Parable of wicked tenants

Reflection on "Parable of wicked tenants"

Synopsis:- (Mt. 21:33-46; Mk. 12:1-12; Lk. 20:9-19)
> Landowner plants vineyard, puts fence, digs wine press and built a watch-tower.
> Leases to tenants and goes to other country
> At harvest, landowner sends slaves and tenants beat them
> He sends more slaves, but they beat them too 
Finally, sends his beloved son, but they kill him to inherit his inheritance
> Jesus poses a question to the audience, "what will the landowner do?"
> They reply that he would beat those wretches to miserable death, and lease it to others to produce harvest
> Jesus replies through a quote from Psalm, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes"?
> Therefore, Kingdom of God will be given to people who will produce fruits

Reflection:-

This was the parable I was supposed to meditate and preach to the youth and the Holy Spirit did not fail to mesmerize me with wonderful revelations.

The identity of the landowner is given in the book of Isaiah

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting;

Isaiah 5:7a NRSV

Remove the word "Israel" and write your name there. We find a similar parable in the same chapter of Isaiah too.

He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

Isaiah 5:2 NRSV

The landowner i.e. God has done everything possible for us to grow in the righteousness. He blessed us with His Holy Scriptures, Sacraments, Church, priests, etc. To keep us safe, He has also placed Guardian Angel incharge of us. 

What would a watchtower in this passage mean? As for me, a watchtower would be the list of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit i.e. 

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Galatians 5:22‭-‬23a NRSV

Even our new Pastoral theme for the year can act as a watchtower for us where we stand and reflect on it. A real spiritual growth will take place only when you sit down and meditate on your life. Why am I into existence? What's my purpose here on Earth? What's the significance of all the rituals that I do?

What's harvest time? Harvest time would be when you really executive the things you've learned from the retreats, prayer meetings, etc. and not just merely sitting for retreats. My harvest time would be when, these blogs brings a certain tangible change in your lives. Harvest time could also mean the end point of your worldly timeline where we will be judged according to our doings.

Here, the tenants were the prophets which the Lord had sent in the Old Testament. The very fact that the landowner kept on sending slaves after slaves and then ultimately his son, shows us the tender love, mercy and hope of conversion from bad to good.

What would your reply be if you were the landowner and the tenants kills your slaves and only son? (Write them down in the comments section)

But Jesus' reply to this was really fascinating. “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’? Matthew 21:42 NRSV

Read the last line in bold once again. Does it strike you of anything???!! 

Yes! The whole redemption mission of God!

Now, if Jesus is so happy in sacrificing His life for the sake of our sins, so that we came finally be righteous in God's sight then, why are we still with dull and gloomy faces? Rejoice and be glad!

Abide in Christ! And know that He is already abiding in you! (Jn 15:4); fall in love with the Bible and meditate on at least one scripture, receive Sacraments regularly and love all the more❤

Praise God❤