Sunday, October 4, 2026·Liturgical Year A

27th Sunday of Ordinary Time"They Will Respect My Son": The Vineyard, the Tenants, and the Stone the Builders Rejected

Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43

ShareWhatsApp Facebook

Readings at a Glance

First Reading

Isaiah 5:1-7

The prophet sings "my friend's song concerning his vineyard." The friend chose a fertile hillside, cleared it of stones, planted "the choicest vines," built a watchtower and hewed out a wine press, and waited for it to yield grapes — but it yielded only wild grapes
"What more could be done for my vineyard that I had not done?" The song ends with its interpretation: "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel," and the fruit he looked for was justice and righteousness
It is the Old Testament text Jesus deliberately echoes in the opening words of this Sunday's parable

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20

"The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel." The psalmist recalls how God brought a vine out of Egypt, cleared the land and planted it, until its shoots reached from the Sea to the River
Now its walls are broken down and it lies exposed, and Israel prays: "Once again, O Lord of hosts, look down from heaven, and see; take care of this vine." The psalm ends with the prayer that frames the whole Sunday: "Lord, God of hosts, restore us; if your face shine upon us, then we shall be saved."

Second Reading

Philippians 4:6-9

"Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God." Then "the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Paul closes with a list of the fruits a Christian mind should cultivate: "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious… think about these things." Keep on doing what you have learned, "then the God of peace will be with you." These are the fruits the Owner of the vineyard is looking for

Gospel

Matthew 21:33-43

Still teaching in the temple, Jesus tells the chief priests and elders another parable
A landowner "planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower," then leased it to tenants and went on a journey
At vintage time he sends his servants to collect his share of the produce, but the tenants mistreat them and turn them away, and they do the same to a second, larger group
Finally he sends his son, thinking, "They will respect my son." But the tenants reason that this is the heir and plot to seize his inheritance; they take him, throw him out of the vineyard, and take his life
Jesus asks what the owner will do to those tenants when he comes
The leaders answer that he will bring them to a terrible end and lease the vineyard "to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times." Jesus replies with the words of Psalm 118: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes." He concludes: "Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit."

Before you read: Read this Sunday's full Mass readings at USCCB.org →

Key Themes7

Tap to expand

•"A landowner planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it" — Isaiah's song retold; God's lavish care for his people comes first
•"He leased it to tenants and went on a journey" — the vineyard is entrusted, never owned; every steward will be asked for its fruit
•"He sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce" — the prophets as God's patient, repeated messengers
•"Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, 'They will respect my son'" — the Father's astonishing trust, and the Son distinct from all the servants (CCC 443)
•"This is the heir… let us acquire his inheritance" — the root of every rejection of God: the desire to possess what is only entrusted
•"The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone" — Psalm 118 as the summary of the Paschal Mystery
•"Given to a people that will produce its fruit" — the kingdom belongs to those who bear fruit, Jew and Gentile together in Christ

Historical & Literary Context

The 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time gives the Church the second of the three parables Jesus addresses to the chief priests and elders in the temple in the last days before his Passion. Last Sunday's parable of the two sons ended with the leaders' failure to respond to John the Baptist; this Sunday's parable carries the story further, from the forerunner to the Son himself. It is found in all three Synoptic Gospels (cf. Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19), which shows how deeply it was rooted in the earliest memory of Jesus' teaching in Jerusalem. The parable opens with an unmistakable quotation. The landowner "planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower" — the very actions of the friend in Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard, this Sunday's first reading. Every hearer in the temple courts would have recognized the allusion at once: the vineyard is Israel, the owner is God. But Jesus changes the emphasis. In Isaiah, the problem was the vineyard itself, which produced wild grapes. In Jesus' parable, the vineyard is good; the problem is the tenants entrusted with its care — the leaders to whom God had given responsibility for his people. Isaiah's song ends with one of the most famous wordplays in the Hebrew Bible. God "waited for judgment (mishpat), but see, bloodshed (mispach)! for justice (tsedaqah), but hark, the outcry (tse'aqah)!" The pairs sound almost identical and mean opposites — the way a corrupt society counterfeits the very virtues it claims to practice. The fruit God seeks from his vineyard is not ritual but justice and righteousness. Matthew's Greek for "fruit," καρπός (karpos), recurs four times in these eleven verses. The parable is about what the vineyard is for. The heart of the story is the sending of the son. After the servants — a figure for the prophets whom Israel's leaders often ignored or opposed (cf. Jeremiah 7:25-26; 2 Chronicles 36:15-16) — the owner sends τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ (ton huion autou), "his son." The Catechism notes that Jesus referred to himself as "the Son," distinct from the "servants" God had earlier sent to his people (CCC 443). And then Jesus quotes Psalm 118:22-23 — the psalm the crowds had sung as he entered Jerusalem ("Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," Psalm 118:26). The rejected stone becomes the κεφαλὴ γωνίας (kephalē gōnias), "head of the corner," the keystone or cornerstone that holds a whole building together. The early Church returned to this verse again and again as a summary of the Paschal Mystery (Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:4-8): the one rejected by human judgment has been raised and made the foundation of God's new temple. On authorship and interpretation, Matthew is generally dated around AD 80–90, when the Christian community was defining itself alongside the synagogue. The Church reads this parable with great care. The Second Vatican Council teaches that "the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures" (Nostra Aetate 4), and St. Paul insists that "the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable" (Romans 11:29; cf. CCC 839). The "people that will produce its fruit" (ἔθνει, ethnei) is not one ethnic group replacing another; it is the community of all, Jew and Gentile, who receive the Son and bear the fruit of the kingdom. The parable warns every steward of God's vineyard — including the Church's own leaders and members — that the vineyard belongs to God, not to those who tend it. Pope Benedict XVI made exactly this application when he opened the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist with this Gospel (homily of October 2, 2005).

