Monday 6/3/13
When we look at Our Lord’s story in today’s Gospel, we shake
our heads over the terrible behavior of the tenants. We might wonder about two
things. First, we wonder how the tenants could have been so immoral. Secondly,
we wonder how the owner could have hired such terrible tenants without checking
them out.
I got a partial answer to those questions when I sat in on a
Scripture lecture by a Baptist scholar. He explained some Jewish religious laws affecting vineyards.
The Torah forbade the planting of two different crops on the
same land, regarding it as agricultural adultery. However, since a newly
planted vineyard could not produce a vintage for its first four years, during
those years the vinedresser was permitted to plant other crops between the
vines.
The listeners to Our Lord’s parable probably understood it
that way. They understood that the argument between the owner and the tenants
was over who profited from the crops grown between the vines.
Even so, the tenants behaved in a criminal way, as we do
when we live for ourselves rather than as God’s tenants.
1 comment:
Thank you Father. I have often wondered about that particular parable. Your explanation helps. God bless, Theresa Longino
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