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- Last week we talked about the parable of the
two sons and we learned that it is better to be an honest sinner who repents
than a hypocritical Christian.
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Jesus was warning the spiritual elite, the chief priests, against their coming
judgment.
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Matthew gives the parable of the vineyard immediately after Jesus challenged
the Sadducees with the parable of the two sons.
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We find the roots of this parable in Isaiah 5:1 to 7 in which the prophet
Isaiah, speaking on God's behalf, complains about the vineyard he planted and
cared for but which produces worthless grapes. Let's read that passage.
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Isaiah's parable is an allegory about judgment that persuades listeners to
judge themselves.
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The vineyard represents Israel, the owner is God, and the fruit is Israel's
behavior.
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But there is more: The Dead Sea Scrolls associated Isaiah's song of the
vineyard with the Temple, & the later Aramaic paraphrase of Isaiah is more
specific in that "the watchtower" becomes "the sanctuary"
and "the wine vat" becomes "the altar."
- The carnage foretold by the prophet is
because the Lord removes the presence of his glory, the Shekinah, from the Temple in judgement.
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The chief priests would have immediately understood that Jesus' addition of the
tenant farmers pointed to them, and they would have deeply resented it because
they would have understood it as an indictment of judgement from Jesus.
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But why does God judge his people? He
judges them because they have not borne fruit for his kingdom.
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Each of God's servants is called to bear
fruit for his kingdom.
- Bearing fruit for the kingdom is one
of the major points in this parable.
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The parable highlights a few things.
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First, the parable of the vineyard highlights the foolishness and wickedness of tenants who ignore the real owner of
the vineyard.
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It seems like nonsense for tenant farmers to think they can get away with
robbing the vineyard owner of his share of the harvest.
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But if we understand a little bit of the background of that time, absentee
landowners were fairly common and tenant farmers often had to pay as much as
50% of the harvest to the landowner.
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It was also not uncommon for fruitless vineyards to be uprooted and destroyed
and replanted later.
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Not only did they think they can get away with fraud, but they thought they
could get away with assault and murder.
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Everyone in the ancient world would've looked upon these actions as treachery.
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What could they hope to gain by murdering and assaulting the Master's servants?
What could they hope to gain through the murder of the Master's son?
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If it were not so tragic and deceitful, the actions of the tenant farmers
border on the absurdly comical.
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Their reasoning is foolhardy because in the end they will gain nothing and lose
everything.
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By thinking they could gain anything through their actions the tenant farmers
were only deceiving themselves because the retribution of the landowner would
have been certain and swift.
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The chief priests admit that the owner of the vineyard "will put those wretches to a miserable death and
let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their
seasons." Matt 21:41 (ESV)
- Jesus has nothing good to say to unfaithful,
treacherous servants that refuse to bear fruit for the kingdom.
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Each of God's servants is called to bear
fruit for his kingdom.
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Second, God is depicted as too patient,
the parable also warns that God will judge corrupt spiritual leaders.
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While each of God's servants is called to bear fruit for his kingdom, not just
any fruit will do.
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The fruit that God is looking for is the fruit of righteousness and obedience.
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God has been patient with Israel's disobedience and Jesus highlights that in
this parable.
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As we read and reread the stories of the Old Testament, time and again God sent
prophets to Israel because she had turned away from him and time and again the
prophets get abused, even murdered.
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The landowner in this parable thinks to himself, "they will respect my
son," but the tenant farmers have shown no indication that they will do
any such thing.
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As the divine son, Jesus has a special relationship with God and rejecting him
will spell certain doom upon Israel, especially Jerusalem and the Temple which
fell in 70 A.D.
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Each of God's servants is called to bear
fruit for his kingdom.
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Third, Israel's leadership will soon be
judged.
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The tenant farmers thinking they would inherit the land because they murdered
the only son and heir is more than just nonsense; it is madness.
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No law in Israel existed that would give the land over to the ones who had
murdered the son.
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In the Old Testament, when Ahab pulled a stunt like that so he could get
Naboth's vineyard God called him to task & you can read about that in first
Kings 21.
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By having the corrupt leaders pronounce judgment against the tenant farmers;
Jesus has them judge themselves because they have not borne fruit for God's
kingdom.
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In fact, they have done quite the opposite; they have borne fruit for their own
self-centered little kingdoms.
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That is not what God's servants are called to do. Each of God's servants is called to bear fruit for his kingdom.
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After their forced admission of guilt, Jesus again challenged their
understanding of Scripture telling them that he himself in kind or type
fulfills Psalm 118:22-23.
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This stone that the builders rejected will become the cornerstone for a new building
a new nation that will receive Israel's inheritance.
-And
the purpose for this new nation is to produce servants of God who will bear
fruit for his kingdom.
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In his warning to the chief priests, Jesus told them so: Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be
taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. Matt. 21:43
(ESV)
- This parable of the vineyard points to four additional
significant things.
- First, it points to Israel's rejection of her
Messiah and his execution outside the city walls. And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
Matt. 21:39 (ESV)
- Second, Jesus is the son, the rejected stone who
will become the chief cornerstone. There can be no other foundation than
Christ.
-Third, the new tenants for the vineyard are the
church. The church represents the new nation, the new people who inherit the
promises of God and his salvation.
- Fourth, God's new people are called by God to
live righteously before him and produce fruit that will glorify God.
- As I have said all along: Each of God's servants is
called to bear fruit for his kingdom.
- What kind of fruit is God calling you to bear and
what kind of fruit is he calling this church to bear?
-Let's remember what Jesus told the chief priests: Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God
will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. Matt.
21:43 (ESV)
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Each of God's servants is called to bear
fruit for his kingdom.
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