Jesus Christ, The Unique Way of Salvation.
Gospel Reflection for March 21st, 2025, Friday of the Second Week of Lent.
The kingdom of God is again front and center with today’s gospel. It cannot be overstated that understanding the concept of the Kingdom is essential for the proclamation of the good news. The parable imagery of the landowner (being God), the tenants (who should be stewards), and the heir (who is Jesus) is clear. The lease is a concept that needs to be further understood in this parable. First, let’s examine a good understanding for the Kingdom of God: What does our Lord mean when he uses the phrase in His teaching? Pope Benedict XVI explains, “When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God, he is quite simply proclaiming God, and proclaiming him to be the living God, who is able to act concretely in the world and in history and is even now so acting.”[1]
The vineyard, as understood by the Patristics, is the Kingdom of God. The lease can be understood as God, the landowner, bestowing the grace of covenant first to the Jews, but after their rejection offering a covenant of universality to the world. St. Augustine explains:
“For it may be supposed that He spoke all these things with the Chief Priests, but that Matthew for brevity’s sake omitted what Luke mentions, namely, that this parable was spoken not to those only who asked Him concerning His authority, but to the populace, among whom were some who said, He shall destroy them, and give the vineyard to others.”[2]
Modern Biblical scholars, secular and even Catholic—not so much Protestant; for the most part, in fear of being considered antisemitic downplay this idea. The result has been a development of a theological theory called “Dual-Covenant.” The theory is a simple concept that because the Jews are God’s special people they possess the original covenant separate from Christians who now have the New Covenant.
In Missio Dei’s book The Eucharistic Revival Project, I explain in some detail how the modern magisterium of the Catholic Church takes an approach that respects the Jewish people while rejecting Dual-Covenant Theory in the 2015 document The Gifts and The Calling of God are Irrevocable. The mistake of modern scholarship is a poor understanding of the concept of covenant found in the Old Testament. Avery Cardinal Dulles writes, “The term “covenant” is the usual translation of the Hebrew b’rith and the Greek diatheke . Scholars commonly distinguish between two types of covenants, the covenant grant and the covenant treaty. The covenant grant, modeled on the free royal decree, is an unconditional divine gift and is usually understood to be irrevocable… The prime example of a conditional covenant is that of Sinai, as interpreted in the Deuteronomic tradition. It promises blessings on those who observe its conditions and curses on those who violate them (see, for example, Deuteronomy 30:15-20)”[3]
The Mosaic covenant falls under the notion of Covenant Treaty—that covenant is revocable by those who break the treaty. There are several covenants still found throughout the Old Testament like the Abrahamic and Davidic—understood as irrevocable Covenant Grants. In fact, the Old Testament verifies in the book of Jeremiah that Israel broke the Covenant Treaty:
and say to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed be anyone who does not observe the words of this covenant, which I commanded your ancestors the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that iron furnace, saying: Listen to my voice and do all that I command you. Then you shall be my people, and I will be your God. Thus I will fulfill the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, the one you have today. “Amen, Lord,” I answered.
Then the Lord said to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and obey them. I warned your ancestors unceasingly from the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt even to this day: obey my voice. But they did not listen or obey. They each walked in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, till I brought upon them all the threats of this covenant which they had failed to observe as I commanded them.
A conspiracy has been found, the Lord said to me, among the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: They have returned to the crimes of their ancestors who refused to obey my words. They also have followed and served other gods; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors. Therefore, thus says the Lord: See, I am bringing upon them a disaster they cannot escape. Though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.[4]
The issue for our modern dialogue, that is directed by more or less from a humanist secular understanding, is none of these distinctions of covenant disrespects the dignity of the Jewish people. It’s a theological issue. At the end of the day, Jesus is either the heir of the vineyard or He is not. Jesus is either the Jewish Messiah—or He is not. There can be no such thing as a dual-covenant because the claims are contradictory. The theological question to be answered for Christians is what is the correct understanding of “Israel” found in St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans Chapter 11:26, “ and thus all Israel will be saved,”[5] with v. 11:29 “For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable[6]
The 2015 Vatican document The Gifts and The Calling of God are Irrevocable, issued under Pope Francis, answers the question in this way:
Since God has never revoked his covenant with his people Israel, there cannot be different paths or approaches to God’s salvation. The theory that there may be two different paths to salvation, the Jewish path without Christ and the path with the Christ, whom Christians believe is Jesus of Nazareth, would in fact endanger the foundations of Christian faith…. The Christian faith confesses that God wants to lead all people to salvation, that Jesus Christ is the universal mediator of salvation, and that there is no "other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved" (Acts 4:12).
The Christian view of the concept of the Kingdom of God is eschatological, but more important soteriological; or who will be saved? When it comes to Jew and Gentile, the answer is probably some of us—maybe few of us. How will all Israel be saved? It remains a mystery. The question has been answered differently throughout the history of the Church. No one person should be certain in his or her salvation—they shall hope for it. So, let us continue to pray and to be converted to our faith while sharing the proclamation of the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ because how will anyone be saved? Jesus Christ.
[1] Pope Benedict XVI . Jesus of Nazareth (p. 55). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
[2] Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St. Matthew, ed. John Henry Newman, vol. 1 (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841), 733.
[3] Avery Cardinal Dulles. “The Covenant With Israel: Avery Cardinal Dulles.” Last modified November 1, 2005. Accessed September 20, 2020. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2005/11/the-covenant-with-israel.
[4] Je 11:3–11, NAB-RE
[5] Ro 11:26, NAB-RE
[6] Ro 11:29, NAB-RE
Amen!!!!!!