This is a harsh parable in its telling and in its interpretation! As we hear it told by Matthew (written around the year 80 A.D.), it has been seen as an allegory about church membership and about the history of the people of Israel. It has been interpreted as the Jewish people being rejected by God and the Gentiles becoming the chosen ones. This has caused much persecution of the Jewish people by Christian people over the centuries. The history of Western Europe is replete with tales of such unjust treatment and policies.

Matthew was probably speaking to the church of his day and addressing the issues with which they were grappling.  

At the time, the Jewish revolt followed by the Roman siege and the destruction of the temple had resulted in over a million people being killed.  For centuries, Judaism had been centered in the temple. Now, Judaism needed to find a new center for its practice. The rabbis who survived the destruction of the temple met in council (at a town called Jannia) to address this dilemma. It is reported that they made some decisions that drastically affected the fledgling Christian communities when they stated that the followers of Jesus were not a valid Jewish sect. That seems to have set up a polarization between the two religious groups. Perhaps Matthew was reacting to that decision?

Now, in the historical context of Matthew’s gospel, this raises the question of who, now, are the chosen of God.  The answer Matthew seems to be giving was “not the Jews – at least not those Jews who have not become Christian….”

Rather than probing further into the historical context and the allegorical meaning of this parable, I want to look more closely at the two questions that are asked by Jesus in this gospel and then, leave you with a question - Who are the people of God today?

First, the two questions asked by Jesus. 

In the first, after telling the story, Jesus asks the chief priests and the elders, "What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?"

They answer, "He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants."

In other words, he will render violence to them for the violence they have done.

How effective is that approach?

• Does the killing of people through the death penalty stop the increasing amount of murder in our country?
• Does the sale of arms and the exercise of military force bring about peace?
• When another person speaks rudely to you, does it really solve anything to respond with equal rudeness?
• Does the possession of guns in homes really promote safety?
• Do revenge or thoughts of revenge ever fit into gospel living?

Non-violence is the way of the actions of Jesus in the gospel (seen most clearly in the gospel of Luke and in the Acts of the Apostles).

“We will match your capacity to enforce suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We wil meet your physical force with soul force. We will so wear you down by our capacity to suffer. And, in winning our freedom we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process.”  (Martin Luther King as quoted in Tom Cordaro To Wake the Nation)

In 1986, the Catholic bishops of the Philippines denounced the Marcos regime and challenged the Filipino people to wage a nonviolent war by saying:

“The way indicated to us now is the way of nonviolent struggle for justice.”

Marcos was deposed. The evils of the regime persist in insidious ways in that country. The Filipino resistance movement continues to this day.

In our best understanding of the Christian tradition, violence is to be counteracted by non-violence. That, of course has not always been the practice in our history.  It is the example of Jesus.

Jesus, according to Matthew, counteracts their response with still another question, that is at least as ambiguous as any parable in the gospel:

" Did you never read in the Scriptures?
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By God has this been done
And it is wonderful in our eyes."

This passage quoted by Jesus has three possible references:

• The Isaiah passage we heard in the first reading,
• Psalm 118 in a section that may actually refer to a royal procession to the temple in Jerusalem,
• Daniel (2:34, 44-45) which is set in the context of conflict among four kingdoms

Whatever the reference, scholars seem to agree that the cornerstone refers here to the people of God.  Jesus seems to be saying – “don’t be so sure that you know who will be the cornerstone!”  There may be surprises in store.

We might ask ourselves and our world:

• Who are those “rejected by the builders” in today’s society?  Could it be some very unexpected reality? Remember the bishops at Medillin, Columbia who articulated so eloquently the church’s preferential option for those who are poor?
• What is an unpopular opinion rejected by most people that might indeed be a cornerstone for the building up of the kindom of God?
• Are there people who are being rejected in our lives, who might, indeed, become the cornerstone of the future?

These are questions we could ask of our church, our country, our community, and ourselves.

Those upon whom the kindom of God is being built are not necessarily those we see in princely robes nor those who are ordinarily publicly recognized as the chosen of God.

The hearing of this question today might lead us to look at the question I posed in the beginning – Who are the people of God today?  

Some of our leaders seem to be narrow in their response and others see things more broadly.

We are not the church of the 1st century. Our vision of God is different from that of the 1st century. In the context of the new cosmology in which we reflected on our sense of the spiritual and of God during retreat this past summer, we might think about how we would answer that question of who are the people of God today.

The practice of Lectio leads us to a dialogue with the words of the Scriptures and the realities of our own lives.

I simply suggest that the two questions asked by Jesus in today’s gospel could be a fruitful focus for our reflection:

What would you say the owner in the parable should do with those tenants?

Did you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone that the builders rejected
Has become the cornerstone;
By God has this been done,
And it is wonderful in our eyes?