“Fathers have eaten green grapes,
thus their children’s teeth are on edge”?
This is how our first reading from Ezekiel opens up today. It apparently was a well known proverb in the land of Israel at the time of Ezekiel. But what is this saying supposed to mean? Green grapes? What if they are seedless? Concord grapes? And what about teeth being on edge? Sounds like a dental nightmare.
First, I looked up the whole “teeth on edge” thing and it refers to anything that causes you to be irritated or something that is unpleasant. Like me saying “Opera music sets my teeth on edge” or “My teeth were set on edge when the food came out undercooked”. Some event resulted in a less than favorable result.
And what about green grapes? Well, some translations word it as “sour” grapes. Have you ever eaten the candy, Sour Patch Kids? Imagine sucking on a lemon while guzzling a pint of vinegar. You get the idea. Not a good feeling. But one that you would expect to only effect the one consuming the bitter combination.
The crux of the parable then is that the acts of the Father (eating sour grapes) effects the children (teeth on edge). In the context of what is going on at the time of Ezekiel, you need to know that the Israelites are in exile in Babylon. And they are lamenting their fate. Ezekiel is prophesizing to them that it is their sins that have put them in this predicament. And he gives them a list of examples.
If a man is virtuous—if he does what is right and just,
if he does not eat on the mountains,
nor raise his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel;
if he does not defile his neighbor’s wife,
nor have relations with a woman in her menstrual period;
if he oppresses no one,
gives back the pledge received for a debt,
commits no robbery;
if he gives food to the hungry and clothes the naked;
if he does not lend at interest nor exact usury;
if he holds off from evildoing,
judges fairly between a man and his opponent;
if he lives by my statutes and is careful to observe my ordinances,
that man is virtuous—he shall surely live, says the Lord GOD.
But the Israelites want to blame their situation on the sins of their fathers. What is called intergenerational guilt. They are not responsible for being in captivity. It is the generations before them that are responsible. They have just been in the wrong place in history.
So are we guilty of the sins of our Fathers? It seems to indicate that we are from these readings from the Torah:
You shall not bow down to [idols] nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.
(Exodus 20:5, 34:7, Numbers 14:18, and Deuteronomy 5:9)
But in today’s readings God seems to back track:
As I live, says the Lord GOD:
I swear that there shall no longer be anyone among you
who will repeat this proverb in Israel.
For all lives are mine;
the life of the father is like the life of the son, both are mine;
only the one who sins shall die.
The saying is now null and void according to God. But how can it be both? Aren’t they in opposition to one another? Not necessarily.
I know of a Father, who shall remain anonymous, who led a very selfish life. His focus was mainly on his own gratification. Gaining wealth in any way he could then gambling it away. Spending little time with his children allowing them to grow up without guidance. A sinful life to say the least. His sons led similar lives as they grew into adults. Getting mixed up in drugs and illegal activities. Again, sinful lives for certain. But each of them had children and they were stellar parents. Sacrificing time and resources for their kids who are turning out to be wonderful people.
Did the sins of the Father automatically transfer to his children? Or did the sinful model encourage the children to commit their own set of sins. God did not punish this generation automatically. It is the effect of a lifetime being separate from God that serves to often lead the offspring down that same path. But it is their individual choices that lead to sin, not automatic punishment by God for the behavior of the parent. The chain can be broken as we see in the example. Each generation is responsible for their own behavior. When sacrificial love predominates, the subsequent generation can break free. As Jesus tells his disciples in today’s Gospel:
“Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them;
for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
