Gospel in Art: This is the landlord's heir: come, let us kill him

He was Despised and Rejected of Men, Engraving after Sigismund Goetze, published June 1905 by Messers © McLean Museum & Art Gallery, Inverclyde Archives

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 10 March 2023
Matthew 21:33-43,45-46

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people, 'Listen to another parable. There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug a winepress in it and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad. When vintage time drew near he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his servants, thrashed one, killed another and stoned a third.

'Next he sent some more servants, this time a larger number, and they dealt with them in the same way.

'Finally he sent his son to them. "They will respect my son" he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, "This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him and take over his inheritance." So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?' They answered, 'He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will deliver the produce to him when the season arrives.'

Jesus said to them,

'Have you never read in the scriptures:

It was the stone rejected by the builders

that became the keystone.

This was the Lord's doing

and it is wonderful to see?

'I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.'

When they heard his parables, the chief priests and the scribes realised he was speaking about them, but though they would have liked to arrest him they were afraid of the crowds, who looked on him as a prophet.

Reflection on the Lithograph

Today's parable is aimed again at the Pharisees and the scribes who reject Jesus. They profess and portray themselves as doing God's will, but they aren't quite. They reject everything Jesus stands for, and will eventually kill him.

Our print depicts in a graphic way the rejection of Christ in a 20th-century context. The artist, Sigismund Goetze, shows a group of early twentieth-century figures descending a staircase which, in the centre, holds a square pillar on which stands the bound figure of Christ wearing the crown of thorns. The artist was a devout Anglican. He illustrates the rejection of the suffering Christ by well-known figures of English society. In the painting we see Christ being tied to a pillar and about to be scourged. The pillar bears the inscription VOTUM DEO IGNOTO (to the unknown god). The pillar is shown as an altar of an ancient pagan shrine. All this is set in a pagan Greek temple. Christ is surrounded by rejection and secularism.

Although England at that time had been Christian for centuries, it shows that the people depicted were too caught up in their own egotism to notice him. The Industrial Revolution had brought prosperity to so many more people, who now felt they didn't need God anymore. When looking closer you will notice: a sports-enthusiast, lost in the horse-racing pages; towards the base of the altar there is a poor mother with a sick child, but she is turned in on herself, having her back to Christ; to the right we see a newsboy reading the latest tabloid scandals and celebrity gossip; behind the cleric is a scheming businessman... They are all ignoring Christ and rejecting Christ, just as the vineyard tenants did in our reading today.

LINKS

Gospel in Art: https://christian.art/
Today's reflection: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/matthew-21-33-43-45-46-2023/