Fr. Samuel Keyes

By the time we get to the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22, the Lord has already shared a series of increasingly pointed parables in front of the chief priests and Pharisees. The timing, recall, is in fact Holy Week. The dramatic confrontation that has been building continues to mount. In the lectionary choice of Isaiah 25, Holy Church shows us a directly relevant background for the parable. This great wedding feast is the culmination of God’s great love and provision for his...

The gospel presents us today with yet another parable about vineyards, but this time we finally get with it the passage from Isaiah 5 which stands behind all of these parables and sayings. In Isaiah, the vineyard is explicitly identified as God’s people, Israel. But the vineyard has been badly managed and left to grow sour wild grapes, resulting in God’s judgment. The prophet’s initial describe of God the landowner as “my beloved” echoes the language of the Song of Songs, that great love...

Matthew’s parable of the two sons happens on Tuesday of Holy Week. Earlier in this same chapter, Jesus entered Jerusalem, acclaimed by the crowds. But the week continues with a series of direct confrontations with the temple authorities and Pharisees. Jesus cleanses the temple, turning over the tables of the moneychangers. The priests and scribes, increasingly hostile, confront him with a question of authority: by what authority does he do and say these things? This parable comes immediately...