The Care Page: The Owner of the Vineyard
The Care Page:
The Owner of the Vineyard
Our good God likened His Church to a vineyard, and the shepherds to the vinedressers. As for Him, the Scripture calls Him: “The Owner of the vineyard” (Luke 20:15).
Therefore, the holy Church belongs to God Himself. He is its owner. It does not belong to this or that shepherd. It is the Church of Christ.
The shepherds are merely stewards, acting on behalf of the Owner of the vineyard. They manage the vineyard according to His will, not according to their own.
Their authority is not absolute, but limited by the commandments of the Owner of the vineyard and the holy laws established by His apostles and saints.
Pitiful is the shepherd who thinks he owns the vineyard, acting in it according to his whim — appointing whom he wishes, removing whom he wishes, forbidding whom he wishes — not according to law or Scripture, but simply because he wills it so.
For example, when a bishop appoints someone, he is bound by the verses of the Bible and the Church’s canons concerning that person’s qualifications and the manner of his appointment. As a steward of the Owner of the vineyard, he must carry out His instructions in this regard. And when he judges someone, he must do so within the limits allowed by the Owner of the vineyard; otherwise, the judgment he pronounces will turn back upon himself, as the holy apostles say.
When the Owner of the vineyard made this shepherd His steward, it was so that he might care for the vineyard and tend to it — not to take it as a position of glory.
Thus says the Lord:
“Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes!”
He became a steward to care, to labor, to watch day and night, to carry the cross continually — “to give them their portion of food in due season.” He is a shepherd to serve the people, not to be served by them.
So the apostles labored in ministry. And St. Paul said: “If a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good work,” meaning, if one desires to labor for God, to endure, and to offer himself for others.
But if he uses his authority to burden others, to dominate and humiliate them — “if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants” — what does the Lord say of such a steward?
Fearful are the Lord’s words — I write them trembling — “The master of that servant will come on a day when he is not expecting him, and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.” (Luke 12)
Because of the Church’s concern for this parable, she placed it in the Agpeya, to be read in the third watch of the Midnight Prayer every day — that we may remember and fear.
Pitiful is the shepherd who thinks the Owner of the vineyard “delays His coming.”
He is present at all times, seeing everything, watching all. He is the Ruler of all…
If He delays with the vinedressers, it is only that they may repent and correct their ways — not to live carelessly or indifferently.
Otherwise, what does Scripture say of those who acted as if they owned the vineyard — who beat some of His servants, insulted others and sent them away empty, cast some out, and even killed some?
Yes, what did Scripture say of such men? It says: “He will come and destroy those vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.” (Luke 20)
And the Lord said to them: “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.”
How dreadful are these words! May everyone who hears them awaken and fill his vessel with oil before the Bridegroom comes.
May everyone who hears them make friends for himself by unrighteous mammon before the Lord says to him: “You can no longer be steward.”
Let us be certain that we are not the owners of the vineyard. For the Owner of the vineyard is God.
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Article by His Grace Bishop Shenouda, Bishop of Education – El-Keraza Magazine, Year 2, Issue 6, August 1966
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