Gospel in Art: There was a master who planted a vineyard

Untitled painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat,1982, Sotheby's New York, 18 May 2017, lot 24, sold $110 million

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 4 October 2026
Matthew 21:33-43

At that time: Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people, 'Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence round it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than at first. And they did the same to them.

Finally he sent his son to them, saying, "They will respect my son." But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, "This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance." And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?'

They said to him, 'He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.'

Jesus said to them, 'Have you never read in the Scriptures: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes"? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.'

Reflection on the painting

We are used to thinking in terms of investment and return. We invest money in a house hoping its value will rise. We invest time and energy in our work and hope we will get a salary increase or a promotion. Students invest hard in their studies, expecting their efforts to bear fruit. Perhaps the greatest investment we ever make, though, is in other people. Parents pour extraordinary amounts of love, patience, time and sacrifice into their children, hoping that what they have given will help them flourish. Yet... life teaches us that investment and return do not always match. Markets fall, examinations go badly, projects fail, and sometimes the people to whom we have given most seem to give very little back.

That is the painful image at the heart of today's first reading. Isaiah describes a landowner who lavishes care upon his vineyard. He chooses good ground, clears away the stones, plants the finest vines and builds everything necessary for a successful harvest. He could hardly have done more. Naturally, he waits for good grapes. Instead, the vineyard produces sour ones. Isaiah then reveals that the vineyard is an image of God's people. God had given them so much, hoping to find justice and goodness growing among them. Instead, he finds violence and hears the cries of those who are suffering. The problem was not that God had failed to give enough; it was that what he had given had not been allowed to bear fruit.

And yet this is where the story of God becomes so remarkable. Faced with such a poor return, God does not withdraw his investment. He gives more. In the parable Jesus tells in today's Gospel, the owner of the vineyard finally sends his own son. Even when the son is rejected and killed, God still does not abandon humanity. The Cross becomes the extraordinary sign of just how much God is prepared to invest in us. We may disappoint him, ignore what he gives us and produce rather more sour grapes than we would care to admit. Yet God continues to sow. His generosity towards us is far greater than the return we could ever offer him.

The art market, perhaps more than most worlds, is driven by the idea of return on investment. Paintings are bought not only because someone loves them, but also as investment. Few examples are as spectacular as Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled of 1982. The painting, with its huge, almost electric skull-like head emerging from a field of blue, was bought at auction in 1984 for just $19,000. Thirty-three years later, in 2017, it returned to auction and sold at Sotheby's for an astonishing $110.5 million. That is nearly 5,800 times what had originally been paid for it. Whatever one thinks of the painting itself, as an investment it produced some very sweet grapes indeed.

But the Gospel invites us to measure investment rather differently. God is not a collector watching the market, wondering whether we have increased sufficiently in value to justify what he has spent on us. He invests in us simply because he loves us! The question the vineyard leaves with us then, is not simply how much God has invested in our lives, but what fruit are we bearing for Him? In the economy of God, what have we truly given back to Him?

LINKS

Christian Art: www.christian.art
Today's Reading: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/matthew-21-33-43-2026/