Today's First Reading and Gospel present us with a message which is very similar, but not quite identical. The message is addressed to a different audience since the vineyard itself undergoes a subtle change in the two tellings. As so often the life style of the people to whom the story is addressed provided Isaiah and Jesus with an apt symbol of God's relationhip with his human creatures. For Isaiah the vineyard symbolises the people of Israel, lovingly chosen and cultivated by Yahweh, the owner. Sadly the people did not produce the fruit expected of them. The vineyard will return to wilderness unless the people repent and respond to the gracious care of the owner.

In the Gospel Jesus asks the leaders to comment on the failure of the vineyard to produce fruit worthy of the care lavished on it. Without realising it, they condemn themselves for their own failure to respond to a new opportunity to produce fruit worthy of being presented to Yahweh. Jesus warns them that Yahweh will hand over the vineyard to new tenants who will do a better job. In fact the new tenants have become the vineyard itself. They are the members of the Christian church, the Body of Christ of Matthew's time. They too are warned that they must produce fruit. We are the present tenants, the present vineyard.