Chaos in the Vineyard

And if it hadn’t been for you
and Marlene and the willing body singing heartily, I would have
really struggled. So thank you for that. It was
worshipful. If you would take your Bibles
and turn back to the Gospel of Luke and chapter 20, Luke chapter
20. I find it somewhat distressing
and humbling. I find myself to be ashamed that
there now in the majority of our congregation are people who
don’t know that I am an accomplished gardener. For the last several
years, as many of you know, I have struggled in gardening. This
past year was perhaps my worst of all years, where I put in
the tomato plants and planted the carrots and the beets and
then turned my back and let them fend for themselves for the four
hot months. I did get a few tomatoes, a handful
of beets, but it was nothing like the olden days. Perhaps
I called to mind the Kriegers and perhaps Of course, the Kriegers
could testify. Maybe only the Kriegers know
of my previous gardening accomplishments. When we first moved here, I came
from Illinois, from the Midwest. Illinois and Iowa were, you know,
you could throw anything in the ground and it would grow to unrecorded
heights. And I had outstanding gardens
there, the first in many years, and found it just a joy to get
back into the earth and to grow things. One of the things that
I started growing there was melons of all kinds, and squash, and
all different varieties of squash. I think I’ve even told you tongue-in-cheek,
and this is a true story, the first year I was in Illinois,
I planted 16 zucchini plants. Some of you have grown zucchini.
All you really need is one zucchini plant between about eight neighbors.
Well, here I had these 16 zucchini plants and they began to be so
productive and I had so many zucchinis, I was putting them
in cardboard boxes in the alley and nobody was taking them. The
little quip that they have in the Midwest is that if you have
to pay for zucchini, you don’t have any friends. Well, I went
on from there, from those grand accomplishments, and really focused
my attention on melons. And I began to grow all kinds
of different varieties of melons and squash and other things,
and had a beautiful garden when we first moved here and lived
on Troutman. The backyard was ratty and huge,
and so I finally talked my wife in. I said, what’s the difference
if we just till the whole thing up and make a garden out of it?
She liked the idea during the summer. during the winter months
when it turned to a giant mud hole, it wasn’t so pleasant.
But one of the things that I, as I said, that I love to grow
were these melons. And in the Midwest, they grow
this thing called the musk melon. It’s like a giant cantaloupe.
I’d never had one before, and I’ve never had one as good outside
of the Midwest, but I tried. And I was growing my prize melons,
and I went out one day to check on them, as you’re supposed to
do, And it was as if overnight the vine had wilted. I went out
to get my prize melon and there at the end of the vine sat my
melon, no longer drawing nutrients from the vine. And I came to
find out, because I’m a gardening expert, The vine had developed
some kind of a virus called wilt and, you know, there’s technical
terms and bugs cause it and they bring the disease and the disease
causes the vine to die. And there’s no hope for the melon
at the end of that vine. I went out to get what was mine.
I went out to get my melon. I went out to check its status
and it was hopeless. And that is exactly the situation
in the passage before us. God had a garden. In a very real
sense, he still does. And God went out to check his
garden and God went out and discovered the same thing that I did. That
his garden was fruitless. I want to take you to this passage,
it’s a rich one, one of my favorite parables. The parable of the chaos in the
vineyard. If you would, let’s go to verse
nine and we’ll come back and set the context and study it
more closely. Verse nine, Luke begins to record.
He went on to tell the people this parable. A man planted a
vineyard, rented it out to some farmers and went away for a long
time. At harvest time, he sent a servant
to the tenants so that they would give him some of the fruit of
the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty
handed. He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and
treated shamefully and sent away empty handed. He sent still a
third and they wounded him and threw him out. Then the owners
of the vineyard said, what shall I do? I will send my son whom
I love. Perhaps they will respect him.
But when the tenants saw him, They talked the matter over.
This is the heir, they said. Let us kill him and the inheritance
will be ours. So they threw him out of the
vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the
vineyard do to them? He will come and kill those tenants
and give the vineyard to others. When the people heard this, they
said, may this never be. Jesus looked directly at them
and asked them, what is the meaning of that which is written? The
stone which the builders rejected has become the capstone. Everyone
who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on
whom it falls will be crushed. The teachers of the law and the
chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately because
they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they
were afraid of the people. The Pharisees fear continues.
fear to carry out the plan that is in their hearts, the plan
that they will ultimately carry out, the plan that we saw even
last week they sought to put in place. And yet still the fear
of the people and Christ’s popularity with the people controls them.
