Bad idea jeans. As I was reflecting on today’s Gospel reading about the Parable of the Tenants, I was reminded of a Saturday Night Live parody commercial called Bad Idea Jeans. The plot of the commercial was this: a bunch of guys sat around wearing jeans foolishly sharing with each other what they thought were good ideas, which in reality were actually bad ideas they either had already acted upon or were about ready to act upon. One of the guys would share his “good idea,” then the following words would flash on the screen: “bad idea.” The commercial starts off with a conversation between two guys that went something like this: Guy #1: Hey, we’ve got our apartment. We ripped up the floors, pipes, wiring, and having everything completely redone. Guy #2: You’re renting, right? Guy #1: Yeah. [ image on screen: BAD IDEA ]
Speaking of bad ideas, I’ve got a terrible life decision of my own to confess: I … am a landlord. I’ve been a tenant also, so I understand both roles in the landlord-tenant relationship. Confusing our role in the landlord-tenant relationship is certainly a bad idea in real estate and Jesus tells us the same is also true in our spiritual lives. In the parable of the tenants we heard today, Jesus emphasizes the importance of understanding our role in the landlord-tenant relationship.
Jesus tells the story of terrible tenants who make any tenant I’ve ever experienced seem like angels in comparison. Whenever the owner sends someone to collect what rightfully belongs to him, these terrible tenants act like they own the place beating or killing the person who was sent to collect what rightfully belongs to the owner. Finally, the owner sends his own son to collect what rightfully belongs to him, and the terrible tenants beat and kill the son throwing him out of their lives completely mistakenly thinking that by doing so, they can then reign over a kingdom that is not their own.
In the landlord-tenant relationship, the landlord’s role is allowing the tenant to temporarily use the property and to let the tenant know how the property should be used. It’s the tenant’s role to take care of, enjoy and use the property the way it was meant to be taken care of, enjoyed and used.
The owner in this parable, of course, is our Lord the Landlord, the owner of all we have. The owner’s son represents Jesus who was beaten and killed by the tenants. The terrible tenants are meant to represent religious leaders. Certainly, this parable was directed at the religious leaders of Jesus’ time who aimed to literally have Jesus beaten, killed and thrown out of their town, temple, and lives. These religious leaders acted like the owned God’s house and could do whatever they wanted with it, but in reality they were tenants. God entrusted the religious leaders with their roles as tenants or care takers of God’s property and of God’s chosen people.
These religious leaders think it is a good idea to act as if they own their leadership role and can do whatever they want with it. Jesus response: bad idea. He tells the religious leaders, they will be stripped of their roles and those roles will be entrusted to someone else who understands their role as tenants. We see this truth at play still today, don’t we? Recently, both locally in our own diocese and internationally at the Vatican, we have seen religious leaders who have confused, misused and abused the leadership roles they were given be stripped of these roles and these leadership roles are then given to someone else who understands their role as tenants.
This parable is meant to be directed at more than just the Church leaders who we perceive as higher up than our role in the church, because we are all church leaders. When we were baptized, we baptized into the roles of priest, prophet and king. So, Jesus also invites each of us to look into the mirror of this Gospel, to see ourselves in this parable. You might say to yourself, “wait a minute, I’m not like those terrible tenants. I didn’t hurt anybody. I didn’t beat or kill anyone. I’m not as bad as them.”
My favorite description of sin comes from Fr. Mike Schmitz. He says, sin, is when we know what God wants us to do and we say, ‘God, I know what you want, but I don’t care, I want what I want.’” You see how this breaking of the relationship with God is at the root of all sin? Jesus wants us to see in this parable reflected back at us the times we’ve broken the relationship with him. Jesus wants us to see the times when we’ve said, “God, I know what you want me to do with the gifts you’ve given me, but I don’t care. I’ve got a good idea. I’m going to take the gifts you’ve given me and I’m going to do whatever I want with them; the earth we’ve been given to take care of, the gift of our bodies, our sexuality, marriage, the gift of this day and our very lives, all of it. I’m going to do whatever I want with all of it. God’s response: bad idea.
The reason it is a bad idea is because this way of living paints a distorted picture of reality in which we are the owner of it all. Christianity is a picture of reality. It is God’s way of showing us the way things actually are. The reality is God is the owner and we are the tenants of all the gifts God has given us. God cares how we respond to the gifts he has given us. The reason Jesus’ places us tenants in a vineyard in this parable, is because he wants our lives to produce fruit that we can share with God who has shared with us all that we have.
Instead of rejecting Jesus from our lives, we are meant to respond by making him the foundation of our lives around which everything else is built. In today’s Gospel, Jesus puts it this way, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
What does it mean for us to make Jesus the cornerstone? In a few moments, when Jesus makes his presence known in our lives, will we reject him access to our lives or will we open our mouths, our hearts and our lives for him to make his home in us? Each of us are meant to build our lives around him in this way. This is how we build up the Body of Christ, the Church, whose destiny is the Kingdom of God.
This vision of making Jesus the cornerstone; this embracing the Christian picture of reality; this vision for our future is what Jesus is talking about when he says, “it is wonderful in our eyes.” Putting it another way, this way of living our lives is what God thinks is a very good idea.
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle A – October 5, 2020
Mass Readings:
Reading 1: IS 5:1-7
Psalm: PS 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20
Reading 2: PHIL 4:6-9
Gospel: MT 21:33-43