The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Gospel reading for Sunday, October 5th: Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 4:6-9; Matthew 21:33-43)

SKILLFUL DEBATE REVEALS WISDOM OF GOD

Jesus was a master of debate. (Well, duh! He is The Master of everything. Scripture says, “Through him all things were made.” This means He not only created the entire universe, He also designed and created human thought processes and speech. It’s not surprising then, that when He became human, He was a rather skillful thinker and talker.)

Reading through the Gospels offers one remarkable incident after another. Time and time again Jesus outwitted His adversaries. Every time someone tried to box Jesus into a corner, He would tell a parable or offer a comment that would expose the blatant hypocrisy of His antagonists.

Some of the most famous lines from the Bible occurred when Jesus’ enemies tried to trap Him. When they brought Jesus the woman caught in adultery, He replied, “Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.”

When they tried to trap Jesus about allegiance to Rome, He said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

When a pompous lawyer wanted to boast about how righteous he was, Jesus cut him down to size by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan.

I don’t know about you, but when I read the words of Jesus, His profound wisdom strikes me as being far greater than any mere mortal. (Another subtle bit of evidence that He is who He claimed to be: the divine Son of God.) Also, the idea that His devoted followers invented those clever sayings decades after the fact—as many people insist is the true source of the New Testament texts—is equally as unlikely. The followers of Jesus were simply not that shrewd and devious. The four accounts of Jesus’ life come across as honest and awestruck reporting, not carefully crafted fiction with an ulterior motive.

In this week’s gospel reading, we have yet another example of Jesus outwitting His foes, the religious leaders in Jerusalem. Jesus told the parable of the landowner who leased a vineyard to dishonest tenants. When the landowner sent servants to collect his share of the harvest, the tenants killed them. Then the landowner sent more servants and they too were killed. Finally, he sent his own son, thinking, “They will respect my son.” This time the tenants said to each other, “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.”

Jesus then asked His audience, “What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?”

They all answered in unison: “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants.”

At this point, Jesus made it clear that they had just condemned themselves by their answer. He first said, “Did you never read in the Scriptures…?” which in itself was a major insult to this group of religious scholars and experts in the law.

Jesus revealed that His parable was an allegory, with the landowner representing God, the wicked tenants representing the religious leaders, and the servants representing the many prophets who were killed over the centuries. The son in the story, of course, was Jesus the Messiah, who, even as He spoke, was at the top of the religious leaders’ Ten Most Wanted List.

Unfortunately, this parable loses some of its power and drama when read in isolation, as we do in this Sunday’s reading. This was the middle section of a long confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders. Only by reading the whole event, from Matthew 21:23 to Matthew 22:15, can we see the tension build as Jesus relentlessly exposed their hypocrisy and dishonesty with one parable after another. When we read the entire episode, we can see the frustration build up among the religious leaders until they became so consumed with anger they decided to put Jesus to death.

OK, so obviously this week’s assignment is to read the whole thing before going to Mass, not just the short gospel reading. What’s that? You don’t read ANY of the readings before going to Mass? C’mon, get with the program. Those old “We Catholics don’t read the Bible” days are over, thank God. Yeah, I know that in a biblical knowledge contest, the average Catholic adult will get wiped out by the average Baptist 6th grader, but it’s never too late to start. We’re talking about the Word of God, for crying out loud. Besides, the spiritual rewards of becoming Bible literate are absolutely tremendous. I don’t want to hear any more excuses.

For a lot of people, there are only two images of Jesus: the helpless infant at Christmas, and the helpless man hanging on a cross at Easter. Now certainly the Incarnation and the Atonement are supremely important concepts in Christian theology. But if you’re not very familiar with Jesus during the years between those two events, you’re missing out on so much.

His teachings and deeds, and yes, His excellent debating skills, offer a wonderful insight into the mind of God.

Make time to sit down for a half-hour or so on a daily basis and read through the Gospels. I know you own a Bible. It’s up on the top shelf of your bookcase, stuffed with photos and birth certificates, and covered with an inch of dust.

Read the words of our Lord and absorb His wisdom and knowledge and love. I promise you, there is nothing better is all the world.

©2008