The Kingdom Will Be Given to Those Who Produce Fruit

This week, Jesus offers another parable to the chief priests and scribes. The parable offers insight into how the Kingdom of God works. Like many parables, it presents conflict between parties and plays it out with a moral lesson.

In our story today, an authoritative figure owns a vineyard and invests heavily in making the land and plants produce a rich harvest.  The vineyard was leased to tenants with the assumption that both sides would profit from the arrangement. Tenants without capital give their labor instead of money and expect a share of the wealth the vineyard generates.

As the story progresses, we learn that when the owner’s servants came to collect their share of the profits, the representatives met them with violence. The first was beaten, the second was killed, and the third was stoned.  The owner sent other servants, and they met the same fate. Thinking they would respect his son, the vineyard owner sent him. The tenants had a different idea. They surmised they could acquire his inheritance; they killed him as well. Jesus then asked what would happen to those evil tenants. The religious leaders answered that they should kill the evil tenants and hand the vineyard over to new tenants.

The obvious moral lesson for the religious leaders at the time was how they responded to the progression of the Kingdom of God. The prophets who foretold of the new Kingdom were treated poorly by the religious elite, and when the Son of God came, they nailed him to the cross. The chosen people of God rejected the coming of the Kingdom, and the invitation once unique to them was offered to new tenants, or the Gentiles, who would work with gifts to bring about a rich harvest—the story of the Church and her growth throughout history.

All Christians come from the second group of tenants because the great majority of its followers do not come from the chosen people. However, that doesn’t mean that the promise of the Kingdom is guaranteed without proper living and right responses to God’s invitations.

Part of the proper living required of a Christian is obeying God’s commands and living a life that produces fruit for the Kingdom.  In reference to the parable, a person’s life and bounty come from God’s generous hand. In this way, we are tenants who do not have the power to create or sustain our lives. But that doesn’t mean we have no role. We have been given life and many talents and are expected to use these gifts to build up the Kingdom through our service.

When we selfishly use our gifts for our own gain, without caring for others, we will lose what we have been given. A person gifted with compassion will lose the virtue if they direct that compassion inward instead of toward another person. A person with a good intellect who doesn’t use the gift for good will evaporate into just a mediocre mind.

Especially for cradle Catholics who don’t respect the faith they have been given, God’s grace will flood others who will.  The rise of Catholicism in Africa is one example of this parable in real life. The new tenants of the vineyard are coming from areas of the world where the rise in faith was never expected.

Jesus concludes the teaching with these words, “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.”

This parable warns each of us never to be so presumptuous as to think that, no matter what we choose to do, it will not affect our desire to be a member of the Kingdom.