Walking in the Spirit: Embodying Christ's Love and Grace — Fr. Moussa El-Gohary

In commemoration of the third anniversary of the departure of Fr. Moussa El-Gohary, hegumen of St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church, Natick, Massachusetts USA, the following is a translation of a homily delivered on August 11, 2002 by Fr. Moussa El-Gohary. May his prayers be with us.

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In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — One God. Amen. May His grace, mercy, and blessing be with us all, now and forever, and unto the age of all ages. Amen. []

Today, our subject is from the Gospel of our teacher St. Luke the Evangelist, chapter 20. The Lord Jesus Christ, during the last week [of His earthly ministry], would go to the Temple and return to Bethany. In those final days, He entered the Temple and found in it sellers of doves, sheep, and cattle, and so He was deeply grieved that the house of prayer was converted into a place of trade and profit. This reflects also on the sellers, the thieves, the priests, the scribes, the elders, and the leaders of the people. They were all giving one another. And so He was grieved that the house of holiness and prayer was converted into a place of business. Using a whip, he drove out the sellers of doves and overturned their tables, and said to those who were buying and selling, and those who kept the money, “My house is a house of prayer” (Luke 19:46) which is a prophecy from the Old Testament in which the Lord said: “My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves” (see Jeremiah 7:11).

As a result of this event, the people gathered to hear Him, as it was their custom, because they enjoyed hearing His words. He gave them a similar parable, which is the parable of the vineyard and the vinedressers:

“A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time. Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent another servant; and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away shamefully treated. And again he sent a third; and they wounded him also and cast him out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him...’ But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others” (Luke 20:9-16).

The Lord said these words as a parable, “and when they heard it they said, ‘Certainly not!’” (Luke 20:16), meaning that they understood the analogy and that it applied to them, and that the vinedressers were those thieves and robbers. It is as if they understood what they were doing, and so they said “certainly not!” But as for Him, “He looked at them and said, ‘What then is this that is written: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone’? Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.’ And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people — for they knew He had spoken this parable against them” (Luke 20:17-19).

How does this parable apply to the scribes and pharisees? The vineyard is the Church of the New Testament: the Lord has chosen His people, set them apart, taught them, trained them, and granted them all the commandments and teachings and promises and oaths so that they would be the chosen people of God. So this is the vineyard. He showed them the way, the path of blessing, and the cursed path [which is] the path of sin. He gave them many examples, worked goodness for them, and freed them from lowliness and slavery by the hand of Moses the Arch-prophet. When He went with them to the wilderness, God would speak with them and they would hear Him, to the extent that they would be afraid (see Exodus 20:18-20). And every day, they would see God in the figure of the pillar of cloud going before them by day and a pillar of fire guiding them by night (Exodus 13:21-22). They saw Moses when he descended from the mountain with his face full of light such that no one was able to look at him [after] he had spent forty days and nights speaking to the Lord (Exodus 34:29-35). They also experienced how all of the commandments which the Lord sent to them were all helpful and greatly beneficial to them. This is the vineyard which He planted.

The subject of the vineyard is found in the Old Testament: the Lord also spoke of the vineyard which is the house of Israel. Of course, what is meant by this is not that the vineyard is the house of Israel, and that since Israel did not obey and became divided and scattered, and that the story of Israel ended, that the vineyard has also ended. No. The vineyard is the people of God, or the Church of God. In the Old Testament it was handed over to the vinedressers who were the Levites, the priests, the scribes, the leaders of the faith, and the elders. So these vinedressers received the vineyard, and it is known that when someone goes to rent a field, garden, or vineyard, they are supposed to look after it and work in it for the sake of its owner, and to give an account for this work that was stewarded to him — an income or wage. He receives the vineyard, cultivates it and eats bread from it, but he must also offer from the vineyard, to the owner of the vineyard, from its fruits and the income of the vineyard in which he works. It was an obligation for them to offer fruit to the owner of the vineyard. The fruit, of course, is holiness and good works, or the works that conform to the Law, rules, [and] teachings [] which the Lord gave to them.

