become distracted, self-reliant and gradually turn away from the One who planted and sustains us.

Thankfully, in today’s second reading, St Paul shows us another way. Rather than allowing anxiety and the distractions of the world to overwhelm us, Paul calls us back to prayer, thanksgiving and all that is true, honourable, just, pure and good. Then comes his extraordinary promise: God’s peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7)

So today, let us tend the vineyard God has entrusted to us. Let us pray rather than worry, give thanks rather than complain, seek what is good, and bear the fruit of the Kingdom.

And if that seems beyond you, hold onto Paul’s confidence: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13).