"Therefore, I say to you,the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and be given to a people that will produce its fruit." Matthew 21
It seems only a few weeks ago that we reflected on Cain’s infamous words, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Jealousy and spiritual blindness had driven him to take his own brother’s life, the first murder and the first familial betrayal after the Fall. Here, in today’s reading from Genesis, we find that the situation is not much improved. Humanity, in its fallen state, still envies its brother and still fails to see the image of God in its neighbor. Humanity still fails to love.
However, in such guilt, we also find a message of hope. No matter the brokenness of humanity, God’s own love still overcomes all evil and brings deliverance to those in sorrow. In the reading and the Gospel, we learn about the loss of a son three times: first, Israel’s loss of Joseph; second, the landowner’s loss of his son and heir; and finally, a foreshadowing moment of the death of God’s son, Jesus Christ. We also see, in these moments of trial, that redemption always follows. Joseph, rejected by his brothers in hate, saved a nation. We can read on to discover how he was brought to the land of Egypt and interpreted a dream for Pharaoh that ultimately saved the region from famine. His brothers came to Egypt in search for food, were given hospitality by Joseph, and thus survived to make the nation of Israel and its twelve tribes a reality. For Israel (Jacob by another name), seeing his son, once thought dead, alive, it was a resurrection experience, and for us as Christians, it was the foundation of the faith and tradition that lives on in us today.
In the Gospel parable, the landowner sends his servants, his prophets, and they are rejected and killed by greedy, envious, and ungrateful tenants. The land owner then sends his heir, his beloved, who is also rejected and killed. By his son’s death, the landowner expels the evil tenants and shares his kingdom with those worthy, those who will be faithful and love the landowner, his messengers, and each other. It is in the death of the son that those who labor forward in fidelity can be redeemed, that the righteous can become true heirs of the kingdom.
And so the connection is made to Christ, God’s own son, coming after Israel’s rejected prophets, who, though scorned, beaten, and murdered by those in whom God so entrusted the kingdom, has brought redemption to all and opened the kingdom to those who seek after Truth with endurance.
In the end, salvation prevails, in spite of human failure. God’s love for the world surpasses all envy, hatred, and greed, and we as brethren of the kingdom only have to strive to be true heirs in the way that we love in imitation of Christ.
So, today, who are we in these readings? Are we the jealous brothers, denying the father’s passionate love for his son and casting the son away? Are we the repentant brothers, who reconcile ourselves with both the son and the father in our desire to love? Are we the greedy tenants, or are we the redeemed tenants who will be heirs to the kingdom of God? Are we to reject the corner stone, or build on it the foundation of a Church that welcomes all and loves all? Can we love each other as God loves the son and the son loves humanity, loves us?
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?
By the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.
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