They know that they can’t operate clandestinely and without being
detected by the people. People even probably sense their
hatred for Christ. So they will wait. This parable, as you know, follows
on the heels of Christ cleansing the temple. That’s one of the
things that began to set the religious elite off. The scribes,
the Pharisees. Was Christ coming into their
temple, which wasn’t theirs to begin with? and reforming it,
setting it straight, cleansing it from all the vile activities
that were taking place. That, together with the reception
that Christ had when He came in, the hosannas that were sung,
the palm branches that were laid, the clothes that were thrown
in the path as an honor to Christ. All of those things now played
in the mind of the religious elite and they hated Christ all
the more. In the following verses, following
the cleansing of the temple, we saw how Christ had his authority
challenged by the Jews. They hated him for this proposed
authority that he had. They wanted to know where it
came from. And he wouldn’t answer their questions because they
wouldn’t answer his own. And it’s an interesting turn
of events. Jesus has them right where he wants them. They came
to him thinking that they were going to put him on the spot.
And he turns the tables almost immediately and begins to ask
questions of them. And he starts with a parable
that Luke doesn’t record. Both Mark and Luke omit this
first parable. And for that, I just want to
turn just for the sake of context, keep your finger in Luke and
turn to Matthew chapter 21. Keeping in mind that they had
just asked Christ. On whose authority he was operating,
who gave him this authority, what kind of authority was it?
Where did he get it? Jesus asked them point blank.
If the ministry of John the Baptist was legitimate or not, and they
feared the people so much, they wouldn’t even answer Christ’s
question. Jesus mercifully had given them the hope that if they
simply reconciled the ministry of John the Baptist, they would
know that Christ’s authority was from God. And immediately
Christ turns the tables on them. And in verse 28 says, But what
do you think? A man had two sons. He came to
the first and said, son, go work today in the vineyard. And he
answered and said, I will, sir. And he did not go. Now, for those
of you who are parents. I know that sounds like a familiar
scene, but the scene that Christ was presenting to them was the
disobedient son called Israel. who Christ had laid out. God, from the very early stages
of redemption, had laid out the directives to Israel and they
said they would go. Remember the striking image in
the book of Exodus? All that God has said we will
do, we will be obedient. And within days, within days,
they had spurned God’s word. I will, sir. That’s what Israel
had said. We’ll do what you want, God,
but they didn’t. Verse 30 records that he came
to the second son and said the same thing, but he answered and
said, I will not. Yet afterward, he regretted it
and went. This refers undoubtedly to the heathen nations. Who wanted
nothing initially to do with God. And then in time, the gospel
was turned to them and they responded and they became the choice people
of God. Jesus asks these religious teachers,
which of the two did the will of his father? Obviously, they
said the latter. Jesus said to them, truly, I
say to you that the tax gatherers and the harlots will get into
the kingdom of God before you and that That to me, if I’m reading
the Gospels correctly, that is the point. That is the final
straw for the Pharisees. For them to be told that sinners
such as tax gatherers, harlots were going to get into the kingdom
of heaven before them. This is what we call in our modern
day fighting words. This was now a fight to the death. Jesus states the reason for this
drastic conclusion, John came to you in the way of righteousness
and you did not believe in him. They had just acknowledged that
he asked them simply, was John the Baptist ministry of God or
not? They couldn’t even acknowledge it because they knew that if
they acknowledged John the Baptist, they had to acknowledge Christ
and they would not do that. They would not. John came to
you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him.
But the tax gatherers and harlots did believe him. These were the
people that went following John the Baptist and were repented
of their sins and were baptized and began to prepare their hearts
for the Savior. Who now they had met. And not
even that, not even these drastic conversions. played on the hearts
of the Pharisees. Look at Christ’s final statement.
And you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward,
so as also to believe Him. They wouldn’t humble themselves.
