Last week we asked some questions that expose a deep-seated belief in the sacred/secular divide. Today I want to briefly explore part of the Biblical text of Matthew 21:33-41. Now typically when we study this passage, our attention is centered on Israel’s rejection of Christ as Messiah. For the sake of this series, however, I want to focus on several other issues.

First, a landowner plants a vineyard, puts a wall around it, digs a winepress, and builds a watchtower. Observe here some echoes of Eden—a vineyard, a wall, and a watchtower. In light of the fall of humanity recorded in Genesis 3, our current status is outside the garden—note the implied wall and watchtower in the language of “cherubim” and  “flaming sword…guard[ing] the way to the tree of life.” We now work in a vineyard marked not by a “tree of life” (which eventually reappears in a recreated garden/heavenly city—see Revelation 22:1-2) but rather by painful toil, thorns and thistles, sweat of our brow, and death (see Genesis 3:17-19). 

As noted in Genesis 2:15, humanity was tasked with work long before the fall. Work was good; man was made in the image of God “to work it and take care of it.” The Hebrew words for the first part ("to work it") are translated elsewhere as work, serve, and even worship. And the second part ("take care of it") is translated elsewhere as to keep, to watch, or to preserve. 

We could say that our original purpose in Eden included stewardship of a garden—working, serving, keeping, preserving—ultimately as an act of worship. Our current work in a “vineyard” is similar to that which took place in a “garden” but has the added curse of difficulty, weeds, perspiration, and death. Work itself is not evil, but is an act of worship and service—a worthy calling that helps us fulfill our purpose on earth.