Matthew 21:33-46

In today’s gospel reading Jesus tells the story commonly called the parable of the untrustworthy tenants which tells of a man who builds a vineyard and entrusts it to tenants for them to farm. In return he requires part of the crop. However, the tenants do not honour their agreement and they keep all the crop from the vineyard for themselves.

The vineyard owner sends servants to collect his dues. But the tenants, rather than pay up, attack the servants. Next, he sends another group of servants to collect his crop but they too are killed. Finally, he decides to send his son, because, surely, the tenants would not dare harm him. But he is wrong and the tenants kill the son too.

Now, primarily the purpose of this story is to point out that the Jewish religious leaders who had responsibility for keeping and teaching God’s law had failed to be true to God’s ways, despite God sending the prophets and finally his own son to ensure they met their responsibilities.

Even though this is the main intent of the story, I feel that there is something else happening just below the surface of the main narrative. This story could easily be called ‘the parable of warnings ignored’.

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Matthew 20:1-16

Today’s gospel reading—the parable of the workers in the vineyard—presents some very challenging themes for our 21st-century world. If you have a closer look, you will realise that the story doesn’t make sense in the real world. You’ll realise that there is a fundamental difference between how the world defines fairness and what the Bible reveals.

Firstly, the world’s understanding of fairness is basically based on merit and effort. The world understands fairness through a transactional lens, which means ‘you get what you earn, based on the amount of effort, time, and labour you put in.’ Under this human standard, those who work longer hours naturally deserve a greater reward than those who work less.

Secondly, the parable reveals a God whose generosity operates entirely outside human rules of fairness. And this is what really makes us confused in understanding the meaning of fairness.

For example, if we applied such God’s economy to real life, this model would quickly fail… because it destroys motivation. If workers who just work for an hour receive the same pay as those who worked for eight hours, nobody would work hard. It destroys teamwork. Equal pay for unequal work creates deep friction because it simply goes against our basic sense of fairness

However, this economic mismatch or nonsense is the whole point today. Jesus deliberately uses this shocking story to make a radical statement for us.

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Gen. 50:15-21

In 1994, during the civil war in Rwanda, Immaculée lost her parents and brothers in terrible violence called ‘Rwandan genocide’. Tragically, the people who killed her family were her own neighbours. She would live with an extreme angry. Her desire for revenge never truly disappeared.

Years later, after peace returned to the country, one of the men responsible for her family’s death was released from prison. He came to see Immaculée, asking for her forgiveness. For Immaculee, old memories and pain rushed back, as if the tragedy were happening right now.

For a few quiet moments, she felt as though every emotion in her heart was about to explode. Then she realized a profound truth: it wasn’t the tragedy itself that had been destroying her all these years, but the bitterness she carried inside. Right at that moment, she decided to let go of her desire for revenge and chose unconditional forgiveness. She walked up to him and said, “What you did was awful, but I refuse to live with hate in my heart. Yes. From the bottom of my heart, I forgive you.”

At that exact moment, true healing began. Not only did the man cry tears of relief, but the heavy burden of sorrow and fear that Immaculée had carried for years was finally lifted. Their relationship was restored, and true peace began to heal the village.

When tragedies or painful events occur, it is only natural to carry the hurt for a long time. Without even realising it, we become trapped in those memories. When that happens, the past comes alive in the present, making us relive nearly the same horrors and heartaches over again.

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Leviticus 19:9–10; James 1:27

 “When you harvest your fields, do not go back through your vineyard to gather the grapes that were missed or to pick up the grapes that have fallen; leave them for poor people and foreigners. I am the Lord your God.”

This is a fascinating passage from the book of Leviticus, yet it offers a profound lesson on how we can actively build a more just society. Telling farmers to leave the edges of their fields unharvested was not just a random act of kindness. It was a divine rule to protect people. God commanded ancient Israel to build a safety net directly into their economy.

“When you harvest your fields, do not go back through your vineyard to gather the grapes that were missed or to pick up the grapes that have fallen; leave them for poor people and foreigners. I am the Lord your God.”

Some scholars still wonder if people had followed this ancient law to help the poor. Nevertheless, this ancient ethos still lives on in modern social welfare systems in many countries, including Australia. This system generally helps people who have very few resources, which works like leaving the edges of the field unharvested.

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Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:13-20

Today, I want to begin with a famous, yet deeply challenging instruction given by the Apostle Paul. In Romans 12:1, he wrote: “Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.”

I want to pause right there and ask a very important question: What does it mean to be a “living” sacrifice? In the old Hebrew, it was ‘Olah’, which meant in English ‘something that goes up.’ The Olah was entirely consumed by fire on the altar, ascending to God as a pleasing aroma.

Whether it was consumed by fire or just killed to be offered, by definition, a sacrifice doesn’t survive the altar. Once it is offered, its life is over. It is given up completely, and that is why it is called ‘a sacrifice’.

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