The one who toiled in the planting and work of the vineyard is the Lord. Of course, it says here “a certain man planted a vineyard” in symbolism — the man who planted the vineyard is God the Father; “planted a vineyard” is the Church of the Old Testament; “leased it to vinedressers” who are the scribes, priests, elders and Levites. Then, it says he traveled “for a long time” and waited many eons for this vineyard, every now and then sending a prophet — and it was known that they killed the prophets in the Old Testament, such that even Elijah himself said before the Lord: “[they have] torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets” (see 1 Kings 19:10). They killed, sawed, and stoned many people: Zechariah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and many from the Old Testament. These are they about whom He spoke here when He said, “he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed.” When the prophets came and began to ask and exhort the people, saying to them “where have you gone,” they began to speak also to the priests. When we read in the prophecies of the Old Testament, such as that of Joel which says “lament, you priests; wail over the sacrifice that has been cut off and over the captivity in which you have entered” (Joel 1:13) — Israel was in captivity many times because of sin and because of their straying from the Lord; and they lost wars although they were sometimes victorious without a weapon. [For instance,] in the days of Joshua, once Joshua became the leader after Moses, they walked around a village and destroyed it, or a city and destroyed it, knocking down Jericho by their shouting — saying that the war is for the Lord — and as they went around the city, they were just shouting, screaming, and praising the Lord, and so the walls were destroyed (see Joshua 6). But then when they stood in great wars against small villages, they lost because they had forsaken the Lord. When they held fast to the Lord, He would always deliver them. The prophets would always reproach them, saying to them “Why are you forsaking the Lord?” So when the prophets would reproach them, they would persecute the prophets. He sent to them one prophet and a second and a third from the men of the Old Testament — the men of God — but they “beat him and sent him away empty-handed.” And here it says “Again he sent another servant; and they beat him also,” and more than this, they “treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed” or “shamefully treated.” “And again he sent a third,” and alongside the beating and humiliation, they “wounded him also and cast him out” and expelled him also.

What does this mean? If we stop here for a moment, we find that the owner of the vineyard is insistent that there be fruit in the vineyard. He would not relent until this vineyard, which He intended to bear fruits, must bring forth fruits. He forgave them several times with the messengers whom he sent, and he forgave them with the hope that they would awaken and realize that his will is that all “are saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (see 1 Timothy 2:4). The will of God is that there must be spiritual fruit: there must be godliness, holiness, righteousness, obedience to the commandment, adherence to the Law, and behavior according to the Lord’s charges. This is the insistence of the Lord, that there must be fruit in the vineyard.

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[recording skips]

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He sowed the seeds and he will return to look for the fruit of the seeds. Here, it is not saying that he sowed seeds, but the parable is that he planted a vineyard, which is a very different stage than merely planting seeds: he has thrown and planted the seeds, grown them, watered them, and is now waiting for the fruits. He has done everything himself and has merely entrusted it to the oversight of the vinedressers to care for it and collect its fruits for the sake of the owner of the vineyard.

[Now] see the persistence of God for the salvation of mankind. So “the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do?’” He is not worried about those who were killed and humiliated, or that they have dishonored him personally, or that they have prevented the fruits that he wants for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He is rather concerned that this vineyard not be ruined — it must bring forth fruit. He said, “‘What shall I do?’ I will send my beloved son.” “They have disrespected those whom I have sent, and I have to solve this problem, so I will send my beloved son, because when they see my beloved son, they will be embarrassed in knowing that he is the owner of profit and the owner of the vineyard.” “But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’” This reveals the ingratitude of the Church of the Old Testament, or the ingratitude of the Jews, Hebrews, scribes, and elders whom Christ came and rebuked in Matthew saying “woe to you, scribes and pharisees” (see Matthew 23); [] all of these woes applied to them because their hearts did not move at all, but they rather dared to seize the owner of the vineyard to kill him.

