God's Gift of Free Will

Matthew's gospel contains a parable where a landowner leases a vineyard to tenants.  This was a common practice in the ancient world.  The tenants would produce product for the owner, and the owner would periodically send agents to collect his profit.  The tenants would be given a small amount of the profit in return for their labor.

In the parable, the landowner's tenants kill the agent who is sent to collect the profits and keep the profits for themselves.  This was highly unusual, but not unheard of in the ancient world.  The landowner would obviously respond by replacing the tenants, and the tenants would obviously flee after their criminal actions.  If the tenants were caught, they would be put to death.

What is shocking about the parable is that the landowner continues to do business with the tenants, even though the tenants continue to murder the agents that are sent by the landowner.

God is the landowner and human beings are the tenants.  We have been given free will, and we have done terrible things to ourselves, each other, and to God's creation.  We often do the most damage while we think that we are acting in God's name.  Despite this, God continues to be in relationship with us. 

The message of the parable is for us to truly face ourselves and who we are.  The parable was directed to the religious authorities of Jesus' day.  Like the religious people of our own culture and of other cultures, it can be more difficult for us to see the damage that we do.  We have the capacity to be holy, but to be the people that God wants us to be, we must always acknowledge the damage that we continue to do as the tenant's of the landowner's vineyard.