The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time
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Isaiah 5:1-7
Isaiah I: shape up or else; exile is coming 1-39
Isaiah II: Book of Consolation, comfort in captivity 40-55 Deutero Isaiah (suffering servant songs)
Isaiah III: going home 56-66 Trito Isaiah; struggle for a new temple and new leadership
Today’s passage is a story centered in a vineyard. Vineyards were very common in the ancient world but the process of getting from soil to wine was laborious and it took years to establish a productive vineyard.
There is a rhetorical technique going on here: at first, the identity of the characters is not evident and only gradually does the audience realize it is they themselves who are being rebuked. See 2 Samuel 12:1-12 for another great example of this. This technique is designed to draw in the listeners and get them invested in the story so that, in the end, they cannot easily refute the criticism leveled at them.
Verse 1 speaks of a friend, which could also be translated “beloved.” This reminds us of the Song of Songs. Except, perhaps, this one is a Song of unrequited love.
The last phrase in verse 2 turns a happy little song about idyllic country life into a picture of ruin and devastation. At this point the audience is firmly on the side of the vineyard owner; perhaps they are feeling the owner’s pain at having invested so much time and gotten nothing in return.
Verse 3 turns the tables on the listeners. God asks what more he could have done. He did everything for his people and they consistently chose themselves over God. But he tried over and over and over again. Think about the whole Exodus story – he frees them from slavery, he feeds them miraculously. And then Moses goes up the mountain and what do they do? They build a golden calf to worship. So the history of their choosing is long and sordid.
In the rest of the passage, God pronounces judgment. Remember, this passage is from the first part of Isaiah which is predicting exile. God is going to allow them to be overrun. Not only that, but in verse 6 God will make the country a ruin so that nothing even can grow there.
In verse 7 he specifically equates the vineyard to the house of Israel, lest the people think it’s judgment on some foreign oppressor. Even here, though, God calls them “the people of Judah, his cherished plant.” Even as he’s pronouncing judgment, God cherishes his people.
Think about something you’ve spent a long time cultivating only to see it not turn out as you had hoped. What feelings arise from that? How can those feelings help you understand God’s feelings when we do not choose as God would hope?
Matthew 21:33-43
During Ordinary Time, I’ll cover the Old Testament and then the Gospel readings as a pair so that we can better see the connections.
Chps 19-22 is “Authority and Invitation.” This is our third week in this section and we still have three more weeks after this. This is an important section.
In today’s reading, Jesus turns a magnifying glass on religious leaders with power and looks at how they use that power. The passage is an allegory of God’s work in the whole of salvation history.
Unlike recent weeks, this parable exists in all the Synoptics. And they all draw on the imagery laid out in Isaiah 5.
Verse 33 starts out very similar to Isaiah: the owner puts in a lot of work to prepare the vineyard. The difference in this story is that the landowner then rents it out. This was a common system where the rent would be paid as a percentage of the harvest. In fact, the bulk of the profits would go to the absentee owner who had born the expense and risk of establishing the vineyard.
A more literal rendition of the beginning of verse 34 would be “when drew near the season (kairos) of the fruits.” By using the word “kairos,” we’re clued in that what we are talking about is not chronological time but rather God’s time and also the end of time.
In verses 35-36 we see the tenants mistreating the representatives of the absent owner. This calls to mind Israel’s response to the judges and prophets that God set over them in the past.
Verse 37 gives the twist of the parable. Ancient audiences would have expected the landowner to take action against the tenants far sooner and would have seen the sending of a son as naively generous and/or naive stupidity!
Pay attention to the image of God presented here! This is not a punishing God, ready to strike at the least little infraction. This is a patient God, giving chance after chance after chance.
Do you find verse 38 an interesting reaction? How can they equate killing the heir with getting the inheritance? Because they think the only reason the heir would show up is if the father is dead and the heir has come to claim what is his. It was common in contracts of this sort to name the current tenants as heirs in the absence of any other heirs, akin to “squatter’s rights.”
Verse 39 describes the same sequence of events as Jesus’ crucifixion. It’s interesting to read this verse in the first written gospel Mark 12:8. There is a different order there. Perhaps Matthew modified the sequence to match what actually happened.
In verse 40 Jesus poses the question of what the owner will do to the tenants. Back in verse 23, Matthew let us know that the audience is made up of the chief priests and elders with whom Jesus is sparing. In verse 41 they give a good answer: that the owner should do to the tenants what the tenants did to the son. Jesus has successfully pulled them into the story and won them over to his point of view, for the story at least.
In verse 42 Jesus flips the tables. His response is very insulting. These are the experts in the scriptures and Jesus (an uneducated man from a backwater town) is asking if they somehow missed reading this part of Psalm 118:22-23. Of course they are Bible scholars at the top of their game – they know the scriptures inside and out. Jesus is also saying at another level: maybe you have indeed read this but you’ve failed to interpret it properly. He challenges their interpretation, their authority, and their honor.
In verse 43 Jesus uses a verb form for action that is currently taking place. The kingdom is already being given to others and these other people are already producing the fruit. Back in the last parable he named these people – the sinners, the tax collectors, the prostitutes. Jesus said they are the ones who listened. And they are the ones already producing the fruit.
Verses 44-46 are not in today’s reading but they show that the audience “gets” Jesus’ insult. These verses are read some years for Lent – at times we all have to realize that Jesus is speaking about us and our sin and we have to grapple with that.