We realize here that insolence has reached an extensive degree in those evil people. According to the parable, they saw the only son and said “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.” Has anyone ever seen a servant brought to serve in a house to work and receive a wage at the end of the day, go on to kill the master of the house in order to inherit his house? Does any servant inherit from his master? Does any servant get rid of the owner of the house, considering himself entitled — see the evil that they are living in: “let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.” By what law? Neither a secular law, nor a moral law, nor a spiritual law gives them the right to inherit this inheritance. But this shows that avarice and greed [] usurp this stewarded property, the vineyard, and made this vineyard their own property. So because of the extent to which they took possession of these fruits and harvested them and took them to themselves, they put in their minds, because of the extent of the evil in which they lived, that this was rightfully theirs and no one else’s. So [because of] their darkened minds and their thoughts that were full of evil and selfishness, when they saw the son, they said “behold this is the heir, come let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours.” So they “took him outside the vineyard and killed him” and this of course is the Lord Jesus Christ alluding to Himself in this parable. That this is the Son!

And when He speaks and says “when the vinedressers saw him, they said ‘this is the heir, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours,’” [this is] because they saw that when Christ spoke and preached the people and spoke to the people, all the people began to follow Him. So they became scared about themselves and their authority. So much so that the high priest said “You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!” (John 12:19). [] And in the end, the high priest, with foolishness and ignorance, said “let him die!” “…it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish” (John 11:50). He did not understand that he was uttering a prophecy, but he was expressing the hate that was within him and the hate that was in the shepherds and judges of the Old Testament who led the people — the evil Levites.

And truly “they took him outside the vineyard,” and at this time Christ had not been killed [and] had not been crucified. “They took him outside the vineyard and killed him.” He was warning them regarding what was in their hearts. And here, in this parable, the Lord was uncovering the past and the present and what would occur in the future also. So He said “what will the owner of the vineyard do with them?” The owner of the vineyard is still insistent, because He desires fruit from this vineyard. So He said, “he will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others.”

If this parable was a general parable given for warning or teaching or preaching, they would have merely heard it and said “what is He saying?,” “how do we understand [it]?,” [] “what does He mean?,” and one would say “He means this or that.” But because they understood every word, because the Old Testament is full of parables in which God addresses the vineyard and says, “What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it?” (Isaiah 5:4). “I planted a vineyard of a choice sort and built for it a fence and built a winepress in it and built for it a tower and set guards over it, and asked of it that it would produce good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes” (see Isaiah 5:2).[1] These words are often found in the Old Testament, so when He speaks of the vineyard, their ears are open. So they understand everything [He is saying] but are acting ignorant.

So when He said “what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others,” they understood that He was saying this about them, so they said “certainly not!” [That is,] “far be it from us.” They were saying “far be it from us.” “Far be it from us” that He would come and destroy them and take the vineyard and bestow it to ones who are faithful.

But what about what you are doing, is it evil or not? The fact that you have stolen the vineyard from the owner of the vineyard, is this not evil? You have considered what you were doing to be good. The standards of measurement in your minds have become darkened, O priests or trustees or Levites of the Old Testament, and you considered the vineyard to be your own personal property, and that when it is taken from you and given to its [rightful] owners, this is evil, so you say, “far be it from us.” And when you kill the son of the owner of the vineyard, is this not evil? And when you kill his servants, is this not evil? And when you take possession of the vineyard and do not give its fruit to its owner, is this not evil? They did not see any of this to be evil, but they considered it evil for this authority to be taken from them and given to others.

Of course, when they said “certainly not!,” they did not say “certainly not!” as in “far be it from us to kill someone” [or] “far be it from us to participate in a crime” [or] “perhaps they were thieves and wicked but let them not be criminals and murderers.” But they did not say these things. They said “certainly not for the vineyard to be taken from us for the sake of our portion and that of our children.”

