After concluding the parable of the two sons, the Lord passes on to another phase of God's dealings with man characterized specially by responsibility. His language is as strikingly simple and as calm, though, under the guise of a parable, He is foretelling His own rejection and cruel death! "Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: and when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it."
We have here not merely the obligations flowing from relationship; that is, men are not left to the light of natural conscience, as in the former case, but God has done something more, through which additional responsibility is incurred. It is He who planted the vineyard—hedged it round about—digged the winepress and built the towers—and then entrusted it to husbandmen. Thus are represented His care and labor, in return for which He looks for fruit. As to general principles, the parable may be applied to all who have heard of Christ and have refused to believe in Him; but, undoubtedly, its primary application is to the Jews, as they must well have understood.
In Isa. 5, the same figure and very similar language are used regarding them; and, as showing that He had taken the greatest possible pains, God there makes this appeal: "What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it?" They utterly failed then to meet His just demands; and, in addition, maltreated or killed the prophets who were commissioned to make them. "And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise." After such forbearance, they certainly could expect judgment. They still were the same in heart, as shown by the emphatic words, "Ye are the children of them which killed the prophets." Chap. 23:31.
God had still one resource of which He availed Himself. "Last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son." (Our Lord is represented here as sent for fruit, like the prophets; this was one, though not the ultimate, purpose of His coming to the vineyard.) We all know also how the just expectation of God regarding His Son was met. "When the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him." The end of responsibility and of all this patient dealing of God with the Jewish people on that ground was that they were glad of the occasion to kill the Heir in order that they might seize upon the inheritance. "When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?" Righteous judgment is so loudly called for, that those who hear the parable can at once pronounce it: "They say unto Him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men."
Here then again, we mark this great principle, that in whatever way God looks for response from man, He finds none. There is such a thing as God's looking for fruit from that which He has planted and nurtured in the world; but there is no fruit to be found from man toward God. The husbandmen's will was entirely and absolutely wrong. They did not recognize the authority of God in His vineyard. They liked to have it for themselves; and to gratify their desires, they could go to any lengths in unrighteousness. The parable in its most important feature, alas! had its accomplishment; and its perfect truthfulness was but too manifest at the time in the spirit of those who ultimately brought it to pass: "When the chief priests and Pharisees had heard His parables, they perceived that He spake of them. But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitude, because they took Him for a prophet."
Thus the effect of the ordinances God had given was only to bring out the enmity and hatred of those to whom He had entrusted His vineyard. Man placed in a certain religious position, patiently instructed, and blessed with external advantages, instead of rendering fruit to God, consummates the crowning act of iniquity. Religious man kills the Prince of Life! How solemn a warning for those who would be zealous for God, but who know Him not, because they know not and love not His Son. That religion which has not Christ as foundation and topstone is worse than none at all.
But there are not a few persons of a different spirit who, failing to see the result of this trial of man, are still dealing with God as though He were looking for fruit. They feel that God has given them certain spiritual advantages, opportunities of hearing, and the like, and that therefore they ought to return fruit to Him. And so they ought. But then, although such are not in a condition of soul answerable to that of the husbandmen who killed the heir, they have mistaken, and that altogether, the ground on which God is now dealing. And further, Christ Himself may be only thought of as seeking fruit—only looked at in the same light as the prophets! Where there is honesty and sincerity of heart, and the conscience is touched, deep impressions may result from considering the magnitude of God's love in the gift of His Son, and of that Son's love in coming from heaven to suffer on the cross; yet these vast manifestations of love may be regarded solely as the strongest possible claims x, for fruit. Such assuredly they are; but, as the parable shows, and above all its fulfillment proves, claim produces no fruit. Individual experience confirms this too. For one who sees in the love of God only a claim, in the perfection of Christ only a claim, is soon convinced that no adequate return is rendered, and may conclude that there is no hope. Great exercise of soul may thus end in nothing but the sense of deserved condemnation. If God be still dealing with us on the ground of requirement, we must be brought in guilty, and judgment must follow the unsatisfied claim. Thus the, love of God in Christ is made a severer and more terrible law than that given by Moses. When this love is put in the place of the law, the more the love is magnified, the greater the guilt in not fulfilling its, demands. The more we elevate the claim of God, the more we aggravate our own condemnation.
In such cases, the Word of God has at least not been read or heard unheeded (as, alas! It so often is), though discrimination may have been wanting. The difficulty lies in not seeing that God has abandoned, as useless, the efforts to seek fruit from man. He has tried everything-"Last of all, he sent... his son"; and His cross is conclusive. Man is ungodly; but further, he is "without strength." The next parable (following so significantly that of "the vineyard") tells how fully God has provided for our actual need. The Lord willing, this will be taken up next month.