The Vineyard of the Lord and the Burden of Sin – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; October 4, 2026

The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. This is the underlying theme of the 1^st reading and Gospel today; they give us, we could say, a poetic history of the people of God.

These parables show the fidelity and love of God in the face of the infidelity of his people. The 1^st reading focuses on the bad fruit produced by the vineyard, the injustice brought forth by the people. The Gospel speaks rather of the tenants, representing the leaders of the people, who cultivate the vineyard, but refuse to give the landlord, who represents God, his due. God’s care for the vineyard is expressed in providing everything needed for it to produce fruit; fertile soil, choice vines, a protective hedge and watchtower, and a winepress.

The two parables also address two distinct times in the history of the people. Isaiah, who was born in the middle of the 8^th century BC and died in the first part of the 7^th century, prophesies during the later days of the Kingdom of Judah. The punishment for infidelity, the removal of the hedge that allows the vineyard to be trampled by wild beasts, foresees the destruction of the kingdom and the exile in Babylon. Yet, the prophecy of Isaiah also speaks of the mercy of God in the return from exile. This prophecy foreshadows the future destruction of the temple by Rome and the mercy of God that is always open to the people.

Jesus speaks seven centuries later, when Judea is under Roman control. He speaks of God sending a series of messengers to the people of Israel, who represent the prophets, including Isaiah. Consequently, while the parable is presented as taking place during the life of one landowner and the corresponding tenants, it actually represents many generations and centuries in the life of the people, culminating in the time of Christ, the Son of God, the final messenger, seeking for God the fruits of his vineyard.

Jesus’ parable introduces two more developments: the response of the tenants, who seek to claim the vineyard for themselves by killing the son, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance (a rather stupid project); and the consequent transfer of the vineyard to another people who will produce fruit. This speaks of the transference of the covenant from Israel to the Church, the new Israel.

Today’s parable could give the wrong impression that the people who receive the kingdom of God, the people that will produce fruit, simply receive what the people of Israel once had, simply replace the Israel of old. It is important to avoid this mistake so as to avoid setting the new and the old in competition. For this reason, we should consider also Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, I am the vine, you are the branches. (Jn 15:5)

Jesus’ words at the Last Supper tells us something else about the transference of the covenant. These words reveal a deeper reality and truth. Israel according to the flesh did not have the true vine (cf. Jn 15:1), but as the vineyard of the Lord of hosts, foreshadowed the true vine, Jesus Christ. Yet, Jesus came from Israel and the whole reality of Israel reaches its fulfillment in him. From a whole vineyard there comes a single vine; from the whole people of Israel there comes Jesus Christ, who is now the true Israel and he is the true vine. The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (Jn 1:17) The law was but a shadow of the good things to come in Christ, which we now enjoy. (cf. Heb 10:1)

The people who produce fruit, the Christian people, those who believe in Jesus Christ, are grafted into the true vine (cf. Rm 11:17-24); rather than being a new vineyard, they are branches on the one vine, Jesus Christ, members of his mystical Body, the Church. They draw their life from him; they are given life by the “sap” of the Holy Spirit, which passes through the vine.

All this means that now we are expected to produce fruit – we who have received much more than Israel of old – and to do so we must abide in the vine, Jesus Christ. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. (Jn 15:4) By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (Jn 15:8)

Since the vine is Jesus Christ, the vine cannot be removed or destroyed, but the branches, if they do not bear fruit, can be removed from the vine. Jesus warns us against this possibility because those branches that do not bear fruit will be cut off from the vine, gathered into a bundle and burned with fire. (cf. Jn 15:6)

This leads us to a key word in today’s parable, the inheritance that belongs to Jesus Christ, that the tenants in the vineyard could actually have received, had they not sought it for themselves. The inheritance belongs to Jesus Christ and, together with all who believe in him, we are given to share in it.

You have not been given the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided that we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him. (Rm 8:15-17)

The idea of inheritance speaks to us not of a vineyard, but of a family; through Christ we belong to the family of God. The idea of an inheritance speaks to us also of what is passed on from one generation to another, which also lies at the root of the concept of “tradition”. We do not enter into our Christian inheritance except through the Church, which passes as a pilgrim through the history of the human race, in which the tradition of Christ is passed as an inheritance from one generation to the next.