This shows [] those priests and those laborers or servants, who served the Church of the Old Testament, that their eyes saw the benefit of the service to be an earthly benefit. And this is among the most fearful things, my beloved, in the service over all the ages and eras — that the service is transformed into a trade or the service is transformed into a personal interest in which the servant, or the trustee, thinks that this is a post for him or a position for him to live by, not understanding that in the first instance, he is coming to labor and to offer fruit to the kingdom of heaven or to the owner of the vineyard who is God. So once the vision strays, or the vision of the servant or slave or vinedresser or laborer deviates from this truth, he begins to fear lest this parable apply to him such that instead of being in the vineyard of the Lord laboring for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, he instead labors in his own stolen vineyard which will inevitably be restored to the owner of the vineyard and for which he will give a difficult account.

So their hearts were occupied with personal interests, and here Ezekiel and Jeremiah and the Old Testament prophets spoke of the shepherds who cared for themselves and left the sheep and slaughtered the fattened calf and ate and drank from the produce of the sheep and destroyed it, and did not offer to its owner the account of the stewardship. This shows the outcome of those who prefer their own personal interests to that of God.

This is with respect to the service and with respect to shepherding and with respect to the vineyard.

Of course, as we continue in the parable, He said “he will destroy the vinedressers and give the vineyard to others.” The Church does not die due to the corruption of those who are set upon her, but the Church is transferred — or the service of God or the kingdom of God on earth is transferred — from hand to hand while God watches over His Church. It cannot perish and cannot be ended or stopped because of a minority that is corrupt or domineering or authoritarian. But God is able, at the proper time, to transfer it into the hands of the faithful about whom the Holy Bible says: “shepherds after my own heart” (Jeremiah 3:15). To shepherd the sheep and shepherd the flock with honesty, watchfulness, nurturing, and care.

So He has transferred this shepherding and this Church in the New Testament to the Church of Christ — the Christian Church — and delivered it to the Apostles and the Disciples. And from that time, He truly transferred it to those vinedressers. And of course, the shepherding of the New Testament differs entirely from the shepherding of the Old Testament, because He considered that all who came to follow Him must follow [His example] or imitate Him. If the owner of the vineyard did not have compassion on his only-begotten son, but gave his only-begotten son so that the vineyard might be rooted and fruitful and bear good fruit, then all the servants and laborers who follow Him in the Church of the New Testament have before their eyes Christ as the example of the manner by which the shepherds must live in the New Testament.

For this reason, we hear in most of the eras and most of the times and ages that have passed over the leadership of the Church, how much the shepherd, in all ranks and levels of responsibility in the Church, watches over the sheep and watches over the flock and serves the flock with honesty and uprightness and also if it comes to him giving his life, many were martyred because they were entrusted with the service of the flock and the service of the Church. Many examples — Peter, the twelve, Paul, the martyrs of the first and second and third centuries. Many examples of the Christian leaders who were subjected — and until this day and until yesterday and this morning continue to be subjected — to humiliation and harshness and wounding for no reason besides their watchfulness over the Church and her vitality. And all of us read and hear how much the newspapers are libeling and defaming the Church. Because this age is considered among the ages of revitalization in our Church in this generation and in this modern era. How many churches have opened and how many people have come to know God and how many services are being undertaken and how many activities are being undertaken and how much God’s glory is spreading over the face of the earth. May God continue His work and bless it and cause it to grow, and how many souls know God today, and are gathered and congregated around Christ and around His Body and Blood. For this reason, when the world becomes envious over this, you find a kind of wounding and humiliation and this shows us that in the Church of the New Testament, no one is searching for his own selfish ends or his own honor but puts his honor under the Cross, and shuts his mouth as Christ about whom it is said “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). So also are all faithful servants — in the time of wounding and harshness and humiliation, they do not open their mouths and are content with looking to the Example and saying “it is enough for us to be like Christ our true shepherd, the Good Shepherd, who said about Himself: ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep’ (John 10:11).”

