In this Gospel lesson, the Lord is trying to open up the eyes of His audience, to help them understand that He is the Son of God, and that the natural way to receive Him is with repentance and gratitude.  He does this through a parable and scriptural interpretation. 

"The landowner established a vineyard, then leased it to those with the ability to run it, and went to a far country."  The landowner here is God the Father.  The vineyard can be thought of as Israel, a people set apart.  The people that he leased the vineyard to can be thought of as the leaders of Israel, empowered with the tending and growth of Israel.  The “far country” shows that God has given the stewards of His creation free will.  The stewards are not micro-managed automatons or slaves, but people empowered with the abilities and resources for successfully implementing God’s will.  His will in this parable is that vinedressers tend the vines and offer its fruit back to the owner – after all, the deal is described as a “lease”, which means that God remains sovereign and that the vinedressers owe Him rent.  The meaning is that the leaders of Israel were to lead them into a deeper and stronger relationship to God; to grow them spiritually as a vinedresser grows grapes physically.

But what did these stewards do when the landowner sent his servants in order to receive the fruit?  The proper thing to do would have been to show the servants hospitality and to give them the Master’s share.  And they should do this not just because of the letter of the contract that they entered into with the landowner, but out of gratitude to him for allowing them to benefit from His vineyard.  But they do not show the landowner gratitude.  They do not offer hospitality to his servants.  They do not even live up to their part of contract.  Instead, they beat and kill the landowner’s servants and refuse to send the landowner his due.  So he sends more, hoping to soften their hearts, but they do the same to them.  Then he sends his own son, the ultimate sign of his power and authority.  At this point they could (and should) have seen their folly, repented, and given to the son all that was due his father.  But instead, they kill him as well. 

The patristic interpretation here is clear: the Lord sent prophets to Israel in order to gather them closer to Him, but the leaders of Israel rejected and killed them.  When He sent more, they did the same.  Then when He sent His own Son, the obvious sign of His authority, who told them to recognize their folly, repent, and give to the Son all that was due His Father, they rejected Him, humiliated Him, and killed Him.

As in the parable, the Lord has now given the vineyard over to new stewards, with the expectation that they will “render to him the fruits in their seasons”:  He has created the Holy Orthodox Church (the "New Israel"), and appointed bishops, saints, and councils to tend it.

Christ’s audience knew what Christ was warning them about with this parable.  He did not build this parable from scratch, but relied on descriptions of Israel as a vineyard from the prophet Isaiah, something all of them would have immediately understood.  And just to leave no doubt as to His intent, he punctuated the parable with another bit of scripture (this time from the Psalms), saying “the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.  This was the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes?” 

In so doing, Christ was giving the Jews every opportunity He could to get them to repent and accept Him as the Messiah, the Son of God.  But rather than being grateful for this opportunity and accepting it; they, like the vinedressers in the parable, rejected Him and killed Him.

Can you imagine anything worse than this kind of ingratitude?  But as difficult as this story is, it does not end here.  I have told you before that the rule of thumb for understanding such lessons is for us to put ourselves in the place of the Jews.

God had given us His Creation to tend.  He has given us all the tools and abilities to tend it well.  All that He asks is that we gratefully offer up its firstfruits to Him.  Are we doing any better than those whose place we took?  Are we living up to our part of the deal?  

Looking around at this world, I have to say that we are failing in our task.  We are doing our very best to turn a beautiful vineyard into a garden of weeds. 

More importantly, Christ is in our midst, just as He was with the vinedressers in the parable and with the Jews in real life.  And while we (may or) may not kill Him, we do something that may well be worse: we ignore Him.  The vinedressers in the parable at least recognized the son for what he was (the heir and representative of the landowner); the Jews who met Christ conspired to kill Him because they recognized the dangerous potential of His message.  But we, in our complete ingratitude and selfishness, do not even acknowledge that He is here, much less that we owe Him anything.

We act as if we created this vineyard ourselves, as if we – its laborers with God-given tools and abilities – were naturally due all of its fruit.  [You know, we react in horror at the ingratitude of children who completely ignore the role that good parents play in lovingly setting them up for a successful life.  But how often do we behave like ungrateful children as we go about our own lives?]

Christ is in our midst.  As a Church, we turn to Him first in repentance for not putting Him first, then in gratitude and thanksgiving for His mercy and love for us (the word “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving”, and it is the very center of our lives).

You have accepted Christ, He is with You.  Please, do not kill Him.  Please, do not ignore Him.  Be a good host to Your master.  Offer Him His due.  Not only is this “meet and right”, He takes these offerings and – like the bread and wine this morning – gives them back for our own salvation.