On the grandest scale the human race possesses two inheritances: that of Adam and that of Christ. The inheritance from Adam is mixed, for from him we receive the inheritance of sin and its consequences, but we also receive the good inheritance of human life, even if, as received from Adam, it is no longer capable of attaining its goal. The inheritance from Christ, the gift of grace, heals, purifies, restores, transforms, and elevates the inheritance from Adam, such that we are once again able to attain the goal God has prepared for us. Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of man, not just those who come after, but even of those who came before, even of Adam, whose name translates into English as “man”.

We have glanced at the grand scale of the whole human family, but we need also to consider the small scale of our particular human families, through many generations. A good inheritance is something to be treasured, to be preserved with gratitude, and to be passed on intact to those who come after us. When we hear the commandment honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you (Ex 20:12) we think first of obeying our parents in our youth and taking care of them in their old age. We also honor our father and mother by our fidelity to the inheritance they leave us, not only the inheritance of property (like a ranch) but even more to the good teaching they have given us.

Yet, as is the case with our inheritance from Adam, our inheritance from our human parents, even the best of parents, is always mixed. Following the example of Christ, we need to learn to guard the good and redeem the bad.

This is an important message in our age of family dysfunction. Indeed, what family is there that is altogether unscathed?

In one of the last prophecies of the Old Testament, God announces through the prophet Malachi, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. (Mal 4:5-6) The Angel Gabriel announced to Zechariah, the father of St. John the Baptist, regarding his son to be born, He will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. (Lk 1:17) The reconciliation of generations both prepares for and flows from the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

Now, let us bring all of this to bear on a task that belongs to individuals in relation to their families, sometimes in only a small way, at other times in a big way. It is common that a person bears a burden of hurt, neglect, failure, or even abuse from his parents. How a person receives this burden will shape his life for good or for ill. Alas, many people simply pass on the bad inheritance that they have received. As they have been hurt, they hurt others; as they have been neglected, they neglect others; as their parents have failed them, so they fail their children; as they have been abused, so they abuse others.

This last is a frightening and horrific fact. If we hear of horrific examples of child abuse and then learn something about the abuser, we will often learn that the abuser was himself abused as a child. I want to scream out, “Given what you suffered didn’t you want to keep others from suffering as you did?” And indeed, there are people who, having suffered horrific abuse as children, become determined not to pass on that inheritance of abuse.

Whether it is horrific abuse or just the failure due to normal human weakness, the first step is to be determined not to pass on the bad inheritance we have received. The first and most critical step is to say, “It must stop with me.” But if it is just that step, what so easily happens is that bearing the burden of hurt, the person may succeed in not passing it on, at least not in obvious ways, but because he is unable to bear such a burden, his own life is poisoned and grows bitter.

The decisive step requires the grace of Christ. The decisive step turns back the flow of the Jordan River on its course, as happened when Joshua led the people of Israel across the Jordan into the promised land. (cf. Ps 114[113]:1-8) The name Jordan means “descending” as in the downward flow of the inheritance of sin and injury.

 I will illustrate this by an example that I recently heard. A man grew up in a remote village in a far country with a Catholic heritage. At age 12 his parents were on the verge of divorce; his father was habitually unfaithful to his mother. Some missionaries happened to visit them proclaiming the message that God loved them; they helped his parents stay together despite the father’s infidelity. As for the son, they told him, “You must love your father.” At age 15 the young man was at Mass on Ash Wednesday, listening to the priest speak about prayer, fasting, and almsgiving as works of satisfaction for sin. He thought to himself, “My father needs to do that, but he will not do it himself; I will do it for him.” He learned to love his father, by willingly accepting the burden, in Christ, and seeking to atone for his father’s sins. This young man thus received the good inheritance of the Catholic faith, while turning back the bad inheritance of his father, a bad Catholic.

We have all received a burden of infidelity from the past and we hurt because of it.  Those who have gone before us in various ways have acted like the wicked tenants in the Gospel and have refused to give to God the fruits of the vineyard. That has left us, their heirs, drowning in debt. Instead of complaining, instead of rebelling, we must shoulder the burden, not on our own, but in Christ, who pays off all our debts. Then we will be delivered from anxiety and be able to enter into the peace that surpasses understanding.

For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.