Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday of Matthew and the Leave-taking of the Commemoration of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist in the Orthodox Church

 

Matthew 21:33-42

 

In hearing Christ’s criticisms of the chief priests and Pharisees in today’s gospel lesson, we need to be careful about how we interpret His parable.  It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the point of the passage is that we should condemn those corrupt religious leaders as bad and praise ourselves as good, for as members of Christ’s Body, the Church, we are presumably the “other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”   To do so, however, is to refuse to hear the prophetic message of the parable, for as those who have received the fullness of God’s promises to Abraham, we have an even greater responsibility to resist the persistent temptation to keep all the fruit for ourselves.  The allure of doing so has remained with every generation since Adam and Eve, and we are no exception.

            Today’s reading from St. Matthew’s gospel follows the Savior’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  The crowds had welcomed Him as the conquering Messiah Who would cast out the Romans and establish an earthly kingdom, but they would soon reject Him when it became clear that His Kingdom is not of this world.  He told the chief priests and Pharisees that tax collectors and prostitutes would enter the Kingdom of God before them, for they had disregarded the preaching of St. John the Forerunner, even after notorious sinners had repented in response to his teaching.  They were like sons who had promised to work in their father’s vineyard, but did not keep their word.

 

Because of the great heritage of the Hebrew people, the religious leaders of the day had a deep obligation to serve God faithfully.  They had, however, become so corrupt that they were like the many false prophets and wicked rulers described in the Old Testament who had worshiped foreign gods, exploited the poor and weak, and killed those who dared to oppose them. In the days leading up to His crucifixion, the Savior compared them to those of previous generations who had thought nothing of murdering righteous people who truly spoke the word of the Lord.  In today’s parable, He foretold His own death at the hands of those who would not respect even the Son of God. 

 

            Because they rejected Him, the Lord said in the verse immediately following this reading, “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” (v. 44) Here He points to the coming of the Church in which there is neither Jew nor Gentile, for those with no ancestral connection to Israel are now “grafted in” as branches of the olive tree whose roots extend back to the covenant with Abraham.  (Rom. 11: 17) St. Paul warned Gentile Christians not to take pride in their status in relation to Jews who had rejected the Messiah, for “They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.” (11: 20-21)

 

            By faith in Christ, we have become the new tenants of the vineyard with an obligation to “give him the fruits in their seasons.”  That, of course, is precisely what the original tenants refused to do.  Instead of tending the vineyard and offering its fruit to their rightful owner, they wanted everything for themselves and even killed the son of the owner in order to take his inheritance.  We must read this passage as a reminder that, in order to be good tenants of the Lord’s vineyard, we must offer ourselves in union with His great Self-offering on the Cross for the salvation of the world.  Our calling is the complete opposite of using our blessings according to our passions in order to help us get what we want in this world.  That is a temptation fueled by the self-centered pride of wanting to keep all the fruit for ourselves, even as the chief priests and Pharisees distorted the spiritual heritage of Israel to give themselves earthly power.  

 

In the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, we offer bread and wine for their and our fulfillment by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We then receive them as the Body and Blood of Christ for our healing and participation in the eternal life of the Kingdom.  Receiving the Eucharist serves no earthly goal and must not become merely a routine religious exercise.   It is truly our nourishment for the life of Heaven, our participation in the Messianic Banquet. The Savior’s Body and Blood empower us to become like Him in holiness as we manifest His restoration of the human person in the image and likeness of God. To be in communion with Christ requires offering ourselves to Him each day and refusing to think that there are any dimensions of our lives that we should keep strictly for ourselves.  He offered Himself fully on the Cross, to the point of death, burial, and descent into Hades, in order to rise up in glory for the salvation of the entire world.  If we refuse to offer the fruit of our own lives to Him, then we will eat and drink our own condemnation and reject Him even more tragically than did those who handed the Savior over to crucifixion because He did not serve their agenda for glorifying themselves.   

 

Today we conclude our commemoration of the Beheading of St. John the Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist.  John was the last of the Old Testament prophets who prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah by boldly calling for repentance. In the terms of today’s parable, he was a servant killed by the tenants of the vineyard who wanted the fruit for themselves.  He denounced King Herod for marrying his own brother’s wife, Herodias, who resented the criticism to the point that she wanted him dead.  When her daughter performed a lewd dance at a party, Herod promised to give her whatever she wanted.  Following her mother’s depraved advice, the young woman asked for the head of John on a platter.  Herod did not want to have John killed but was afraid that he would lose face if he did not fulfill his promise.  So apparently while the party was still going on, John’s head was cut off and brought in on a plate for everyone to see.

 

In this horrific scene we see clearly the difference between the eucharistic life of offering ourselves to God and the corruption of slavery to self-centered desire.  From his miraculous conception by the aged and barren couple Zacharias and Elizabeth to his martyrdom, John focused single-mindedly on preparing the way for Christ as the fulfillment of the ancient promises to Abraham. The complete opposite of Herod and Herodias in their addiction to earthly power and pleasure, he was a strict ascetic who lived in the desert, wore camel’s hair, and ate locusts and wild honey.  He spared no one from a piercing call to repentance, mocking the Pharisees and Sadducees as a “brood of vipers” and telling the wealthy to share with the poor, the tax-collectors to repent of their dishonesty, and the soldiers to stop abusing their authority.   

 

As the new tenants of the vineyard called to give God “the fruits in their seasons,” we must heed the Forerunner’s instruction to “bear fruits worthy of repentance” if we are to gain the spiritual health necessary to make our lives in this world offerings to the Lord. (Matt. 3:8) It is so easy to become like the corrupt religious leaders who were so enslaved to their passions that they distorted their tremendous spiritual heritage into a way of serving themselves to the point of rejecting and condemning the Lord Himself.  If we do not want to fall into a new version of their sins, we must learn from the example of John the Baptist.  He fasted with incredible strictness, and we must deny our appetites for the richest and most satisfying foods through forms of fasting appropriate to our spiritual and physical health.  He lived in extreme poverty, and we must give our tithes and offerings to the Lord, sharing generously with those in need.  The Forerunner fearlessly called the powerful to repentance, and we must never make the mistake of thinking that allegiance to any earthly ruler, nation, or faction may take precedence over our fidelity to Christ and His Kingdom.  Through our habits, we will form ourselves either to become more faithful servants of our Lord or people like those who rejected and killed both Him and His Forerunner.    

 

Let us commemorate the beheading of St. John by cultivating a renewed awareness of the stark difference between living according to self-centered desire and making our lives offerings to the Lord.  Even as we offer bread and wine in the Divine Liturgy, let us offer ourselves without reservation, as did the Forerunner.  That is what it means to be the new tenants of the vineyard who will give “the fruits in their seasons” to the Master.