Until here, what has been said applies to the parable. Perhaps the hearer might say, or you may be seated here saying: “We are not shepherds, and these words are consoling and sweet and good and we have understood them, but what does it have to do with us?” Do you know that you are laborers in this vineyard? Awaken and revive! This vineyard is not only with respect to the priest and bishop and patriarch and the servants, but it is the responsibility of the flock understood from the parable. The vineyard is your life also. It is the vineyard which Christ has planted. Your life and your home — your personal life — is your vineyard. So do not forget or think that this parable does not apply to you. It applies to you and to me personally and applies to us as a community and a church and applies to us as servants and as trustees and shepherds.

So when we look at it from the perspective of applying this parable to our lives, see: “the Lord planted a vineyard.” He has given us this grace and planted His knowledge in our hearts. We who were first sinners and who did not know anything and who were far from our Lord, He has made us sons. We were evil. He has made us sons by baptism. And He has delivered to us the Holy Spirit and made us a vessel for the Holy Spirit and granted the Holy Spirit to dwell in us such that He calls us “temples of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit dwells in us” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). And we read in Galatians that the Holy Spirit has fruits. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are known and many, and include love, joy, peace, faith, gentleness, chastity, longsuffering, kindness, goodness — many fruits for the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). He who has the Holy Spirit has in him a vineyard — the vineyard of the Lord, or the kingdom of God dwelling within you (see Luke 17:21). So this kingdom is the vineyard.

The vineyard within you, when Jesus sends one, two, and three messengers — what are the messengers He sends? The word that is read, the word that is heard, the sermon that you hear or the tape that you hear. The word that reaches you by any means or in any way is a servant of the servants of God or one means which God sends to you to tell you “I want fruit. Where is the fruit of the Holy Spirit that is in you? You shut your ear, you toss aside the word, you neglect the sermon, you neglect the Bible, you neglect to read the word of God.” We “don’t feel like reading the Holy Bible.” None of us cares [for it], we read it for knowledge while not knowing that when we read the Holy Bible, it is a real source of blessing and consolation, [] a source of spiritual nourishment, a source of the Holy Spirit, but also a messenger from the Spirit of God — from God speaking to us to alert and bring to our recognition that we will offer an account of our stewardship and offer an account of the field we have been given or the vineyard which has been entrusted to us.

God has granted us talents and gifts, and the word of God we read in the Holy Bible is a word of warning and notice and caution that we will inevitably give [an account]. And many times we read the Holy Bible without caring, and many times it is read in our hearing while we are sleepy, and many times we hear sermons that go in one ear and out the other. While we do not know that these are all counted for us, my beloved, just as the Lord counted on those servants whom He sent and who returned empty-handed. For this reason, the Lord speaks straightforwardly in the Holy Bible, saying: “my word does not return void” (Isaiah 55:11). He has set it with a certain measure and a certain efficacy. The word of our Lord, when He utters it, the word we hear, the word our Lord grants us from the Bible or from any sermon or from any word, must not return void. Not “not return void” as in for example a hundred hear, at least two or three or five repent and return to God and confess and become good and commit to living with God. No! The meaning of “does not return void” [is] hold onto the word of God in your heart and do not permit it to return void! If you have nothing, offer even a small cake (see 1 Kings 17:13-15). Even five loaves (see Matthew 14:17-18). Even the crumbs [you have]. It must “not return void” from your home, as a person. Do not look to those around you. Look to yourself. The word of God “must not return void.” When you hear the word of God — it says, “when you hear His voice,” the Holy Bible, “do not harden your hearts!” (Hebrews 3:15). So every word you hear is counted. You must offer something for it. It does not return void.