In Isaiah it’s the fruit that is bad. Here the fruit is good but the tenants refuse to give the owner his due. They fail to recognize God’s authority.
In Isaiah the whole vineyard is destroyed. Here the vineyard remains intact but it is given over to other leadership, to the leaders who produce the good fruit.
Matthew’s community was primarily Jewish. And throughout, Matthew is seeking to show how Jesus is a fulfillment of the Jewish scriptures, of Judaism itself. Matthew wants to make the point that Judaism is not replaced – the vineyard is intact. Christianity is a continuation of Judaism rather than a whole new religion. But the leadership of this new way of worship is turned over to those who recognize the kingdom and live within it and produce fruit in it, and that might not necessarily be the Jews.
Spend some time thinking about the fruits your life has produced. What cultivation has allowed the time and space for those fruits to grow? How are you actively cultivating and harvesting?
Old Testament / Gospel Connection
How are the Old Testament and Gospel readings connected? Each week I will offer my views on this but I encourage you to first read the passages and look for your own connections!
The Old Testament/Gospel connection can sometimes be challenging to find. This one seems obvious but remember that there are differences and sometimes it’s the differences that can be most instructive.
Philippians 4:6-9
See background on this book here.
Many scholars see the letter of Philippians to be a compendium of at least three different letters. Verses 6-7 is thought to be the conclusion to one of them and verses 8-9 the conclusion to another.
Verse 6 begins with quite a challenge: have no anxiety. None at all. This feels like one of the most concretely demanding commands from Paul.
The Greek word anxiety (merimnáō) comes from a root which means “a part as opposed to the whole.” Figuratively it means “to go to pieces” because one is pulled apart in different directions. The opposite of anxiety is “effectively distributing concern, in proper relation to the whole picture.”
If we know that Christ is Lord of all, including the wind and the waves, then something like a storm can be properly placed in balance – we can respond to it as something under God’s control. If we don’t look at it in that bigger picture, then the storm becomes the only thing we look at. We become anxious: pulled in many directions because we are looking at only a part.
Last week, in his pursuit of unity, Paul encouraged the church to be one in focus, one in soul, not divided. Worry can be divisive because it is an outward and visible sign of the inward condition of not fully trusting God and God’s provident care.
Paul suggests that the alternative to worry is prayer. Specifically, thankful prayer for ourselves and for others.
What happens when we are able to keep the bigger picture through prayer? Verse 7 says that this outlook brings a peace that surpasses all understanding. Since the Age of Enlightenment, humanity has pursued understanding. We think we can understand and explain everything around us and we won’t rest until that’s true. Paul tells us that the kind of peace we seek, peace within the storm, cannot be fully explained or understood.
For Paul, the heart was the core of a person, the center of desire and feeling, while the mind was Paul’s term for the rational thinking self. So “heart and mind” is the whole person.
Paul is speaking here of a peace which comes not from escaping or changing the circumstances. This peace comes from keeping our eyes on the bigger picture and trusting that God is in control.
I love how The Message translation renders these verses:
“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”
So that’s the conclusion to one of Paul’s letters.
Verses 8-9 describe how those who know the peace of God are to live in the world: what they are to think (verse 8) and to do (verse 9).
In Greek and Roman literature and philosophy, “virtue lists” such as verse 8 were very common. Paul is utilizing something from common culture – something the audience could identify with – to make his point.
None of these virtues is specifically Christian, but all were highly commended in Greek philosophy. These traits were respected in the culture:
- True: derived from a word meaning “that which cannot be hidden or concealed”
- Honorable- noble, venerable, dignified, gravitas, worthy of respect
- Just, right, righteousness
- Pure from the word hagios, holy, set apart, chaste; suggests moral as well as ceremonial purity
- Lovely derives from phileo, friend love
- Gracious, admirable, of good repute, appealing
- Excellent, excellence of any kind, such as moral or humanitarian
- Worthy of praise
1-6 are specific virtues while 7-8 are comprehensive or overarching virtues.
Paul tells us to “think about” these: consider, meditate on, mull over, contemplate. Thoughts lead to actions so guard your thoughts! Think about good things which will lead to good actions.
In verse 9 Paul tells them what kind of behavior their good thinking should lead to. Their behavior should be modeled on what they “received.” This is a technical term for what is handed down and received in tradition. Paul uses the same word in 1 Corinthians 11:23 when talking about the Lord’s Supper and 1 Corinthians 15:3 when reciting an early creed. Paul is reminding them of all the oral teaching they have received from him.
In the first “conclusion” Paul says to watch our fundamental stance towards life (prayer and trust rather than scattered anxiety). In the second “conclusion” Paul says to watch what we think about, what we feed our minds on. Both of these approaches have the same result: peace.
We might also try working backwards: is there an area of life where you do not have peace? Examine your approach. Is it full of anxiety and lacking prayer? Or are you focusing your thoughts on all the bad and negative things?
Questions to ponder
What do these readings say about how to live day in and day out as Christians?
Think about something you’ve spent a long time cultivating only to see it not turn out as you had hoped. What feelings arise from that? How can those feelings help you understand God’s feelings when we do not choose as God would hope?
Spend some time thinking about the fruits your life has produced. What cultivation has allowed the time and space for those fruits to grow? How are you actively cultivating and harvesting?
Is there an area of life where you do not have peace? Examine your approach. Is it full of anxiety and lacking prayer? Or are you focusing your thoughts on all the bad and negative things?
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
© 2023 Kelly Sollinger