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| Disputation of the Sacrament - Raphael |
Jesus speaks to you His words saying,
“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?”
Quite literally, Jesus says, “Is your eye evil because I am good”. It is, of course, an idiom unique to the Greek that the New Testament is written in, but it is of special importance to us, because we have eyes from God and God has continuously used those eyes to reveal Himself to us, even as we see Him today upon this Altar.
In the first place, however, it was the same eyes we have that deceived our first parents in the Garden. Jesus continually chastises us in that Original sin which we retain, saying things like, “He who has ears to hear and eyes to see” (Mt. 13:15) as in the eye was created to see, but sin has corrupted us so much that we only see dimly, through smoke and mirrors (1 Cor. 13:12).
What our eyes see are the grumblers in the vineyard as opposed to the workers in the vineyard. We want to see those other people get punished for their crimes. We want to see those “others” get what they deserve, because surely we are not like them! Too bad for us that God says we are sinful and that our eyes our sinful. So much so that Ecclesiastes 1:8 says: “All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.”
And Psalm 6;7 and 31:9 says, “My eye wastes away because of grief; my soul and my body also.”
In other places, Jesus uses this same phrasing about the eye being evil.
Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look with evil on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. (Deut. 15:9)
And in 1 Sam. 8:6 “But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord.” The word “displeased” is literally, “evil in his eyes”. Similarly, “doing right in their own sight”, is “doing right in their own eyes”, in the Bible.
How we use our eyes precludes our actions, because actions take planning and our eyes betray those plans. Potiphar’s wife “cast her eyes” upon Joseph to catch him in adultery with her (Gen 39:7). When you “close your eyes” that means you have died (Gen 46:4).
So it is that when we come to the prophet Jeremiah and hear him say, “Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord” (28:5), he is literally saying that he is speaking in front of their eyes. Meaning, when we are talking about “seeing” in the Bible, we are talking about presence.
In the Old Testament reading, Moses is doing nothing in secret. All of his divinely charged actions are performed in front of everyone; in everyone’s eyes. And what has happened in everyone’s eyes thus far? The plagues, the pillar of cloud and fire, and the parting of the Red Sea. Much to Moses’ dismay, these Israelite eyes are cast downward in sin and they willfully forget, even when the Lord Himself gives water from the Rock as St. Paul says:
“The Rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4).
So far had the eyes of humanity fallen, that not even a rock bleeding out water was enough to prevent further grumbling. Just as all the eyes on the denarius, in today’s Gospel, was not able to convince the grumblers about the true nature of the gift.
Each and every time in the Bible, it is the small and passed over that was the sight to see. It is because, it is the small that suffer. The Rock is scoffed at, the vineyard is mistreated, and the denarius is spat upon. Even the eye itself is taken for granted though it contains over 10 million photoreceptor cells that capture the light pattern formed by the lens and convert it into complex electrical signals, which are then sent to a special area of the brain where they are transformed into the sensation we call vision.
Jesus is passed by and passed over by us in our sin and it began with His birth. There was only a few shepherds and a handful of wise men that showed up, not all of them. Growing up in Nazareth, no one thought anything good came from there, so He had no regular visitors.
Even as He sat on the cross, working out the greatest feat known to heaven and earth, “…those who passed by derided Him, wagging their heads” (Mt. 27:39). There God was in front of their eyes, saving them, and they had the chutzpah to declare that He needed saving. Yet, since Jesus had the only eyes that worked properly, the rest fallen far short of God’s glory, He did not pass this opportunity by to die for His enemies: sinners.
And it is no different today. When Jesus continues to present Himself as the Crucified, He is still passed-by by those who consider His gifts beneath them, saying along with the Israelites: “Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at [with our eyes]” (Num. 11:4-6)
In Christ, God lifts up our eyes to see Him. That is the phrase for revelation. Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the ram to be sacrificed and not his son. Moses looked up and saw the Lord in the burning bush. The whole congregation of Israel lifted up their eyes and saw the Glory cloud descend upon the Temple during the Divine Service.
Our church also teaches us this lesson, during the Lord’s Supper. Eyes that are fixed on the Lord see this manna from heaven and declare, with Jesus, “This is my Body ; this is my Blood”. “Eyes on Jesus” means our eyes are lifted away from the “downcast eyes” concerned only with sin, to see and have our vision filled with the Sacrament of Christ.
Christ is the man Who labors in the parable from today’s Gospel. Now we have eyes to see Jesus and ears to hear Jesus and Jesus is creating the Vineyard, planting it, nurturing it, cultivating it, and making it produce a hundred fold.
He digs the well in it, carves out the irrigation, encircles it with a wall and a guard. There is not one thing the laborers in the parable have to bring. I’m not even sure they do any work, though they are called laborers, but they would not be if they had not been hired by the Lord. All the things are Jesus’ to give to them. And He does so, without cost.
Yes, the grumblers find something to claim as their own and Jesus doesn’t even argue with them. But the grumblers have such a small role to play and it is only to point out the Lord’s generosity, for many more workers receive the good things from “…a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant” (Josh. 24:13).
“…do not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes…” (Num. 15:39). Though you see dimly, it is for your good. If you were to see properly, you would not be seeing anything except the Light of the Son Transfigured before you; in other words, not at all.
Jesus goes so far to say in John 9, “If you were blind, you would have no sin, but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” In our sin, we are blind to the generosity of the Lord at His own Table. In Christ our eyes are lifted up to see that the manna, the Bread from Heaven is enough.
We see the heights of heaven opened before us and the Lord sitting on His Throne, high and lifted up. We see the Rock, pouring out water and Blood from His side, onto the Table. We see, with out eyes, God in the flesh, giving us an imperishable wreath, spiritual food, spiritual drink, and a denarius for our labor, which is eternal rest at His side.
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