“THE PARABLE OF THE WICKED TENANTS” (Matthew 21:33-46)

This past Christmas, as a gift, Sharla gave all of us - Matt and Abby, her and myself - a DNA test that traces your genealogy and ethnicity. Have any of you taken it? The results of my test were not too surprising – I, like many of you, am mostly of European descent with a whole lot of everything throw in. I have Scottish, Irish, and English, and other blood I can’t even remember, all mixed together. But there was one big surprise – the test revealed that I am 13% Jewish. Isn’t that amazing? For a whole week I kept telling Sharla that I am chosen. Come to find out I am 13% Ashkenazi Jew – Jews that came to America from Eastern Europe.

I was telling my brother about this discovery and he said, “Oh, yeah, our grandpa Green – our grandpa on my mom’s side – grandpa Green’s great-grandfather was a Jewish rabbi.” Amazing. All these years I’ve been preaching and teaching about God’s chosen people, and here I find out I am one of them… well, at least 13%. I’m predominantly , but I still like to think that I am chosen and will remind Sharla of that whenever I feel the need to.

A huge part of the story is the story of Israel – and unless we understand the place of Israel in God’s plan for the world, we won’t understand the Bible. After mankind rebelled against God at the tower of Babel, God called out a select group of people through whom He would bring salvation to the world. He called Abraham to be the father of this new nation that would eventually be called “Israel.” God called Israel to be distinct from the other nations in the way they lived, and gave them a set of laws to live by.

Some might say, “Wasn’t God playing favorites by choosing one group of people over another?” The answer is that God is God and He gets to choose whomever He wishes, but He didn’t choose Israel because there was anything inherently good about this group of people – He could have chosen anybody – but He chose Israel. God loves all people, but He chose Israel – not to be superior to everyone else – but to be a light to the other nations so that through them they might come to know the one true God.

But Israel did not live up to her calling. Instead of standing out among the nations, Israel became like the other nations – sinning and rebelling against God. After God chastised Israel by allowing her to spend 70 years in captivity, Israel seemed to get the message. “We don’t ever want anything like that to happen again,” they said. “We need to obey the laws that God gave us centuries earlier through Moses.” Israel’s leaders became obsessed with the law – so much so that they added additional laws to Moses’ law to make sure they were righteous before God.

By the time came to earth, religion in Israel was all about law-keeping. People didn’t even stop to think about the spiritual meaning of a law – all the emphasis was on keeping minute rules and regulations. The most devout law-keepers were the , whom everyone looked up to.

But the Pharisees were sinners just like everyone else – only they didn’t recognize it. When , the fiery prophet, came on the scene right before Jesus and said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,” folks like the Pharisees said, “Repent? Us repent? We have nothing to repent over – we obey the letter of the law. We’re the chosen ones. Tell the sinners and prostitutes and riff-raff to repent, don’t preach at us.” They believed they were shoo-ins for the kingdom. When Jesus came and told them that in order to get into the kingdom they had to repent of their sin and accept Him as their Savior from sin, they refused. Rather than repent and turn to Him, they seek to silence Him and eventually kill Him. Now in Matthew 21 the ongoing battle between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders comes to a head as Jesus enters the city of , and officially presents Himself to Israel as their king. With the throngs of people shouting, “Hosanna, blessed be the Son of David,” Jesus forces the Jewish religious authorities to act and carry through with their plan to have Him killed. After Jesus drives the moneychangers out of the temple, and heals people on their turf, their antagonism against Jesus reaches fever pitch.

In chapter 21-22 Jesus tells a series of three parables, all of which are aimed at the leaders of Israel and their failure to embrace Jesus as their Messiah. The first parable, we looked at a few weeks ago, was the , which showed that the kingdom belonged not to the hypocritical Pharisees, but to sinners who recognized their sin and repented.