They had their position. They were sticking to their guns,
even if it cost them their soul. When Jesus, if you would, turn
back to Luke, When it says he went on to tell the people this
parable, the people no doubt includes his apostles. It certainly
includes that broader sphere called the disciples, those that
were following the harlots, the tax gatherers, the sinners. But
it absolutely included. The scribes and the Pharisees
and the Sanhedrin, it absolutely included them. It denotes those
who were of the Sanhedrin, the very people that Jesus had just
silenced by His answer, left them dumbstruck. Jesus concludes
that if they’re not going to speak, I will. Jesus isn’t ready
to let them leave. He’s not going to let them off
the hook. The parable that He gives here is an important lesson
for them. I believe that this is a plea,
another of a long line of pleas. that the scribes and the Pharisees
would humble themselves and see the foolish and sinful error
of their way and repent and place their faith in Christ. You know,
the parable is not a difficult one. For those of you who have
been with me and studying various parables, you know that there
are some outlandish things that are done with parables from time
to time as people take them and allegorize them and make it make
all the different elements mean all kinds of fanciful things.
This is not one of those parables. It’s so simple and the truth
lies so close to the surface that very few outlandish ideas
have been attached to this over the years. God is the vineyard
owner. The vineyard is the people of
God. It is Israel, yes, but it’s far
more than Israel. It encompasses all of God’s people. The harvest. Quite simply, it
is the fruit of righteousness that God expected Israel to bring
forth. We’ll see that in a moment. Repentance,
faith, godliness, kind treatment of one another. Vine grower. Those vine growers are the religious
leaders. Those are the tenants. Those
are the ones that God rented the vineyard out to. Great reminder
that it’s not our church, not my church. It’s God’s church. It’s God’s vineyard. We just
happen to work in it. The slaves are those prophets
of God who would at times come and call people back to God’s
standards. And the Son, easiest element of all to determine,
the Son is God’s beloved Son, none other than Jesus Christ
Himself. There’s really just three elements, scenes of this chaos in the vineyard. Look, first of all, at the vineyard
being established, the vineyard established beginning in verse
nine, where Luke records Jesus is saying a man planted a vineyard,
rented it out to some farmers and went away for a long time.
This imagery wasn’t new. Luke doesn’t record the full
verbiage that was used likely on that occasion, because Matthew
and Mark both do record it in much more full fashion. And I’ll
tell you exactly what it is momentarily. But this was an image that especially
to the Jew was vivid and familiar. Because the image was one that
Isaiah had presented. Hundreds of years earlier, That’s
why Jesus used this image, because the Jews would have known this
image instantly as soon as they heard it. Luke’s purposes are
somewhat different writing to a Gentile audience, and so Luke
doesn’t record it. But the words in Matthew and
Mark are almost identically that of Isaiah, chapter five. Listen
to Isaiah, chapter five. 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. And he dug in it all around and
removed its stones and planted it with the choicest vine. And
he built a tower in the middle of it. And he hewed out a wine
vat in it. Then he expected it to produce
good grapes.” God has a garden. This isn’t the first or even
the only time that this image of a vine being equated with
Israel as used, it was a very common illustration. In Psalm 80, listen to this,
Psalm 80 verse 8, Thou didst remove a vine from Egypt, Thou
didst drive out the nations and plant it. You cleared the ground
before it and it took deep root and filled the land. He’s talking
about Israel. The mountains were covered with
its shadow, the cedars of God with its boughs. It was sending
out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the river. Why
has thou broken down its hedges so that all who pass will pick
its fruit?” The psalmist begins to lodge a complaint with God
that the vine there is Israel. Jeremiah. Chapter 2, verse 21,
I planted you as a choice vine, a completely faithful seed. How
then have you turned yourself before me into the degenerate
shoots of a foreign vine? You know what? As an expert gardener,
I have learned there are seeds that I will not buy. Brands.
There are catalogs that I just throw away now. I only buy good
seeds. And there’s a reason for that
because I’ve learned my lesson from trying the other stuff.
