Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 8 October 2023; Proper 22A (RCL); Exodus20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20; Psalm 19; Philippians3:4b-14; Matthew 21:33-46.
I dread this parable. If there were any passage I could excise from scripture, it would be the parable of the vineyard and its tenants. All three synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke) include a version of it. It happens in the narrative context of Jesus teaching in the Temple after he has expelled the sellers of animals and overturned the tables of the money changers, so the Temple cult is in view. And any parable about vineyards or vines occurs against the background of Old Testament passages like Isaiah 5:1-7 and Psalm 80:8-19, in which Israel is compared to a vineyard or a vine.
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