Now beginning in verse 33 we come to the parable of the wicked tenants. Verse 33 says, “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place.” Jesus takes the very common sight in Israel – a vineyard – and uses it to teach a spiritual truth. These vineyards are still seen today, and they are often on a hillside where a farmer first clears a parcel of land and plants his vineyard. Then he places a wall around it – usually a rock wall – to keep predators out, to define his boarders and provide security. Then the owner builds a winepress – a shallow pit carved out of limestone – into which all the grapes are dumped into. The grapes are then crushed, and the juice of the grapes flows down a trough, set at an angle, that leads to a vat where the grape juice is collected.

After building the winepress, the owner builds a watchtower in the middle of the vineyard, from which he can look out for intruders or wild animals. The owner would often even live in the tower during harvest season. All this shows that the landowner takes great care of his vineyard, and sets it up to have the greatest possible success.

The landowner in the parable is God. In Psalm 50:12 the Lord says, “The world is mine, and all that is in it.” As the creator, everything in the world belongs to God. You and I don’t really own anything – we are tenants who take care of what God has given us. We manage His property. God gives each us different things to manage – different amounts of money and possessions, different types of talents and gifts, and different amounts of time and different health. We like to think sometimes that we’re in charge of our lives, but we’re not. That’s why God asks of us a tithe. Each time we put something in the offering we are saying that God is the owner. It reminds us that all we have is on loan from God and is a gift He entrusts us with.

Everyone listening to Jesus tell this parable knew that from the Old Testament that the vineyard represented the people of Israel. In the prophet Isaiah writes poetically of Israel being a beautiful vineyard, beloved by God, built on a hillside, with a wall and watchtower. God looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. Despite being set up for success, Israel did not live up to her calling. She didn’t bear fruit.

In the same way, God has called us and saved us to produce fruit. On the night before His death, Jesus said to His disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit” (John 15:16). Just as a farmer builds a winepress because he expects fruit, so God saves us in order to produce fruit – to do good works, to become more like Christ, and to lead others to Christ and disciple them. He gives each of us a unique vineyard to cultivate - whether it’s in your home, at work, at school – wherever God places you is your vineyard. Jesus goes on to say that the landowner was going to be away from the vineyard – he moves to another place – and so he rents the vineyard to some farmers. They have a prearranged deal in which they would keep some of the fruit and the landowner would get some – a system much like the sharecroppers in the old south, who would plow the owner’s land, plant the owner’s seeds, and harvest the owner’s crop. In return, they could keep some of the crop and give the rest to the landowner.

Verse 34, “When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.” This reminds us that there is coming a day of accountability for each of us. One day very soon Jesus will return to earth, and He will inspect our lives and our fruit and judge us accordingly. Now if you know Christ as your Savior, you are forgiven and are no longer under God’s condemnation. He’s not going to judge you for your sin – that was taken care of on the cross – but He will evaluate and judge your works and your fruit.

1 Corinthians 3 says He will inspect at the quality of your work – not only what you’ve done, but the attitude and motives with which you’ve done it. A good question for all of us to ask is: If Jesus returned this week, what fruit would He find? What kind of life would He find you living? The owner could return at any moment, and you and I need to be ready.

The landowner sends his servants to collect the rent from the tenants, but the tenants decide they don’t want to pay up. “We’re going to keep the fruit ourselves.” And when the servants come to collect, verses 35-36 say, “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way.” One job I would not want to have is a rent collector. Who wants to go knock on someone’s door and tell them the rent is due? You might get beat up.

Who are these servants who come to collect the fruit? They are the Old Testament prophets God sent to speak to Israel as His representatives. The last 17 books of the Old Testament are written by some of these prophets – Isaiah, , Ezekiel and many others. There were other prophets that did not write books, like Elijah and Elisha. Whenever Israel got off track spiritually, which was often, God would send prophets calling on them to repent or they would be judged. Guess how they were treated? Not well.

I’ve often said that the prophets had the original dirty job. The pay was low, the hours were unpredictable – God could send you out at a moment’s notice – and worst of all, nobody gave the prophets any respect. They when spoke truth, they were cancelled. The leaders said, “Don’t listen to them.” And very often, they were killed for speaking God’s truth. It was a thankless job, but they were faithful to what God called them to do.