My famous one, of course, remember the great big deal was the Tahitian
melon vine. I should have known. This thing
grew, I’m not kidding you, I think it weighed 50 pounds and it was
shaped like a horse collar. And then we cut it and try to
eat it. There are times where just I’m not saying that. I’m
saying that spending your money on things like that novelty is
a waste of time and effort and seeds. And what God is saying
here is He used perfect seed. I planted you a choice vine. There was nothing wrong with
the product. Ezekiel uses the same imagery.
Ezekiel 15, the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man,
how is the wood of the vine better than any wood of a branch which
is among the trees of the forest? Can would be taken from it to
make anything or can men take a peg from it on which to hang
any vessel? If it has been put into the fire
for fuel and the fire consumed both of its ends and its middle
has been charged, is it useful then for anything? He begins
to articulate the worthlessness of a vine. The purpose of a vine
is to produce fruit. And Israel had not. Behold, while
it’s intact, is it not made into anything? How much less when
the fire is consumed and in charge is it made into anything? Therefore,
thus says the Lord, as the wood of the vine among the trees of
the forest for which I have given fire for fuel, so I have given
up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Drastic images in the scriptures.
Drastic images. One last one. Also from Ezekiel
9, your mother was like a vine in your vineyard planted by the
waters. It was fruitful, full of branches because of its abundant
waters. And it had strong branches and
its height was raised above the clouds. But it was plucked up
in a fury. It was cast down to the ground.
And Ezekiel begins to record God’s anger, his just anger with
Israel because of their lack of fruitfulness. Hosea 10, verse 1, Israel is
a luxuriant vine. He produces fruit for himself. The more his fruit, the more
altars he made, the richer his land, the better he made the
sacrificed pillars. What it points to there is the
more abundantly God blessed Israel, the more they went looking for
idols. and engaging in all those foolish
practices that made Israel so infamous in God’s eyes. It was
a perfect vineyard that God established. If you look back and you consider
all those elements, the digging and the building the wall and
the planting of perfect stock, what it’s telling us is that
God did everything. Israel had all the right equipment
to be faithful and honoring to God. It had everything it needed
to be a fruitful, productive garden. Did this vineyard. This nation was equipped to bring
acceptable worship to God like no other. To be a testimony to
foreign nations. To be a people of love and righteousness. And they weren’t. And the same
exact thing is true of us. Even more so of us. Israel had
access to some of God’s Word. We have God’s word in totality. Hebrews 1.1 says this is the
final word. This is the last word to God’s
people. A God who yearns to communicate
with his people now has closed the book. It is finished and
we have it all. We have the history. of faithful,
righteous people to look out on. We have those to walk with
whom profess faith, a like-minded faith in a holy God. We have
them to walk with. We have the Holy Spirit dwelling
inside of us. The Holy Spirit would visit Israel
from time to time, but never would come and dwell within.
The Holy Spirit would empower certain people and ministers
and prophets from time to time, but never dwelling within each
one. We have the same challenge that
Israel had. And we falter the same way that
Israel did. In fact, in some ways, our failures
are greater even than Israel’s. The cost is so much greater. The bottom line here is that
God came to Israel looking for fruit and there was none. And
He comes to our lives looking for the same thing. He comes
to your life looking for a changed life. He comes to you looking
for a different kind of life. And what’s he going to find? So you’re going to find when
he comes to the end of the vine of your life. Matthew 21, same passage, same
parable, Matthew records it this way. When the harvest time approached,
he sent his slaves to the vine growers to receive his produce. God deserves, it’s God’s right
and privilege to come looking for your life and to see something
different than was there previously. He didn’t find it in Israel.
It’s interesting, too, regarding this necessity of fruit bearing.
Jesus had just worked a miracle that in itself was a parable,
an illustration, a living illustration. A living rebuke. Just after cleansing
the temple, Matthew records the cursing of the fruitless fig
tree. Remember? Fruit bearing is a premium for
God. That’s the whole purpose that
God had planted this vineyard. It’s the whole purpose that He
saved you. Look at the vineyard seized.
Second major section. Look at verse 10. servant, sent a servant to the
tenants so that they would give him some fruit of the vineyard.