Commentary

The Vineyard Comes First: A Story That Begins With Love

Before there is any failure in this parable, there is lavish care. The landowner plants, fences, digs, and builds; he gives the tenants everything they need to prosper. Isaiah's song asks the question that the parable leaves hanging: "What more could be done for my vineyard that I had not done?" This is where a homily on this Gospel must begin, because the story is first a portrait of God's generosity toward his people. The Catechism describes the Church using this same image — "the Church is a cultivated field, the tillage of God," in which "the true vine is Christ" (CCC 755, quoting Lumen Gentium 6). All that follows in the parable, including its warning, is intelligible only as the disappointment of love.

"He Leased It to Tenants": Stewardship, Not Ownership

The tenants' fundamental error is to forget that the vineyard is not theirs. They are γεωργοί (geōrgoi), farmers working land that belongs to another, and the owner is entitled to his share of the harvest. Every refusal in the story flows from that forgetting. It is the oldest temptation in Scripture — the temptation of Eden, to seize as one's own what God has given in trust. And it is the temptation of every person who holds responsibility in the Church, in a family, or in society. St. John Chrysostom (Homilies on Matthew 68) points out that the owner does everything and asks for very little, which is what makes the tenants' conduct inexcusable. The parable asks each of us: what in my life have I begun to treat as my own that God has only leased to me?

The Servants: God's Patience in Sending the Prophets

The owner sends servants, and when they are mistreated, he sends more. No human landlord would behave this way; the owner's patience is as unrealistic as the eleventh-hour hiring two Sundays ago. This is Jesus' summary of the long history of the prophets, whom Israel's own Scriptures describe as sent "early and often" by a God who "had compassion on his people" (2 Chronicles 36:15; cf. Jeremiah 7:25). The Catechism sees in the prophets God's constant work of forming his people "in the hope of salvation, in the expectation of a new and everlasting Covenant" (CCC 64). The parable reveals a God who does not give up on his vineyard.

"They Will Respect My Son": The Father's Astonishing Hope

Then comes the most moving sentence of the parable. The owner sends his son, saying, "They will respect my son." Humanly, it is almost unbearably naïve. Theologically, it is the heart of the Gospel. God's final word to his people is not another servant but his own Son. The Letter to the Hebrews states it in the same terms: "In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through a son, whom he made heir of all things" (Hebrews 1:1-2). The Catechism draws on this parable to show that Jesus spoke of himself as "the Son," distinct from the "servants" sent before him (CCC 443). Pope Benedict XVI, reflecting on the parable in Jesus of Nazareth (vol. 2), notes that Jesus here speaks of himself with a clarity that his hearers could not miss — and that in the words "they will respect my son" we hear the Father's love, which risks everything.

"Let Us Acquire His Inheritance": The Logic of Rejection

The tenants' reasoning is chillingly clear: this is the heir, so if he is removed, the vineyard will be ours. They want the gift without the Giver. This is the pattern of every sin: to possess God's gifts while refusing God himself. The parable says that the son is taken and cast outside the vineyard, a detail the early Church could not hear without thinking of Christ, who was led outside the walls of Jerusalem (cf. Hebrews 13:12-13). The Church has always proclaimed this, however, within the light of the Resurrection: the Son's rejection is not the end of the story, but the means by which God accomplished salvation. The Catechism teaches that Christ's death was not a mere accident of history but part of "the mystery of God's plan," freely embraced by the Son for our redemption (CCC 599-600).

"The Stone That the Builders Rejected": From Rejection to Resurrection

Jesus does not end the parable with the leaders' verdict. He adds Psalm 118, and in doing so transforms a story of loss into a proclamation of Easter. The stone thrown aside by the builders becomes the cornerstone, and "by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes." St. Peter preached this verse to the same leaders after Pentecost (Acts 4:11), and wrote it to the scattered churches: "Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:4-5). The Catechism takes up the same image: Christ is the cornerstone on which the Church is built (CCC 756). What the builders rejected, God has made the foundation of everything.