Hebrews 11 – the hall of faith chapter – says this about the prophets… “There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground” (Hebrews 11:35b-38).

Being a prophet was a tough business. Micah was smashed in the face. Jeremiah was beaten and thrown into in a muddy cistern and left to die. Jewish tradition says that Isaiah was the one who sawn in two. Zechariah was stoned to death by King Joash. John the Baptist was beheaded. They killed the messenger. They say, “I’m only telling you what God told me to say…” and whack, they’re dead. Now if I was landowner and all my rent collectors keep getting beat up or killed, I think I’d stop sending them. I’d have a SWAT team sent in and take out the tenants. But the landowner in the parable keeps sending servants, one after the other. What does that tell us? It tells us that God – the landowner – is extremely patient and gracious – giving people every opportunity to repent and change their lives. He is slow to judge. We sometimes wonder why the Lord doesn’t just come back to earth and put an end to all the chaos, but when He does, His judgment will be final and there will be no more opportunities to be saved. Are you saved? Is there someone in your family that isn’t saved yet? We can be thankful that God is patient and not willing that any should perish.

After sending all of his servants to collect the fruit, verse 37 says, “Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.” Its one thing to send your representatives, but its another thing to send your own son. The son carries the authority of the father. “They may have mistreated my servants, but surely they will respect my son and pay up what they owe.”

The Son, of course, is Jesus, who is sent by the Father. Say with me… John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” God didn’t have to send His Son – He could have sent the SWAT team – but He sends His Son and gives Israel one last opportunity to repent and be saved by His Son.

Verses 38-39, “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” How shocking to think that these tenants would have such disregard for the landowner – who had been so gracious and patient – and kill his very own son. Yet the same thing will happen to Jesus, just three days later – the Jewish leaders – those responsible for God’s vineyard – will hand Jesus over to the Roman authorities, and He will be killed. Hebrews 13:12 says He was crucified outside the city gate, just as in the parable the Son is thrown out of the vineyard.

John 1:11 says, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” Despite being chosen by God and planted as a beautiful vineyard, despite God’s patience and grace in giving them every opportunity to repent, and despite sending His Son – born as a Jew – the leaders of Israel would not receive Him. They want to own the vineyard – just like Lucifer wanted to be usurp God’s throne – and instead of embracing Him as their Savior, they kill Him. Why? The same reason many still reject Jesus today – pride. They want to control their own lives, and if someone comes along and tells them that they need to get right with God and change their ways, they shoot the messenger.

Psalm 2 talks about the powerful rulers of the world who rise up in rebellion against God. They say, “We don’t want anyone to rule us, we want to rule ourselves.” Then God the Father declares that His Son will come to judge the rebellious, yet He gives them a chance to yield. He says, “Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and celebrate his rule with trembling. Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction” (Psalm 2:10-12).

“Kiss the Son.” To kiss a king or superior is a symbol of submission and obedience. It is yielding to someone greater than you. The tenants of the vineyard did not kiss the son, they killed him. And to reject the Son is to reject the Father. The only way to the Father – the only way to heaven – is through Jesus – He is the way, the truth, and the life.

What happens next is fascinating. Verses 40-41 say, “’Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? ‘He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,’ they replied, ‘and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.’” Jesus asks the religious leaders, “What do you think the owner of the vineyard should do to these murderous tenants?” Without hesitation they say, “Why, he should string those wicked, wretched tenants up and rent the vineyard out to tenants who will bear fruit and pay the rent.”

The religious leaders don’t realize yet that Jesus is talking about them – they’re the wretched tenants – and now they’ve just indicted themselves. “Anyone who would do such a terrible thing should come to a wretched end – they should be destroyed.” They’re talking about themselves.

In verse 42 Jesus lowers the boom on the religious leaders and says that because of their rejection of Jesus, they are the ones who will come to a wretched end… “Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes?’”