Tell Him, “Lord, I heard the word of today, and I offer you from today’s word that I will be awake and watchful over this vineyard.” You hear a word about purity and righteousness, you say “Lord, I heard this word and help me to try to begin to purify my senses and pay attention to my [fleshly] life so that I may live in purity.” When you hear any word, as much as you can, as much as you are able, as much as your means permit, the word of God must not return void. The Lord says “my word does not return void” and “I am watchful over my word to perform it” (Jeremiah 1:12 DARBY).

My beloved, when the Lord transmits to us His words, sometimes we forget our own vineyard and look to the vineyard of the neighbors and say “how sad, they do not have fruits” or “this one does not have fruit” or “this one is bad” or “this one has spoiled” or “this one has thorns” or “this one has sour grapes” or “the foxes or crows have eaten this one.” What have you done with your vineyard? Some are even far-sighted and say “what about those who are not Christians, what is their fault?” [] Do not waste your time over [such matters]! Pay attention to what our Lord has granted you! You were born in Christianity, you are immersed in grace and you are entirely full of blessings and gifts! Do not waste your time! The vineyard entrusted to you comes with a responsibility! What have you to do with who has received and who has not? Our Lord will search for the non-Christian and knows how to deal with him and knows how to judge him and knows how to send him the word. This is His way — it is His work and His specialty. But you take heed to your own vineyard.

So you as a person are responsible for this vineyard. The Lord sends to you laborers, or the Lord sends to you servants once, twice, and thrice. And then, the Lord also, out of His tenderness, kindness, patience, and compassion on us, sends us His Only-Begotten Son. How many times does the Lord Jesus Christ Himself personally stand at your door and say “open to me! Enough! Wake up! Return from the path you are on! Enough hardness of heart! Enough sin! Enough ingratitude! Enough love of the world! Enough running after the blessings and gifts I have given you — life and health and money and talents — for the sake of your earthly life!”

The Hebrews were of this sort. They took the blessings God had granted them, over which He had made them stewards, and lived in them so as to fill and satisfy and enrich and fatten themselves, but did not trade with them for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. So they used this vineyard in a carnal, earthly way, and were therefore deprived of the kingdom of heaven. So also we, my beloved, often become preoccupied with our daily lives and are concerned with the kingdom our Lord has granted us, or the vineyard our Lord has granted us, in a carnal way. And care for the flesh is “enmity against God” (Romans 8:7). Care for the flesh is death, but care for the spirit is life, because we work for the good of the kingdom of heaven.

So the Lord sends to us Himself when we hear His voice in the word, when He offers Himself on the altar, when we hear His warnings and directions and exhortations that we turn away from sin and return and become reconciled to Him and cast away sin from our hearts and transform our hearts and transform our thoughts and transform our emotions and become reconciled and live in peace and live in love and become transformed for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is incredibly precious and incredibly sweet! So we may attain it!

Believe me, because of grudges, we miss out on the kingdom of heaven. This is not my own [teaching]. It is from the Bible! Grudges prevent us from the kingdom of heaven. The Lord said: if you come to receive communion, “and there remember that your brother has something against you” (Matthew 5:23-24), do not partake of communion! You are not entitled to communion. Meaning you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven! Meaning if I die while holding a grudge against someone, I will not enter the kingdom of heaven! If I die while I am fighting [with someone], I will not enter the kingdom of heaven! If I die while there is something between me and someone else, I will not enter [the kingdom of heaven]. If I die while judging people, I will not enter the kingdom of heaven. My beloved, awaken! Because this is not cruelty, or difficulty in entering the kingdom of heaven, because the kingdom of heaven is very precious and very costly and very great! It deserves some labor from us — not to lie, not to swear, not to curse, not to hold grudges, not to judge, not to become upset with another, not to commit daily sins or impurity or evil or negligence or postpone the word of God and repentance.

