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THE PARABLE OF THE TENANTS IN THE VINEYARD(Mark
12:1-12; Matthew
21:33-46; Luke 20:1-8)
1
He then began to speak to them [the
religious leaders] in parables: A man planted a vineyard. He
put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower.
Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away
on a journey. A
SAD PARABLE OF REJECTION AND JUDGMENT
While
Jesus does not explain the parable, it is not difficult to interpret.
It was the last of his public parables in the last week of
his life and is the history of Israel from God’s point of view.
The parable is told against the Jewish religious and political
leaders who clearly saw that the parable condemned them (verse 12;
cf. 11:27). The result
of Israel’s repeated rejection of God’s messengers, and the plot
to kill Jesus Christ, would be judgment, but God’s purposes would
still be accomplished. Thus
history and prophecy are interwoven in the parable. A
PARABLE WITH MANY DETAILS THAT HAVE MEANING
This
parable comes closer to being an allegory than most of the New Testament
parables as there is a similarity with many of the details of the
story and the reality to which they point.
The context was typical of Galilee in the first century.
Wealthy absentee or foreign landowners who leased their land
to tenant farmers owned much of rural Palestine.
The tenant farmer gave part of the harvest to the landowner
to pay for the use of his land. It
is implied that the “man”
who tended the vineyard with loving care represents God who created
Israel for a special purpose (Romans 9:4-5).
The “vineyard”
or a vine was a well-known image of Israel: “The
vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men
of Judah are the garden of his delight.” (Isaiah 5:7; Psalm
80:8; Jeremiah 2:21) The
“wall” and “watchtower”
indicate protection. The
“farmers” or “tenants” represent
the religious and political leaders of Israel.
The “servants”
sent to collect the rent represent the rejected prophets including
John the Baptist who were sent to bring Israel to repentance. The “fruit” is righteousness
but Israel had failed to be God’s agent of salvation to the world.
The owner’s heir, “a son, whom he loved”, with unique status, was sent as a last resort.
“Last of all” has a note of finality. Together with the “capstone”,
he represents the Messiah Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-2). THE
WONDERFUL GRACE OF GOD
The
arrival of the son and heir was the owner’s final attempt to solve
the problem of the dishonest and cruel tenants.
So Jesus Christ is God’s last and final word of revelation
to humanity. Despite
the warning contained in this parable, and in other parables, Israel
killed its promised Messiah according to “God’s
set purpose and foreknowledge” (Acts 2:23).
However, in God’s plan of salvation the rejection of the
Son of God by Israel gave the Gentiles their opportunity of becoming
the people of God. The
awesome and wonderful grace of God turned the disaster of Israel’s
rebellion into a blessing for all nations. The
application in verse 9 points to the rejection of Israel: “Give the vineyard to others”.
It was bad enough when Israel rejected the prophets who were
God’s “servants” (verses
2, 4, 5), but now the nation was about to reject God’s Son.
Those who rejected the king would themselves be rejected,
and their specially privileged position would be taken away and
given to others. Jesus
warned Israel, especially its leaders, that they were about to lose
their status as God’s special people.
Ironically, the religious leaders fulfilled the story soon
after it was told.
Instead of taking the warning, they tried to arrest him. The
“others” or “other tenants” (Matthew 21:41) i.e. the “people who will produce its fruit” or “nation”, (Matthew 21:43) was a reference to the Gentiles and the
worldwide Christian Church.[3]
The leaders of the Church would replace the religious leaders
of Israel: “The kingdom of
God will be taken away from you.”
(Matthew 21:43). The
religious leaders even pronounced their own sentence: “Bring
those wretches to a wretched end.” (Matthew 21:41)
The “wretched end”
of the wicked tenants foreshadowed the destruction of Jerusalem
and its temple by Rome in A.D. 70.
