From the Daily Lectionary for Tuesday in the First Week of Advent
Luke 20:9-18
The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, and leased it to tenants, and went to another country for a long time. When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants in order that they might give him his share of the produce of the vineyard; but the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Next he sent another slave; that one also they beat and insulted and sent away empty-handed. And he sent yet a third; this one also they wounded and threw out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the tenants saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Heaven forbid!” But he looked at them and said, “What then does this text mean:
“’The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’?
“Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
The traditional interpretation of this parable goes as follows: The vineyard owner is God who expects his servants to be productive in his vineyard. The servants decide to reap the profits of the vineyard for themselves, and they rough up the owner’s emissaries when they come to collect the profit. The owner then sends his “beloved son” whom they kill. The son is Jesus, of course. The owner/God then seeks vengeance and kills the slaves, and leases the vineyard to others. It’s hard to argue with such an interpretation. But we know by now that parables often have multiple meanings that run contrary to conventional wisdom.
You’ll remember that Luke in the prologue of his Gospel calls for a dramatic reversal of the socioeconomic system: “the rich are sent away empty, while the poor are filled with good things.” This parable is a snapshot I think of the system. Land was given to vassals in cahoots with the empire. Many of these land-owners were absentee. They were nobles from other parts of the empire given tribute for their complicity to the elite hierarchy. Locals were hired at a menial wage to secure the income from the lands benefiting, in essence, well-to-do foreigners.
Luke is condemning the system here. That is consistent with his overall narrative. The system is unjust, coercive, and often leads to violence. It is a rigid, top-down social and economic structure benefiting only an elite few on the backs of the many. Certainly Luke is not condoning the behavior of the slaves, but he is depicting how such a system breeds distrust, envy, despair, and violence. The system is “the stone the builders rejected,” and it will crush those who are subject to it. According to the teachings of Jesus, God is in fact not vengeful… but the system is. God is forgiving and gives life; God raises up the poor and the disenfranchised. The system crushes those who dare to stand against it. Some things never change.
I take this as a teaching on how to understand the violence among our poor, not that they are justified in committing acts of violence, but that the burden of the system evokes in them anger and despair and destructive behavior. There would have been a far different outcome to this story if the landowner had agreed to share the profits with his servants.
Perhaps the lesson in this is that punishment is not necessarily the proper means to deal with violence in our world. Perhaps the remedy is justice.
A Prayer for Commerce and Industry (BCP p. 259)
O God, whose Son Jesus Christ in his earthly life shared our toil and hallowed our labor: be present with your people where they work; make those who carry on the industries and commerce of this land responsive to your will; and give us all pride in what we do, and a just return for our labor; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
