“Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my
beloved son, perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the tenants saw him, they
said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance
may be ours.’ And they threw them out of the vineyard and killed him.”
“Do Not Want.” On the Internet,
you can find photo-shopped pictures of a dog sitting at a table being served a
plate of broccoli. The dog’s face is crinkled up in a look of disgust. It has
no desire for what is being given to it. That type of sentiment is what Jesus
speaks about in His parable. But when He tells it, the picture is a bit
different. There is more than the “Do Not Want” caption. No, the story that
Jesus tells would be like having the dog knock the plate of broccoli off the
table and then leaping up and mauling the server to death.
This is what Jesus describes
with His parable. He speaks to the people in the Temple right after the
priests, scribes, and elders had challenged His authority to do so. They would
not receive John the Baptist; they will not receive Jesus. No, they want to
keep any word from flowing out of Jesus’ mouth. They want to silence Him. But
Jesus won’t be silent. He speaks and speaks some more. He tells a story that
shows how the priests, scribes, and elders were simply repeating the actions of
their forefathers and about to do even worse.
Jesus’ story about a vineyard
being let out to wicked tenants is simply a retelling of Israel’s history. It
begins with Israel’s planting: “A man
planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for
a long while….” The planting of Israel happened millennia before Jesus. It
began with the call of Abraham, continued with the birth of Jacob’s twelve
sons, and was enacted when the Lord
took the Hebrews out of Egypt and placed them in the Promised Land of Canaan.
This was His nation, His chosen people. The Lord
gave them leaders to teach and guide them in the Covenant that He had
established with them.
But the history of Israel is
plagued with eras and events when the appointed leaders were doing anything but
teaching and guiding the people in the Covenant. Both the priesthood and the
government failed. Both rebelled against the order that the Lord had established. They were to be
good tenants of the Lord’s
vineyard. But they brought forth anything but a good harvest—the right faith
and righteous deeds meant to be found among Israel. Any of that harvest which
happened to be good was not being given to the Lord.
So what was the Lord to do? He sends prophets to warn
and to correct the priests and rulers. They come looking for the harvest that
should be present: “When the time came,
he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit
of the vineyard.” But when those prophets came, there was no handing over
what was expected. No, there was the manhandling of the servants: “But the tenants beat him and sent him away
empty-handed. And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him
shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent a third. This one also
they wounded and cast out.” The prophets were sent, and they were rejected.
It happened to the unnamed prophets and major ones alike.
But the owner has one card left
to play, one last person he can send. Not just a servant will go and visit the
tenants: “Then the owner of the vineyard
said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son, perhaps they will respect
him.’” They would have to listen to the owner’s son, wouldn’t they? When he
speaks, he carries an even greater authority than the servants did. This will
solve the problem. The tenants will hear the owner’s son and change their ways.
“But when the tenants saw [the son], they said to themselves, ‘This is
the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ And they threw
him out of the vineyard and killed him.” With those words, Jesus
discloses what will happen in Jerusalem. He had come at the end of the long
series of prophets that began with Moses and ended with John the Baptist. But
the result is the same in Israel: those whom the Lord sent are rejected by the priests and rulers. And Jesus
knows it. For He had already said: “O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are
sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen
gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is
forsaken.” And that forsakenness of the house of Jerusalem comes when the
owner of the vineyard makes retribution for what the tenants did to his son: “What then will the owner of the vineyard do
to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to
others.”
Jesus’ parable is a message of
judgment against the scribes, priests, and elders who had rejected Him. Their
failure to receive Him as the Promised Messiah would be a costly mistake, for it
has effects both in time and in eternity. But Jesus’ parable also has a message
of hope. Even the murder of his son is not the end. The vineyard in the story
is not destroyed. The owner still has a place where his planting brings forth
fruit. He will get the fruits that his good land produces. The vineyard will
have others put in charge of it.
And this is where you find good
news in this parable. Jesus’ citation of the Psalter shows where it is located:
“But He looked directly at [the people]
and said, ‘What then is this that is written: ‘The stone that the builders
rejected has become the cornerstone’?” The son may be rejected and killed
by the tenants, but the owner’s will is still enacted. The Lord will have His kingdom established; His
Son is the cornerstone on which it will be built. For what the psalm foretold
is what Jesus also foretold: “The Son of
Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and
scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” That day
will be celebrated by the vineyard, as the psalm declares: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This
is the Lord’s doing; it is
marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord
has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
For you who are the Lord’s vineyard, you hear and read this
parable of Jesus not in a vacuum or only in the time setting of the Monday of
Holy Week. No, you read it through the prism of Good Friday and Easter morning.
The owner’s son was cast out of the vineyard and killed. But the Lord’s Beloved Son was also raised on
the third day. Jesus’ words on Easter Evening will make that clear: “Was it not necessary that the Christ should
suffer these things and enter into His glory?” The rejection and suffering
must happen, but it is followed by resurrection and glory. And for you who
receive Him, you have the inheritance given to you.
Note that well. The tenants
thought that they could kill the heir and take the inheritance for themselves.
But that pernicious plot is brought to naught. Their rejection of Jesus brings
nothing but dread to them. Yet, that crucifixion of Jesus followed by
resurrection opens up an inheritance for many. It is what you heard on
Christmas morning in John’s famous words that were echoed again after you made
your confession of sins: “But to all who
did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children
of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the
will of man, but of God.”
This is the blessed fate that
has been given to you, just as it has been given to others before you. Paul
described it in himself, speaking of the changes that happened to him. He went
from one who was a rejecter of the stone to being built on the cornerstone: “If anyone else thinks he has reason for
confidence in the flesh, I have more…. But whatever gain I had, I counted as
loss for the sake of Christ…. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all
things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found
in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but that
which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on
faith.” That is what the receiving of Jesus brought to a Pharisee who had
persecuted the Church. But when built on the cornerstone of Christ, Paul has
his place in the vineyard. The Lord
welcomes him to share in the kingdom.
And so the message of the
parable is directed to you. Acting like the scribes and priests—the wicked
tenants—leads to destruction and loss. That is the fate of those who beat the
servants and kill the son: “When the
stone falls on anyone, it will crush him.” Those who refuse to hear the
prophets and reject Jesus suffer this fate, but this need not be. “Everyone who falls on that stone will be
broken to pieces.” And yet, the brokenness that comes from contrition, from
hearing the message of repentance that the prophets and Jesus brought, will be
answered by being bound up again. The tears of sorrow that you sow for your
unrighteous deeds, your acting like the wicked tenants, will be changed to
shouts of joy. It is so, as you receive Jesus as the Beloved Son and the
benefits of His death and resurrection for you.
Even the apostle had to note: “Not that I have already obtained this or am
already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has
made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But
one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies
ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in
Christ Jesus.” Jesus’ work continues to be done in you, because He has made
you His own. The Lord has willed
you to be part of His kingdom, to be His vineyard. Hearing His prophets and His
Son, now you say that this is what you want. Even the broccoli of hearing the
words of law that they speak about where right faith or righteous acts have
been lacking is actually desired. Your hearts and minds are set on what the
rejected Son of Man brings to you through His death and resurrection. His words
of gospel show you what is yours, as He establishes you on Himself, the chief
cornerstone. Those words will not be silenced; they have been spoken to you.
And so you see that even in the parable about wicked tenants who kill the owner’s
son, the Lord has done great
things for you; you are glad.
+ In the Name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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