First Reading: (Is 5:1-7). Israel is compared to a well cared for vineyard which fails to produce fruit.

Second Reading: (Phil 4:6-9). St Paul warns the converts at Philippi against anxiety, and advises them as to how they should live in order to enjoy the peace of God.

Gospel: (Mt 21:33-43). The parable of the vine-dressers tells of God’s goodness to his people, and of their failure to respond in kind.

History is littered with stories of good tenants and wicked landlords. In the Gospel we have a story of wicked tenants and a good landlord. The parable is an allegory of God’s dealings with his people. The landowner is God. The vineyard is Israel. The wicked tenants are the people of Israel, but more especially the religious leaders who had been given charge of the vineyard by God. The servants are the prophets sent by God and so often rejected and killed. The son is Jesus himself whom they killed.

Like the parable of the two sons, this parable was directed at the chief priests and elders. It was meant as a warning, but it went unheeded. The tenants came to a bad end, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Gentiles now joined the Jews as God’s people. All this would have been clear to Matthew’s readers.

We too as individual disciples and as a parish are called to produce the fruit of the kingdom of God.