The Vineyard and the Jews

 

Hear ye another parable. There was a man, a householder, who planted a vineyard, and made a hedge round about it, and dug in it a press, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen; and went into a strange country.
34 And when the time of the fruits drew nigh, he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits thereof.
35 And the husbandmen laying hands on his servants, beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.
36 Again he sent other servants more than the former; and they did to them in like manner.
37 And last of all he sent to them his son, saying: They will reverence my son.
38 But the husbandmen seeing the son, said among themselves: This is the heir: come, let us kill him, and we shall have his inheritance.
39 And taking him, they cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him.
40 When therefore the lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do to those husbandmen?
41 They say to him: He will bring those evil men to an evil end; and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, that shall render him the fruit in due season.
42 Jesus saith to them: Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? By the Lord this has been done; and it is wonderful in our eyes.
43 Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof.

This passage, the gospel reading at last Sunday’s mass, is commonly taken to mean the the covenant with the Jews has been replaced by the Christian covenant; that Jesus is rejecting Judaism. Last Sunday’s sermons might have suggested as much.

I don’t think this is a plausible reading. To begin with, Jesus quotes several lines from Psalm 118:

“The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
the LORD has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our sight.”

It therefore seems significant that this Psalm begins with

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    his love endures forever.
2 Let Israel say:
    ‘His love endures forever.’
3 Let the house of Aaron say:
    ‘His love endures forever.’
4 Let those who fear the Lord say:
    ‘His love endures forever.‘”

A repeated promise that God will never abandon the Jews—or the priests, the house of Aaron.

Moreover, it follows that, if the stone that the builders rejected has become the corner stone, the temple and the builders of the temple—the Jews—must still be in the picture. It must be them raising the stone to its position.

Moreover, Jesus is, after all, quoting from the Hebrew scriptures as authoritative.

Accordingly, it is only those, gentile or Jew, who reject and do not repent of their rejection of this stone who shall lose the kingdom of heaven:

“Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

Anyone.

What is the stone? Not Jesus. For in the parable, the rejection is not only of the son of the vineyard owner, but also of the servants and messengers—the prophets. All prophets.

The stone might better represent the stone tablets of Moses on which the law was inscribed. It is the law and lawfulness, divine justice, that is rejected.

Those who will lose the kingdom of heaven are any, Jew, Christian, Muslim, or none of the above, who reject God’s rightful dues, however he sends for it: through Moses, through the Hebrew prophets, through the prophet Muhammed, through Krishna, or through the gospel and the Christ.