Guarding the Deposit of Faith and Producing Fruit for the Kingdom
In the parable Jesus taught in our Gospel today (Matt 21:33-43), the landowner gave his vineyard on deposit, so to speak, to the tenants when he went on a journey. As vintage time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants mistreated and killed his servants and finally in exasperation the landowner sent his son thinking they would respect his son. But they also killed his son. Jesus teaches this parable in Matthew after arriving in Jerusalem before his Passion.
We know, and the Pharisees listening to Jesus knew, that Jesus was referring to the prophets of the Old Testament who had been rejected and killed, and Jesus is now predicting his own death. He knows it is the inevitable outcome of his ministry. The crunch line comes at the very end when Jesus says, “Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” (Matt 21:43) We could see this as a reference to the Church in the first century becoming less and less Jewish and more and more Gentile.
The deposit which had been given to the Chosen People would be taken from them because they did not keep it in trust as requested.
(Fr. Tommy Lane)