Working with the Word

Focusing the Gospel

Key words and phrases: Leased it to tenants, kill him, wretched men … wretched death, kingdom of God, taken away, given to

To the point: The “chief priests and elders,” by their own words, align them- selves with the tenants in the parable—these Jewish leaders are unfaithful and ultimately they, too, kill the One God sends into the vineyard. Even more, they seal their own death when they answer Jesus that those violent tenants will be killed. The death of the “chief priests and elders” will be that “the kingdom of God,” the vine of life, will be taken away from them. Those who are faithful and accept the Son receive the Life only God's kingdom can bring. They receive the very Life of God.

Connecting the Gospel …

… to the First Reading: While the “vineyard of the Lord” is the “house of Israel,” God's people are not faithful and so God makes them “a ruin.” In the Gospel those charged with the care of God's vineyard, the “chief priests and elders,” are not faithful and so bring ruin upon themselves.

… to experience: Violence or obstinacy does not lead to life, and all too often they lead to death. To grow in new Life we must attach ourselves to the vine of life and be faithful to the life to which Jesus calls us.

**From Saint Louis University