The parables in St Matthew’s Gospel are eschatological in their message.
As the liturgical year draws to a close, our attention is always turned towards the judgement that is coming. This is especially the case in the present year in which we are reading St Matthew, and it is a notable feature of the first two Sundays in October.
On the first Sunday of the month we read Matthew’s version of the parable of the Wicked Tenants, which most scholars believe Matthew has taken over from Mark. While in the latter Gospel this is one of just two big “set-piece” parables, balancing the Parable of the Sower towards the beg-inning of the Gospel, Matthew has already added a great many others, and many of them with a clear message: the Wheat and the Tares, the Dragnet and the Unforgiving Servant, all unique to Matthew, have already come, each with their strong overtones of judgement, and the Foolish and Wise Virgins and the Sheep and Goats will follow, intensifying the theme of Christ as a preacher of divine judgement.
