The cornerstone

 

Sunday 4 October 2026

Lectio Divina:*

Isaiah 5:1-7 Psalm 80 (79) Philippians 4:6-9 Matthew 21:33-43

See, also, Mark 12:1-12 and Luke 20:9-19

Meditatio:

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes” (Matthew 21:42)

Commentary:

Yet another parable from Saint Matthew's Gospel is placed before us: a landowner plants a vineyard, entrusts it to tenants and later comes seeking its fruits. At first glance, we may imagine ourselves in various parts of the story. Perhaps we recognise moments when we have resisted God's voice, or perhaps we are drawn to the image of Christ, the rejected cornerstone upon whom our lives are built.

To understand the parable properly, however, we must remember its biblical and historical setting. 

Jesus' listeners would immediately have recognised an echo of Isaiah 5:1-7, the famous ‘Song of the Vineyard’. There, God lovingly plants and cares for His vineyard, only to find that it yields wild grapes rather than good fruit. The vineyard represents God's people, blessed with every opportunity to flourish yet repeatedly failing to respond to His covenant love.

The same image appears in Psalm 80, where Israel is described as the vine that God brought out of Egypt and planted with care. The psalm becomes a prayer for restoration: ‘God of hosts, bring us back; let your face shine on us and we shall be saved’. The vineyard is not abandoned by God but continually called back to fruitfulness.

Against this background, Jesus tells the parable of the wicked tenants. The tragedy is not merely that God's messengers are rejected, but that God's generosity is rejected. The servants represent the prophets whom God sent time and again. Finally, the Son is sent. In him, we recognise Jesus himself.

Matthew's Gospel was written in difficult times. Jewish Christians found themselves caught between the world of the synagogue and the expanding Christian Church. Persecution, exclusion and suffering were familiar experiences. Yet Matthew presents Christ as the fulfilment, not the abandonment of God's promises.

As Saint Peter writes:

The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner (1 Peter 2:7).

Jesus was rejected by many of the leaders of his day, yet he remains the foundation stone chosen by God. Peter reminds believers that they too are ‘living stones’ being built into a spiritual house. The Church is founded not on power or privilege but on Christ crucified and risen.

This parable is not simply about the failures of others. It is also about us.

Whenever we ignore God's call, refuse mercy or fail to recognise Christ in those before us, we risk becoming like the tenants who wished to claim the vineyard for themselves. Christ comes to us daily in the poor, the lonely, the stranger and the person with whom we disagree. We can accept him or reject him.

Yet God's purpose remains unchanged. Every human life is created through love, sustained by love and called to eternal love. Even when we experience rejection, disappointment or suffering, we see in Christ one who was rejected before us and who transformed rejection into salvation.

Most of us have known the love of a mother, a family member, a friend or a spouse. Such love is not accidental. It is one of the ways God teaches us how to love in return. Having received mercy, we are called to become instruments of mercy.

The tenants who ultimately receive the vineyard are those who bear fruit. The Christian life is never merely about intellectual assent to important propositions; it must produce the fruits of faith, hope and charity.

Saint Paul describes these fruits beautifully in Philippians 4:6-9. We are to bring everything to God in prayer, to dwell on whatever is true, honourable, just, pure and worthy of praise, and to put these virtues into practice. Such lives bear the fruit that the Master seeks.

May we never cease to remember that the vineyard belongs to God. May Christ, the rejected cornerstone, remain the foundation of our lives. And may the fruits of love, mercy and holiness reveal that we truly belong to him.

Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:10).