"Given to a People That Will Produce Its Fruit": Reading the Warning Rightly

The parable ends with a serious warning: the kingdom will be taken from those who refuse its fruit and given to "a people that will produce its fruit." Christians must hear this sentence as addressed first to themselves. The Church does not read it as a verdict on the Jewish people; the Council taught that Jews are "most dear to God," whose "gifts and call are irrevocable" (Nostra Aetate 4; Lumen Gentium 16; CCC 839). The "people" of the parable is defined not by ancestry but by fruit. St. Irenaeus (Against Heresies IV.36.2) read the parable as the story of the one God who planted his vineyard in Israel and extended it to all nations, so that all who bear fruit form one people. And the Fathers were quick to turn the same warning on the Church of their own day: those entrusted with the vineyard now will be asked the same question.

Isaiah's Wild Grapes and Paul's Good Fruit

The first reading and the second reading show the two possible harvests. Isaiah's vineyard, for all God's care, produced wild grapes: "he waited for judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry!" The wordplay exposes a society whose injustice mimics justice. Paul's letter to the Philippians shows what good fruit looks like in an ordinary Christian life: prayer instead of anxiety, thanksgiving, and a mind set on "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious." The fruits the Owner seeks are not heroic achievements but a life shaped by justice and peace. And Paul's promise is that "the God of peace will be with you" — the same presence the tenants refused.

A Note for the Homilist

This is a demanding text to preach, and it requires both courage and care. Begin with the love of the Owner and the beauty of the vineyard. Present the servants and the Son as the story of God's patience. Name clearly that the Church does not read this parable against the Jewish people (Nostra Aetate 4, CCC 839), and turn its warning toward the Christian community, including its pastors: we too are tenants. Proclaim Psalm 118 as the Easter heart of the passage. This Sunday, many dioceses mark Respect Life Sunday, and October begins the month of the Holy Rosary; both fit the Gospel's question of what fruit we return to God for the gift of life. Finally, bring the congregation to the altar, where the fruit of the vine becomes the Blood of the Son whom the Father sent. The Owner still comes to his vineyard every Sunday, looking for fruit, and still gives his Son.

Living the Gospel This Week

- For the homilist: Preach the parable as a story of God's lavish love and patience before it is a warning, and state plainly that the Church does not read it as a rejection of the Jewish people (Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 839). Turn its challenge toward the Christian community and its leaders — all of us are tenants - For examining stewardship: List the gifts God has entrusted to you — your time, talents, money, family, faith, and health. For each one, ask: "Am I treating this as a lease or as my property?" Choose one area this week in which to return some of the "produce" to God - For those in positions of responsibility: Pastors, parents, teachers, managers, and public servants are all tenants of someone else's vineyard. Ask the Lord where you have begun to act as owner rather than servant, and ask for the humility to render an account - For Respect Life Sunday: Human life is the first gift of the vineyard's Owner. Pray this week for the protection of life at every stage, and take one concrete step to support a mother in need, a person who is elderly or ill, or a family facing a difficult pregnancy - For anxiety and peace: Pray Paul's instruction this week: when anxiety rises, turn it immediately into a petition with thanksgiving, and then deliberately set your mind on "whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and gracious" - For the Eucharist as fulfillment of the Gospel's promise: In this parable the owner sends his son to the vineyard; at every Mass the fruit of the vine becomes the Blood of the Son "poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Receive him this Sunday as the cornerstone of your life, and offer him the fruit of your week in return - For the Rosary in October: Pray the Luminous or Glorious Mysteries this week, asking Our Lady — the most fruitful branch of the vine — to help you bring forth the fruit God seeks

Sources & Further Reading

New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE), Matthew 21:33-43; Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 4:6-9; Psalm 80:9-20; Psalm 118:22-23 — United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011
Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 64 (the prophets forming God's people in hope), § 443 (Jesus distinguishes his sonship from that of the prophets), §§ 755–756 (the Church as God's vineyard; Christ as the cornerstone), §§ 597–600 (the Passion within God's saving plan), § 839 (the relationship of the Church to the Jewish people), §§ 2402–2406 (the universal destination of goods and stewardship)
Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), §§ 6, 16 — the images of the Church, including the vineyard and the cornerstone; the Jewish people "most dear" to God, November 21, 1964
Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions), § 4, October 28, 1965
Pope Benedict XVI, Homily at the Opening of the XI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (on Isaiah 5 and Matthew 21:33-43), October 2, 2005
Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger), Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 2: Holy Week, Ignatius Press, 2011
Pope Francis, Angelus address on the parable of the tenants, Saint Peter's Square, October 8, 2017
Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book IV, ch. 36.2 — the one God who planted the vineyard in Israel and extended it to the nations, c. AD 180
John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 68 — on the parable of the vineyard and its tenants, NPNF Series I, vol. 10, c. AD 390
Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, vol. 1, St. Matthew, ch. 21, c. AD 1263
Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, The Gospel of Matthew, Sacra Pagina 1, Liturgical Press, 1991 (on Matthew 21:33-46)
Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1–39, Anchor Bible vol. 19, Doubleday, 2000 (on the Song of the Vineyard, Isaiah 5:1-7)
Klyne R. Snodgrass, Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus, Eerdmans, 2008 (on the parable of the wicked tenants)
Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible, 2001
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Respect Life Program materials for Respect Life Month (October)

Found this helpful? Share it with your parish or priest:

Share:WhatsApp Facebook

← Back to Sunday Gospel