For this reason, when the Lord speaks to us, let us not harden our hearts. But let us know that He is warning us because He will come one day and ask for the fruit of this vineyard. So when we hear this parable, my beloved, let us awaken, because this parable is very precious. It was uttered by the Lord Jesus Christ before His crucifixion on the Cross, and He says, as did John the Baptist, “even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. [Therefore] every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10). When He cuts down and throws into the fire, my beloved, He will not be cruel. Because what preceded this was the [offering] of love and tenderness and patience. He was patient. He sent one messenger in a season and another in another season and yet another in another season, and at the end He sent His beloved Son, and despite sending His beloved Son, He was not occupied with the fact that His beloved Son died as much as He is concerned with the fact that the vineyard must bear fruit. God insists that your life and my life have fruit.

And if it does not bear fruit, He will confront us in the last day and say “What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it?” (Isaiah 5:4). What could there be that I have fallen short in? If our Lord stood with us today in a sort of mock trial. [] If He stands with you and me one by one today before we walk out of the door of the church, and says: “what did I fall short in doing with you? Why do you not bear fruit for the kingdom of God? What do you lack? Tell me, what did I fall short in doing with you? Did I fall short with you in sending you My word? In sending to you the Holy Spirit? In granting you the Mysteries? In granting you warnings? In granting you life and health and willpower and a mind and all means by which you could say ‘have mercy on me, Lord’ as did the sinner and the tax-collector and the right-hand thief and the adulteress. Why have you not repented?” “What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it?” (Isaiah 5:4).

So the one who hears the voice of the Lord and the one who hears the word of God and the one who hears the warnings and threats and promises must know and awaken not because our Lord is cruel, but because our Lord persists and insists and demands that we go to the kingdom of heaven. Look at it in this way, my beloved. He does not want us to be deprived of the kingdom. He wants us to enter the kingdom of heaven. So He requires us to be watchful and pass our daily, difficult lives in which we live, in which we find excuses and [] find ourselves unable to awaken or become invigorated or rise or pray or worship or fast or cry out to God or repent, because the kingdom is easy.

With some simple labor, we will spend eternity in glory and a kingdom indescribable! Which cannot be compared to any bodily enjoyment or pleasure! Because all bodily pleasures are petty and despicable and end with the end of the bodily life. But godly enjoyment and the pleasure of the kingdom of heaven is incomparable and inexhaustible. The human on earth — nothing satisfies him. But there, we will feel satiation, gratification, peace, reassurance, and we will feel that we are truly at rest. Here, even while someone is enjoying anything, he feels at the very least [] fearful lest he become deprived of this pleasure, because he cannot guarantee its persistence. Here, nothing is certain. But there, at the very least, there is certainty. There is no thief or anyone to take it from me or anyone to deprive me of it or anyone to remove me from the kingdom. For this reason, my beloved, the Lord persists and insists that we all have a share in the kingdom of heaven.

When we read this parable, let us pray for one another, for the sake of our souls and for the sake of the Church, so that God may always grant in every generation fruit in His vineyard, and that He might support and strengthen the shepherds or the servants or the vinedressers, that they may be faithful until the last breath.

To our God be glory in His Church now and forever. Amen.

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[1] Fr. Moussa is reciting this verse from memory.

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The sermon, in its original Arabic, is available here.

Fr. Moussa El-Gohary was born on March 5, 1935, in el-Minya, Egypt, and was ordained to the priesthood on May 23, 1980 at the hands of His Holiness Pope Shenouda III of blessed memory. He served as a parish priest at St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in el-Manial, Cairo, Egypt, before being sent by Pope Shenouda III, in December 1990, to St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church in Natick, Massachusetts, USA, to serve as that parish's first permanent priest. Following over three decades of faithful ministry to that community, and many others in the United States and abroad, Fr. Moussa reposed in the Lord on November 5, 2021. This homily was translated by Beshoy Armanios, a member of St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church in Natick, MA, and a lifelong disciple of Fr. Moussa El-Gohary. He is currently completing a Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the University of Connecticut.

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