Monday in the Ninth Week of Ordinary Time, June 5, 2023

Mark 12, 1-12

Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey. At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant. And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully. He sent yet another whom they killed. So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed. He had one other to send, a beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, put the tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture passage: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?”  They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them. So they left him and went away.

“Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders in parables.”  This Reading should be understood within the context of St. Mark’s account of the cursing of the fig tree: the Lord found no figs on the tree when he looked for them and he cursed it so that it would never bear fruit again.  This was a public sign of the Lord putting an end to the teaching of the Pharisees and an end to the priesthood, which he also signified by driving out of the Temple courtyard the animals being sold for the sacrifices.  The parables he now tells rebuke the Jewish authorities for their corruption and indicate their fate should they not repent.  

“A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower.”  The man puts a great amount of work and expense into making his vineyard a success.  He does everything right.  He planted the vines and helped them grow.  If he raised the vine from seeds it would take years for it to reach the point where it would begin to produce grapes.  The hedge would also have to be planted and taken care of.  Its purpose was to protect the vines from harsh weather and also from predators.  The tower housed the workers who would pick the grapes at harvest time.  From the fact of the vineyard having a tower we can know that this was a sizable vineyard.  The wine press was used, of course, for pressing the grapes.  Grapes in the Ancient Middle East were primarily used for wine as they did not possess much size or sweetness.  The vineyard represents God’s people; the hedge is the Law; the wine press is the altar in the Temple; and the tower is the Temple. “Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey.” The tenants signify the priests of the Temple, and also the Pharisees and the elders.  The man who owns the vineyard and leases it is God.  God is said to “go on a journey” in the sense that he allows the “tenants” to exercise their free will in their care of the vineyard.  God involves us in his work of the salvation of the world as a sign of his power and also so that through it we might be saved.

“At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard.”  The servant represents the owner in an official capacity.  The tenants were to treat him as though he were the owner himself.  The servants the owner sends are the Prophets, and the “produce” they were to bring back to the owner was the obedience of his people.  “But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.”  The tenants do not stop at refusing to deliver the produce, but beat the servant sent to receive it.  The tenants — the Jewish leaders — treated all the Prophets this way: “You are the sons of them that killed the Prophets” (Matthew 23, 31).  The Lord does not ascribe a motive for this behavior.  He simply lets the horror of it sink in.  The beatings, the murders are unprovoked and apparently acts of sadism.  

“They will respect my son.”  This strikes us as all the more horrific because we know what will happen even when the Father naively believes his son will fare better than the servants.  His son goes obediently, knowing he will be killed.  “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.”  Here the Lord provides the motivation for the tenants to kill the son: they think they will gain the vineyard.  But they prove themselves more naive than even the father.  They mistake the father’s patience and forbearance for weakness, and they also seem ignorant of the laws of inheritance.  “They seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard”, but that is not the end, for the father “will come, put the tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others.”  The son is the Son of God the Father.  He is “beloved” and completely obedient to the Father.  The Father is not naive or weak but indeed he is merciful and patient.  So much so that he seems to hold the wicked tenants dearer than his servants the Prophets and his own Son.  This shows us how dearly the Lord holds us. And how many chances he gives us.  It also shows how the Jewish leaders behaved with the Prophets and how they would act with the Son: in a way which borders on madness.  The tenants in the parable do not gain much by killing the servants and only bring down predictable disaster on themselves by killing the son of the owner.  In the same way, the Jewish leaders would have lost nothing by heeding the Prophets and repenting, and taking stock of what Jesus said and did and coming to a rational conclusion: that he was who he claimed to be, the Son of God.

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.”  Jesus told the parable and quotes the Psalm knowing that the Jewish leaders know that he is speaking of them as the wicked tenants and as the rejecting builders.  Jesus makes it plain to them that from that they have lost their relevance by rejecting the cornerstone and that they face eternal death at their judgment.  But they do not repent.  The miracles that underscore his authority and his claims mean nothing to them.  

“They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them.”  Just as they feared the crowd when the Lord asked them whether John the Baptist’s vocation had its origin in heaven or from men, so here the Jewish leaders think only of their safety.  They do not think of their salvation.  “So they left him and went away.”  They left the one who would have saved them.