Today’s gospel which recounts the Parable of the Wicked Tenants presents us with quite a cast of characters. First there is the owner of the vineyard. He has done all the work, planted the vineyard, built a wall around it and basically handed over a pretty good operation to those from whom he expects a share of the profits.
The tenants who have been handed over this operation want more. They act as though it belongs to them. They are unwilling to share anything that comes from the vineyard and when the owner sends his messengers they basically bully them and send them away with nothing.
Finally the owner sends his son thinking that they certainly will respect him. They kill the son with the rationale that if the owner has no heir they will take over the vineyard. The result is they lose the vineyard and it is given to others.
If God is the owner, Jesus the owner’s son, and all of creation the vineyard that God has created that leaves us in the role as tenants. The question is what kind of tennants are we?
Do we act as though all of creation belongs to us and nothing is owed to God? How do we treat the messengers of God who are sent to remind us to give God his due?
Do we treat life as a gift from God or as something that we own and we choose when it begins and when it ends?
The parable points to the temptation that we the tenants are faced with in thinking of God as being far away and unconcerned about how we treat his servants. But the end is rather violent and points to the fact that if we reject the very source of life we cannot survive very long.
The Gospel confronts us with a basic choice, Are we living to die? Is all or our grasping and hording of things going to help us when we are dead? Or as Jesus invites us to take up our cross and follow him, Are we dying to live? In the end there is only one choice that makes sense and it is one that we make daily with every choice we make.