But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty handed. I
mean, this is almost shocking imagery. And I’m sure to the
Jews who knew that he was speaking of Isaiah five to them, this
is astounding turn here. Who on earth would beat a servant? Coming to get what was rightfully
his master’s. And he sent another servant,
verse 11, but that when they also beat and treated shamefully
and sent away empty handed, sent a third and they wounded him
and drew drove him out. You know what, even in. Isaiah’s
prophecy. The account of the Lord’s Vineyard
goes sour. Listen, as I read, he dug it
all around, removed its stones, planted it with the choiceless
vine, built a tower in the middle of it, hewed out a wine vat in
it. Then he expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced
only worthless ones. And Isaiah goes on to say, And
now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, men of Judah, judge between me
and my vineyard. What more was there to do for
my vineyard that I have not already done for it? Why, when I expected
it to produce good grapes, did it produce only worthless ones?
So now let me tell you what I’m going to do to my vineyard. I
will remove its hedges. It will be consumed. I will break
down its wall. It will be trampled. I will lay
it waste. It will not be pruned or hoed,
but briars and thorns will come up. I will charge the clouds
to rain no rain upon it. God judged this vineyard. And that is merely a forecast
and an observation of what Israel had always done. The story, as I said, takes almost
an absurd turn if you don’t know the history of Israel. Somehow,
the vine growers, just like the Pharisees, had convinced themselves
that the vineyard was theirs. The day were answerable and accountable
to no one. We’ve been in churches like that
where the church belongs to so and so. Been there the longest,
the biggest giver. The church belongs to God. The
church is Christ’s church, not our church, not your church.
It’s not my church. But somehow these vine growers
and the Pharisees, their equivalent, had in their mind that they owned
this vineyard. They worked the vineyard. They
were doing the work. They rightfully should own the
produce. One described it in these terms.
He said, God had placed this kingdom in the hands of the rulers
who were responsible to Him for the conduct of His subjects.
These rulers were their kings and priests, had been unfaithful,
and He frequently sent His servants the prophets. That’s what happened. God began in the earliest stages
to send forth prophets, servants of His, to call the people back
to righteousness. Moses and Abraham and then all
of the prophets in one procession marched from God’s throne and
His orders to carry forth His Word to the people. and almost in wholesale fashion,
Israel rejected them. Listen to just some of the characterizations
of Scripture. As to how the prophets and God’s
Word was received by the people. 2 Kings 17 The Lord warned Israel
and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, Turn
from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes,
according to the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent
you through My servants, the prophets. An appeal that look,
I’m sending you these men for a specific purpose to call you
back from your sinful ways. Second Chronicles 36 verse 15,
the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again
by his messengers because he had compassion on his people
and on his dwelling place. But they continually mocked the
messengers of God. They despised his words, scoffed
at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his
people until there was no remedy. Do you get the patient pleading,
you get the perspective of that, that God is patiently pleading
with them, he doesn’t want to exercise his wrath on them, and
he continually sends these prophets just like these slaves into a
vineyard that has gone completely crazy. Nehemiah records a similar
occurrence. They became disobedient. They
rebelled against you and they cast your law behind their backs.
They killed your prophets who admonished them so that they
might return to you. And they committed great blasphemies. Jezebel, remember, in our study
of the kings of Israel and Judah, Jezebel the prophets of the Lord,
almost in general fashion. There was so much evil taking
place that very little detail was given. Just said Jezebel
destroyed the prophets of the Lord, so much so that the prophet
Obadiah had to take a hundred prophets and hide them. So that
she wouldn’t kill them all. Micah, the prophet Micah was
thrown into a dungeon by Ahab. A prophet, Uriah, an unknown
biblical prophet, a man of God in some fashion, somewhat cowardly. Jeremiah records in chapter 26,
there was a man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah,
the son of Shemiah. He prophesied against the city
and against this land. Words similar to all those of
Jeremiah. This is a good man. And he heard some threats and
he was afraid and he fled and went to Egypt. And then King
Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt and they found him there in Egypt.
They brought Uriah from Egypt and led him to the king who slew
him with a sword and cast his dead body in the burial place
of the common people. Elijah, the prophet Elijah, perhaps
one of the greatest of all the prophets, was threatened to death
by threatened by death. By Jezebel, Elisha was threatened
by Jehoram. Zachariah, the prophet Zachariah,
was stoned at the commandment of Joash. Remember again from
our study of the kings? Jeremiah stoned by the exiles
in Egypt, according to one tradition. Listen to Jeremiah’s treatment.