The murder of Jesus Christ was the climax of centuries of
rebellion and defiance. The
owner was justified in executing the tenants and giving the vineyard
to others. This was
not “ethnic cleansing” but a change of the leadership of God’s people. ISRAEL PUNISHED BUT RESTORED Although
the whole nation was implicated by the actions of its leaders, this
was not a final rejection of Israel.
It is a mistake to equate the “tenants”
with the “vineyard”. The kingdom was taken from the disobedient religious leaders
(chief priests, scribes and elders), rather than Israel itself.
In Romans chapters 9 to 11 Paul argues that while the particular
generation of Israel that rejected the Messiah lost favour with
God, God has not rejected Israel herself.
God will restore Israel through their faith in Jesus as Messiah:
“All Israel will be saved”
(Romans 11:26). Here
the reference must be to Israel herself, not to the Church.
The Church is not
Israel and the Church has not replaced Israel, although this
present age is undoubtedly the Church Age when the Church is the
chief agent and instrument of the kingdom of God.
(The reader is referred to Appendix D: Israel and the Church) JESUS
IS THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THE CHURCH
Jesus
changed one metaphor for another.
In the Old Testament a stone is familiar symbol of God and
the Messiah. Here the
image of the stone portrays a turning of the tables and God’s vindication
of Jesus Christ. The
apostle Peter later used the same quotation (Psalms 118:22–23) as
a reference to the Messiah: “He
is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone”
(Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:7).
Jesus as the rejected Stone would be exalted by God to become
the keystone or cornerstone of a new temple, the international Christian
Church gathered from both Gentiles and Jews.[4]
This temple is not made of wood and stone; it is a people
in Christ in which God lives by his Spirit.
Each member of this new community is a living stone in a
spiritual temple (1 Peter 2:5) that is truly “a
house of prayer for all nations” (Mark 11:17; Isaiah 56:7). In
the account of Matthew and Luke, Jesus referred to Daniel’s prophecy
of a stone “cut out but not
by human hands”. Those
who do not accept the authority of God’s Son will be crushed into
bits: “Everyone who falls
on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls
will be crushed.” (Luke 20:18; Matthew 21: 44; Daniel 2:34-35,
44-45) “Falling
on” the cornerstone echoes Isaiah 8:14–15, whereas the stone
falling on the offender echoes Daniel 2:34, 44, where God’s rule,
described as a rock, crushes its rivals at the end of this age.[5]
The image is one of judgment, retribution and destruction.
It means that the stone
crushes whether it falls on someone or someone falls on it.
Metaphorically the word “crushed”
means “to scatter like chaff or dust”.
The coming Roman judgment of AD 70 brutally crushed Israel
as a nation. GOD
ACTS IN MERCY, NOT BECAUSE WE DESERVE IT
His
hearers were the religious leaders, “the
chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders” (11:27)
and their challenge to his authority led to this parable. There are warnings here for us as well. History has a way of repeating itself. Truth
About God
The
parable continues Jesus’ teaching about authority.
God made the earth to be a vineyard and entrusted the Jewish
nation to be its caretakers.
This is God’s world and he has generously provided for our
welfare. But Israel, like many of us, adopted “squatters’ rights” and
claimed the property and its fruit for ourselves. God is our landlord who entrusts our lives and our property
to us. God
is patient but finally he brings justice when he judges disobedience.
The parable teaches that a wilful refusal of God’s plan will
lead finally to God’s judgment.
We should never presume upon the patience of God.
The original hearers would probably wonder why the landowner
had not taken action against the tenants sooner.
We have all rejected God’s authority in our lives.
He looks for fruitfulness from his people in their character
(Galatians 5:22-23; John 15:8) and in their evangelism of others
(Romans 1:13; 16:5). Truth
About Jesus Christ
Jesus
refers to Psalm 118:22–23, a prophecy where the stone (Jesus) that
the builders (his opponents) rejected has been made the cornerstone[6]
of a spiritual temple (Acts 4:11; Romans 9:32-33; 1 Peter 2:6-9).
