HARSH CRISICISM OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS
The parable of the «murderous tenants» is without doubt the harshest that Jesus pronounced against the religious leaders of his people. It’s not easy to go back to the original story, but it probably wasn’t much different from what we can read today in the Gospel tradition.
The protagonists at center stage are undoubtedly the workers charged with working the vineyard. Their actions are sinister. They absolutely don’t appear like the owner who takes care of the vineyard with care and love so that it lacks nothing.
They don’t accept the lord to whom the vineyard belongs. They want to be the only owners. One after another, they go about eliminating the servants that he sends to them with incredible patience. They don’t even respect his son. When he comes, they «throw him outside of the vineyard» and kill him. Their only obsession is «to take over his inheritance».
What can the owner do? Do away with those tenants and hand his vineyard to others «who will deliver the produce». Jesus’ conclusion is tragic: «I tell you then that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit».
Beginning with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the parable was read as a confirmation that the Church has taken over from Israel, but it never was interpreted as if in the “new Israel” the faithfulness to the owner of the vineyard was guaranteed.
God’s reign doesn’t belong to the Church. It doesn’t belong to the hierarchy. It’s not the property of those theologians or of anyone. Its only owner is the Father. No one should feel themselves owner of its truth or its spirit. God’s reign is in «the people who produce its fruits» of justice, compassion and defense of the least.
The greatest tragedy that could happen to Christianity today and at all times is that it kills the voice of the prophets, that the high priests feel themselves owners of the «Lord’s vineyard», and that in the midst of it all, we throw the Son «out», stifling his Spirit. If the Church doesn’t respond to the hopes that her Lord God has placed in her, God will open up new paths of salvation in peoples who produce fruits.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
