Who are those tenants?

If we are standing outside this parable glaring at those cruel tenants who deserve what is coming to them then we have missed Jesus’ point entirely (Matt 21:33-43).  Indeed those tenants who kill the landlord’s son aren’t worth sympathy. But then we realise we are the tenants Jesus is really addressing. Like those parable tenants, God, our Master, has given us each and collectively a vineyard to look after and everything we need to make it prosper. Our families, our communities, our workplaces and schools, our parish, our environment are all parts of our vineyard and, before we protest the comparison with the tenants in the parable, we need to consider how we have done tending our vineyard.

We have everything we need and much of what we want. How have we employed the gifts he has given us? Have we used those gifts to prosper the vineyard or have we horded them to our own self-indulgent ends?

God has given us Jesus and in him the promise of eternal life but, if we are so inclined, we can ignore him, cast him out, attempt to kill him in our lives and the lives of those in our vineyards. Our moral laziness and cowardice can reduce him to a practical irrelevance in our lives and the lives of others; our callous meanness can banish him from our hearts and we can flagrantly and pro-actively disobey his law.

Instead, we are called to live our mission in the vineyard with resilience, joy and hope including regular prayer and joining our church community in worship but also Christian outreach to family, friends and particularly the lonely and vulnerable. A simple smile to a stranger can go a long way. We need to be tenants who lovingly tend the vineyard we encounter; open to the Son who is present in every aspect of our lives.

Deacon Mark Kelly