I mean, some young men aspiring to the ministry. I mean, would
you go into the ministry if you had this as your commissioning?
Jeremiah, you shall speak all these words to them, Jeremiah
7, 27, but they will not listen to you. Oh, well, great. That’s
just great. Why am I going then? You should
call out to them, but they will not answer you. You know what? That was the best news that Jeremiah
received. It would get much worse. Jeremiah
chapter 20. When Pashur, the priest, the
son of Emer, was the chief officer in the house of the Lord, he
heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. And he took the prophet
and had him beaten and put in the stocks that were the upper
Benjamin Gate, which was at the house of the Lord. They imprisoned
him for preaching. Isaiah, according to Jewish tradition,
was sawn in two. Exactly what’s referred to there
in Hebrews chapter 11. Ezekiel fared little better.
The prophet Ezekiel lamented before God. He said,
then I said, oh, Lord God, they are saying of me, is he not just
speaking parables? They just kind of pooh-poohed
what the prophet was saying. They put little stock in it.
In chapter 33, things get very bad for Ezekiel. They come to
you as a people come. They sit before you as my people.
They hear your words, but they do not do them. They do the lustful desires expressed
by their mouth and their heart goes after their gain. Behold,
you are to them like a sensual song, a beautiful voice and plays
well on an instrument for they hear your words, but they do
not practice them. Ezekiel’s ministry there at that
time was falling on deaf ears, deaf ears. Amos was driven out
of the city, remember, told to go deliver his prophecies elsewhere.
And you say, boy, those Jewish people, they were terrible. Well,
let me tell you, it didn’t end with the prophets. Jesus said,
if they persecuted you, they will, if they persecuted me,
they will persecute you. And they have, haven’t they?
I mean, did it stop with the prophets? Perhaps the greatest
event or greatest pastor and theologian that America has ever
produced and Jonathan Edwards, 27 years of faithful ministry,
stacks and stacks of books that I mean, volumes of material that
he’s left as a heritage voted out of his church after 27 years
of faithful ministry. I can tell you from a personal
standpoint, it’s not over. And I’m reminded of it any time
that I’ve ever had to do the work of ministry, really the
rest of the work, everybody will let me preach the word. That’s
what they expected of me. You know, Paul’s commissioning
to Timothy there in Second Timothy four wasn’t just preach the word. That was the first part of it.
That was the first of four, preach the word, reprove, rebuke, exhort. And I can tell you, that’s when
things get really ugly, is when you go to somebody and you say,
brother, let me tell you what I see in your life. You know,
I can probably count on one hand the number of people that have
come up to me and said, Pastor, you know, I mean, I’m I’m I’m
just like you. But you know what? When do we
do this? When do we go to somebody and say, hey, tell me what you
see. Tell me what you see in my life. Tell me when you see
me struggle and stumble. I don’t have the corner on the
market on your life, but when are we open to rebuke? When do
we welcome it? The people of Israel didn’t.
It’s exactly what they’re reacting to. Jesus says that He sent people
into the vineyard constantly to call them out and to call
them back to a righteous standard, and they wouldn’t have it. Jesus
wasn’t always this subtle with the Jews. In Matthew 23, I mean,
this rebuke, this giant rebuke of a chapter. Woe to you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets
and adorn the monuments of the righteous. And there was this
building going on in that day and age where they would build
these various monuments to various prophets and dress them up all
fancy. And they became practically shrines
to these men that their own forefathers had killed. And they say, Jesus
says, if we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would
not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the
prophets. Oh, really? That’s what Jesus is saying.
Oh, really? You bear witness against yourselves that you are
sons of those who murdered the prophets and you fill up the
measure of the guilt of your fathers. He says you are every
bit as guilty as them and then some. Because they are preparing
to kill the Lord of glory. So it leads to the lament. The famous lament there in verse
37. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who
kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How
often I would have wanted to gather your children together
the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. And you were
unwilling. Stephen preaching his final message
asked the Jewish elite of that city, which one of the prophets
did your fathers not persecute? It became a byword. It became
commonplace, common knowledge that Israel is the place where
you go to die if you’re a prophet. And all that wasn’t enough. Jesus
points to his own death. He prophesies of it right here.
