They Shoot the Messenger...Don't They?

 Matthew 21.33-46

‘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.’ 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.

 

There is a hard question facing us in this week's Gospel: Are we a people who are producing the fruits of the Kingdom?

There are two ways to look at this question. We could ponder on it from a personal point of view, examining ourselves to see if our lives are producing good fruit, an exercise we should all engage in regularly. The other more difficult approach to this question is asking ourselves and one another whether our faith community is producing the fruits of the Kingdom. Is there any danger of God taking our vineyard away and giving it to those who will produce those fruits? 

 

Nah. God doesn't do that anymore. Does he?

He may not confiscate vineyards anymore but there's no doubt that innumerable vineyards have experienced the pain of seeing their vines wither and die. Many of us have belonged to or heard of parishes that were blooming with good fruitful life but then ran into conflicts, challenges and problems with the leadership or with groups of people within the community. Different factions drew their lines and established their territories.  Anger spread like wildfire. There were hurtful divisions and wounds that festered. There were those who walked out in despair and those who grimly stayed to fight on. Once this happens to a community, it takes a long time to heal and once again become healthy and fruit-bearing. No matter where you live, it's not difficult to find a faith community that has gone through the wars. These communities need God to send them a prophet to lead them to conversion and healing - and the people will only experience conversion if they are ready to listen. It's not easy to hear a prophet point out that your vineyard is no longer productive.

An anointed prophet does not come to just point out all the wrong attitudes, all the hypocrisies and all the traps people have fallen into; the anointed prophet will also re-awaken people to the amazing love of God. The prophet points to the withered vines and asks the people, “Will you not put down your swords and pick up the tools of your calling so that once again you will be fruit bearing people?” The prophet reminds the hearts of the people of what it felt like when they were tenants in a loving and healthy relationship with the landowner. The prophet will also recognize the smallest glimmer of life still within the vines and, with God, nurture this fragile life back to full health.

If the people don't want to hear and be healed or nurtured then prophets are usually killed. Sometimes they are killed by indifference and sometimes by the swords of angry confrontation and defensive criticism. In that case, even the Son's presence does little to soften the soil of the hardened hearts so that the vineyard can become a land of abundant harvests where the tenants actively seek the landowner, are able to recognize him and will openly welcome him. God no longer angrily abandons his people but he won't force his way into a vineyard that has stopped seeking him.

In Jesus' parable, the tenants kill the landowner's son, reasoning that maybe they will inherit the land. What? How can they think that they will inherit the land from the landowner after killing the landowner's prophets and his son? At that time, it was Jewish law that after someone had settled and worked a piece of land for three years, they owned the land. Kind of like squatter's rights. Perhaps when the landowner was an absentee landlord, the tenants were tempted to feel it wasn't fair for the landowner to claim a share of the produce when they were doing all the work, dealing with all the problems and making all the decisions. If they could just thwart the landowner's attempts to collect his due for three years, they could claim the land as their own.

It is a subtle but common situation within faith communities for the people to become possessive of their vineyard. It's an easy slide from an attitude of healthy responsibility, working the land and producing good fruit for the Landowner to an unhealthy attitude of personal possession: “This is our community, our group, our program, our fruit...” The longer one has worked in the faith community, the more tempting it is to feel that one has earned the rights of ownership. Within the healthy attitude, there is simply gratitude for good provision received: safe shelter, abundant food and the warmth of communal life. There is always an awareness that the land is not their own and that they must always consult with the landowner and his Son before they make decisions. In the unhealthy attitude, the understanding that the land does not belong to the community is completely lost or ignored. They feel that it is theirs, that they are the ones who have built it up into a productive vineyard and that they have a right to form it into their own image. This possessiveness creates defensive stances and tendencies to attack anything or anyone who seems to threaten their right of possession or threaten the communal identity. Sometimes this leads to a community that is spending far more time in defensive positioning than in tending and producing a good crop. 

Every faith community, whether it's a parish, a religious order, a diocese or a smaller group within any of those larger communities, needs to be aware of the trap of pride of ownership and of the desire to defend their prized possession. If they don't watch out, they will discover that the barriers they build to protect themselves are not only keeping out threats against their established ways of doing things but are also keeping out the Landowner, his prophets and his Son. If that is the case, God will hand over the privilege of producing his fruit to other communities, ones that have not been destructively divided against themselves or have not taken prideful possession of the Landowner's property while building walls and arming themselves against the prophets God sends.

A prophet is not just one who has strong opinions about what's wrong and no qualms about expressing these opinions to anyone who'll stop for minute to listen. A Prophet is one who, like Isaiah and Christ, experiences a powerful conviction that floods up from the innermost being and one who says, along with Isaiah and Christ,

"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;"

Now, listen closely to all that the Lord requires the anointed prophet to do:

"He has sent me to bring good news to the poor,
to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.

Then they (the prophets and the people) will be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.
They shall build up the ancient ruins,
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.

May the Lord raise up many prophets for our wounded communities. 

May they not be killed.