The Vineyard War

Jesus’ parables have a shrewdness, which made them highly effective in communicating extremely controversial messages. The parable of the landowner facing off against wicked tenants is a prime example. It is unmistakably a powerful condemnation to a sinful religious establishment in the spirit of the ancient prophets. The Lord tells the following story:

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.” They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers? (Matt. 21:33-40; cf. Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19).

The injustice of the tenants is so clear, even the audience knows how the ending that brings genuine resolve should be: “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons” (Matt. 21:41).

It is hard to think that a people committed to the study of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writers, like the Pharisees, would miss the striking parallels to the words of Isaiah: “Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones” (Isa. 5:1-2). These haunting lyrics foreshadowed the great Babylonian exile that would befall on sinful Judah in the days of Nebuchadnezzar.

Similarly, Jesus’ parable of the landowner’s dispute with wicked tenants of the vineyard concerns the reaction of the people to the message concerning the kingdom of heaven. God had sent prophets like John to Baptist to preach and prepare people for the kingdom come; yet, the sinful religious establishment rejected their message, and even committed violence against the messengers. God sent His own Son, but the sinful religious establishment sought to get rid of Him just the same. The words, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance,” make very little sense, in that the master would not simply give them squatter’s rights upon hearing the news that the heir to the land had been murdered, but such is the futility of rejecting the prophets of God.

Jesus then cites Psalm 118:22-23 concerning the stone rejected by the builders becoming the chief cornerstone. This song gives thanks to the Lord for delivering Israel from all the nations that sought their destruction. Yet, Jesus turns the tables in declaring: “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it” (Matt. 21:43). God would not be building up the nation of the sinful Pharisees; instead, He would rise up a righteous people who would bear fruit. God’s righteous nation would be solid as a rock, “and he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust” (Matt. 21:44). One can drop a glass cup upon a rock or drop the rock upon the glass cup, either way the glass cup is crushed. Here Jesus alludes to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the great statute with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron and clay, which was pulverized by a stone (Dan. 2:31-45). The dream, of course, peered down the corridor of history, unveiling the rise and fall of Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece. Yet, the stone would be the emergence of God’s everlasting kingdom, which was inaugurated with the first advent of Jesus Christ. Nothing shall overcome this kingdom.

When I reflect on the manifold wisdom of this parable, I cannot help but realize how easy it is for me to think, “Yes, God take out those wicked tenants, and secure your vineyard for the righteous.” What is more difficult is being opened to the possibility that sin can make the most of me to become more like the wicked tenants. What if I am misusing all the blessings that God has given me? What if I despised and rejected all the warnings of correction God would send? Christ’s parable directs all to the need of redemption, for God to enter into the picture, and reshape us into a people He can call His own. Those who resist God’s calls to repentance in the end shall be crushed and scattered like dust. On the other hand, there is the possibility of being part of an everlasting kingdom.

~ WGN