He talks about this son, this He was going to send his final
emissary into the vineyard. This high hope of sending his
own precious son that was going to go into the vineyard and set
everything straight. When the tenants saw in verse
14, they talked it over and said, this is the heir. Let’s kill
him. What are they going to inherit? They want the vineyard. They
want their own religious system just how they want it. It says that they threw him out
of the vineyard, almost an exact account of what they did with
Christ. They took him outside of the gates of the city because
they didn’t want Jerusalem tainted. Just like when they accused him,
they wanted to go out and wash their hands of it because it
was the Sabbath, they didn’t want anything to do with it.
Wouldn’t go into prison. They threw him out of the vineyard. Hebrews 13 says the bodies of
those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by
the high priest as an offering are burned outside the camp.
Therefore, Jesus also that he might sanctify the people through
his own blood suffered outside the gate. Jesus is telling forth
his own death right here. He’s telling them what they are
going to participate in. that all the prophets, all the
prophets and the blood of all the martyrs wasn’t enough. Now
they’re going to crucify the Messiah himself. And the third little phase here
is the vineyard being reallocated. The words are vague. Most commentators don’t place
them specifically. It’s clearly a question from
Christ. And I believe that he pauses the parable has ended
and he turns and he asks this religious elite that was gathered
around him, who then will the owner of the vineyard or what
then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? What do you think
he’s going to do? And he engages them just like
in a Sunday school class, he’s trying to get them to interact
with them. And the chief priest, Matthew, records that they answered
Luke doesn’t record it here, but Matthew says they, the chief
priests and elders said to him, he will bring those wretches
to a wretched end. They didn’t get it. They still didn’t get
it yet that he’s talking about them. He will bring those wretches
to a wretched end and will rent out the vineyard to other vine
growers who will pay him their proceeds in proper seasons. And
I, I get the image that no sooner had they spoken those words,
they got it. Oh, wait a minute. He’s talking about us because
it says Jesus. Luke attributes these words to
Jesus. He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard
to others. And when the people heard this, they said, may it
never be. They just figured it out that now God is going to
take this kingdom and he’s going to give it to other people, other
nations. The Gentiles specifically. And Jesus looked directly at
them. And said, then what is the meaning of that which is
written? The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.
It’s Christ. Christ is the cornerstone. Christ
is the all in all. Christ is the one that was being
rejected by these so-called religious elite. Everyone who falls on
that stone will be broken to pieces. Those who come to Christ
and yield themselves to him and repent of their sins. will be saved, but he on whom
it falls will be crushed. If you defer submission to Christ,
if you put off submission to Christ, you have no good hope. Kingdom of God is going to be
taken away from them and given to a nation producing the fruit
of it. You know what? The standards
are no different for us. They’re no different. God is
going to come looking for His produce. What’s He going to find
in your life? The teachers responded to this
in typical fashion. The teachers of the law, the
chief priests, in verse 19, looked for a way to arrest Him immediately
because they knew He had spoken this parable against them. They
understood that He was speaking about them. The question for us is, With all that we’ve been granted,
given God’s Word, given teaching and books, given a faithful heritage
to walk with, the Holy Spirit indwelling in us, are we that
much more fruitful than Israel? Would God be pleased if He came
looking for fruit at the end of the vine today of your life? Let’s examine our hearts before
Him. Our gracious and our merciful
God, O Lord, we very much get the sense of what those last
days were like for You there among all the hostile people.
Lord, we see Your ministry, Your true ministry, genuinely being
fulfilled now Lord, we see that you are to take the place that
the prophets took in suffering the abuse of your so-called people. Oh, Lord, you came to your own
and your own did not receive you. Father, but for us, you’ve
given us comparable and even exceeding
equipment. You’ve given us the totality
of God’s Word and your precious Spirit your calling of grace
in our lives. Lord, grant that we would bear
fruit, the fruit of righteousness, the fruit of the Spirit, that
we would be the people that You’ve called us to be, living as You’ve
called us to live. Grant, Father, that we would
glorify You. We pray these things in Jesus’
name, Amen.