Isa 5:1-7 Phil 4:6-9 Mt 21:33-43
Daniel Webster was a famous Englishman. He compiled
the famous Webster English Dictionary. Once, someone asked him, “What is that
often lingers in your mind?” Webster replied, “My individual accountability to
God”.
Our accountability to God is the central theme of
today’s gospel, which we are called upon to reflect. We note in the parable of
the wicked tenants, that they were not only unaccountable to the vineyard
owner, but intentionally planned to abduct the vineyard, which made them even
to kill the son of the vineyard owner.
The parable of the wicked tenants has two
characteristics: 1. Historical 2. Predictive
1. Historical: It means this parable covers the
history of Israel from God’s perspective, just as God sees it. The landowner is
God. The vineyard is Israel. The tenants are the chosen race of Israel and
their religious leaders. The servants are the prophets, and lastly the Son is
Jesus Christ. Jesus summarizes the whole of history of Israel from God’s
perspective in a story form.
2. Predictive: This means Jesus through this
parable predicted or revealed exactly what was going to happen to Israel, that
is, they were going to reject God’s own Son; and because of their rejection and
cruelty, God was going to reject them by giving the Kingdom of God to another
people and no more Israelites alone would be the chosen people of God.
In fact Jesus was predicting the emergence of new
set of people who would worship God in the ways of Christ. To put in other
words, there would emerge a community of true fellowship which would act in
Christian ways and would bear fruit. It was a prophecy made by our Lord. There
are several important facts that need to be understood at this point in order
to grasp the significance of the Lord’s prophecy.
Israel was the nation of people raised up by God.
In what all ways, God made them to be privileged?
a) Israel bore up the name of God in the world.
b) Israel was given the very words of God, that is,
the Word of God, the revelation of God.
c) Israel was a greatly privileged people in
spiritual things.
d) Israel was given the glorious plan of salvation
that a Messiah would come to save them.
e) Israel was given the glorious privilege of being
God’s witnesses upon the earth.
But the people of Israel miserably failed to
realize these privileges which they enjoyed. Israel failed God in its God-given
mission. Therefore, Jesus prophesied that God would turn against them and would
take away His kingdom from them and would entrust it to another people, and it
happened for the following reasons:
i) God turned from Israel because they rejected and
killed the promised Messiah, God’s own Son.
ii) God turned from Israel because they were
unfruitful.
iii) God turned from Israel because they were
unfaithful.
iv) God turned from Israel because they failed to
uphold the gospel values.
v) God turned from Israel because they were a
disobedient and obstinate people.
vi) God turned from Israel because of their
unbelief.
vii) God turned from Israel because they were
unaccountable and disloyal.
Today, this parable is addressed to each one of us.
All these would apply to us, if we have a similar tendency as that of the
wicked tenants. We are living in a time, in a scenario where unaccountability
is seriously addressed, whether the person is a leader in high position or an
ordinary citizen. If you persist to be unaccountable, what is given to you will
be removed from you and given to another. Although God is merciful,
compassionate, lenient, at the same time, He also never fails to be a serious
judge like our judicial system which is sometimes strict in keeping to the law.
In our lives, when others turn unaccountable to us,
we become quickly furious and it is indigestible to us. If that is the case
with human relations, how then we can expect God to be still patient with our
unaccountable nature and actions. Jesus used parables like parable of the
prodigal son, parable of the lost coin, parable of the lost sheep, and parable
of the vineyard workers, to bring out the merciful, compassionate, kind nature
of God. But also Jesus did not fail to strongly record that God will not be
forever patient with our unbecoming acts. And this message is strongly brought
out by Jesus in today’s gospel.
We have ample examples from the Old Testament to
show that the same God, who was kind to the cry of the people of Israel when
they were under Egyptian slavery, did not also spare anybody who intentionally
went against Him. Moses, who was chosen to lead the people of Israel into the
promised land of Canaan, due to his unfaith at a moment, was denied to enter
into the land of Canaan. Saul, who was chosen by God to be the first king of
Israel, had to encounter death by his own soldier due to his disloyalty to the
Lord’s ways. King David was gloriously chosen to succeed Saul, due to his
sustained personal sins had to experience the pain of the loss of his first
born Absalom who was hanging between heaven and earth (Cf. 2Sam 18:9). Even
after many pleadings of Abraham, God did not spare Sodom and Gomorrah. No one
will be spared from the sight of the Lord, if they do not repent and continue
to give justifications for their disloyal acts.
We need to have a balanced view about the nature of
God who is both merciful and a righteous judge. The nature of God cannot be
fixed to one of these two extremes. His mercy will be upon those who begin to
repent and ready to make up for their faults. Zacchaeus, the chief tax
collector stand as a model for us. He not only repented but undid what he
unjustly procured. The temporal powers we hold are nothing when compared to the
majestic omnipotence of God. The wicked tenants failed to realize this. Often
we are hypnotized and mesmerized by the temporal powers thinking that they
would guard us till the last. But it will not because they do not have the
internal sustainability in itself in comparison to the vast spiritual power.
Let us not intentionally continue to test the patience of God anymore!
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