It’s a slap in the face to say to these religious leaders – who know their so well – to say, “Have you never read in the scriptures? You, of all people, should know the consequences of rejecting the Messiah.” Jesus quotes from Psalm 118 – the same chapter Jesus quotes earlier in Matthew 21 when the people shout, “Hosanna, glory in the highest.” Also in Psalm 118 are the words, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Jesus changes the metaphor from a vineyard to a building, but it emphasizes the same theme of Israel’s rejection.

When buildings were constructed in biblical times, they didn’t pour a cement foundation, they used stone. Some of these stones were massive, and one of them you can see near the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is 32 feet long. How they quarried it and moved it is still a mystery. The first stone to be laid in the building was the cornerstone – the cornerstone was important because it set the angles for the rest of the walls and gave the building symmetry. If the cornerstone was not perfectly square and perfectly laid, the entire building would be off.

The cornerstone is Jesus. If you don’t have Him as the cornerstone of your life, everything will be misaligned and off. If you don’t have Jesus, you don’t have a solid foundation. The religious leaders of Israel rejected Jesus – they rejected the stone. Just as they killed the Son in the parable, they reject the stone. And because they do, judgment is coming.

Verse 43, “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” Here Jesus signals the storyline of the rest of the Bible. Because Israel rejected their Messiah, God will find new tenants for His vineyard. He’ll take away the vineyard from Israel - who rejected the Son – and give it to those who will receive the Son. The kingdom is given to the to the .

A Gentile in the Bible is anyone who is not a Jew. After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension back to heaven, He will begin working through a new entity – the church – made up of everyone who believes in Him – including Jews and Gentiles – anyone who claims the name of Christ. Instead of working through one particular group of people – Israel – He will work through all people who receive Him and bear fruit in His vineyard. The book of Acts records how the apostles and early Christians were responsible tenants – spreading the throughout the world to all people. This does not mean that God is done with Israel. Israel still has a future and they will one day inherit the kingdom God promised them. But right now God has put them on the bench – they’re in a time-out – while God has put other players on the field. Right now God is working through His church. But one day Jesus will rapture the church and take all Christians to be with Him in heaven. The book of Revelation says that in the tribulation period to follow – God will once again work through the people of Israel – raising up 144,000 witnesses to spread the gospel on earth. And when Jesus returns to earth after the seven-year tribulation period, Israel will look upon the one they killed and mourn. They will at long last embrace the Messiah they had rejected.

Verse 44 says, “Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” With a rock you can build a beautiful building, or it can fall on you and crush you. Here Jesus says that those who reject will be crushed and broken to pieces. What you do with Jesus is serious business.

The prophet Daniel talks about this in a vision he had about a stone rolling down a hill and crushing the empires that rejected God. Here Jesus announces judgment on these Jewish leaders – because of their stubborn unbelief, the kingdom would be taken away from them, and they would be crushed. 40 years later, in AD 70, the Romans would completely crush the city of Jerusalem – over a million Jews would be killed – and the rest would be scattered throughout the earth.

Verses 45-46, “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.” By this time, they can’t miss the fact that Jesus is talking about them – they are the tenants who killed the Son, and they are the ones who rejected the cornerstone. They are given yet another opportunity to soften their hearts and turn to Christ, but instead they continue in their quest to arrest him. They would do so, but they were cowards – they’re afraid of how the people might react. They would have Jesus arrested under the cover of darkness two days later.

This parable serves as a warning to us today to not repeat the rejection of Israel’s leaders. You and I can either cooperate with the landowner and gladly serve Him and His Son, or we can go our own way, live life on our own terms, and reject the Son. You can either build your life on the cornerstone of Jesus, or stumble over Him and be crushed.

If you do know Jesus, consider it a joy to work in His vineyard. Everything we have is His. Let’s serve Him with our whole heart, so that when He comes to collect His fruit, we will be able to present Him a bumper crop for His glory.