The “stone”, rejected
by the “builders” (the
religious and political rulers), would become the foundation and
the focal point of a new community of God’s people
“Jesus himself as the
chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20) of the temple consisting
of believers from every part of the earth where Gentile and Jew
are on equal terms. To
the believer, Jesus Christ is the chosen, precious foundation stone;
but to the unbeliever, he is a stone of stumbling.
Those who do not accept the authority of Jesus Christ will
be “broken” and those who are judged by him will be “crushed”. Modern evangelism is tempted to preach to non-Christians what
a secular world wants to hear, and to speak to believers comfortable
words with little challenge to live as Christ’s disciples. Truth
About Humanity
Like
the tenants we are free to choose but we remain accountable to God.
Originally made in God’s image with a capacity to love and
serve God, humanity has chosen to rebel against their Creator and
Redeemer. It is a characteristic
of our age that many people ignore God or openly reject him.
Many would like to believe that God is non-existent or dead
or has no bearing on their lives so that they can pursue personal
independence unrestricted by divine authority.
Sometimes people will believe anything but the truth of the
gospel of Christ. Jesus
is still the rejected Stone in many lives. Today
Western societies believe in the cult of the sovereign self that
is focused on self-interest, a self-centered spirituality, and personal
rights. Societies that
were once influenced by the Christian faith now have secular values
such as relativism, paganism and religious pluralism as their foundation.
Christians who proclaim the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as
the only way of salvation are accused of fanaticism and bigotry. We all deserve to be crushed by God’s judgment but God offers
us mercy and forgiveness in Christ.
God is patient in judgment.
Yet the judgment of God is inevitable if we reject God’s
Son. This parable teaches
that rebellion brings just retribution with a promise of hope and
restoration. Truth
About Israel’s Leaders
The
main point of the parable is the warning in verse 9: “What
then will the owner of the vineyard do?
He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard
to others.”
There is irony in verse 10: “Haven’t
you read this scripture?”
Jesus suggested that the priests did not know the very Scriptures
of which they boasted. Little wonder the religious authorities wanted to arrest him!
The tenants or Jewish leaders went from bad to worse.
They began by beating a servant and ended up killing the
owner’s son because they remained obstinately unrepentant.
Evil tends to grow.
This defiant and insolent attitude cut them off from God’s
grace and mercy. Finally they lost any spiritual privileges they had.
Those who reject Jesus Christ reject God, and find themselves
rejected by God. Privilege
carries responsibility. Truth
About Christian Leadership
The
story is a failure of stewardship and responsibility.
The religious leaders failed to properly care for God’s people.
They who were entrusted with the care of the vineyard mistakenly
regarded it as their private business.
They were arrogantly running their own religious empire,
building their own status, and not building God’s kingdom.
Church leaders constantly face the same danger of mismanagement
as the bad tenants in this story.
It is easy to run a church or a Christian organization as
if it were your own and not God’s.
Leaders should be careful not to become so personally attached
to a particular part of the vineyard lest their own ideas replace
those of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is the foundation of the Church, not human leaders.
Let us pray for the integrity of the Christian leaders we
know. The
ultimate loyalty of all believers must be to the will of God. Any of us, with the best of intentions, can hinder God’s work
and lose God’s will for our lives.
Regrettably it is possible to organize exciting programmes
and activities that are not centred on Christ, the cornerstone,
and consequently they are spiritually unfruitful.
If we refuse to hear God he will find other people to bear
his message and fulfill his will.
In this respect, God often moves through unexpected channels
and through unrecognized ways. FOR
REFLECTION
PRAYER
Lord,
giver of all, we enjoy greater privileges than Israel had. Help us to bear the fruit that we should, and show our thankfulness
to you by offering praises from the heart, and by helping those
who are in need. Jim Peacock MA (Hons), Diploma of Teaching. [1]
Other translations have “head
of the corner” (RSV, Phillips), “keystone”
(Jerusalem Bible), “corner-stone”
(NEB), “chief corner
stone” (NASB). |
