Matthew 21:33-4633Hear 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: 34And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. 35And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. 36Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. 37But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. 38But 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. 39And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. 40When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? 41They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. 42Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? 43Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 44And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. 45And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. 46But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet. (Matthew 21:33‑46).
BEFORE examining this remarkable parable, which the Lord Jesus propounds to His hearers that day, I will ask you, my reader, to glance briefly over the early part of this chapter. You will there notice that the context flings into the most wonderful relief the striking and solemn truths the parable contains. This was the last day of our Lord’s ministry. We have reached the last week of His life, and in this chapter I believe we have reached the Wednesday of the week in which He died on the Friday.
That day the whole nation of Israel were gathered together before Him, as they supposed to judge Him, but really that they might receive from His lips their own judgment.
He had come into Jerusalem seated on an ass, and thus had presented Himself as Israel’s Messiah, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah (ch. 11:9). When He came in, “all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?” There was an immense stir. God put His hand on the people of that guilty city, because He could not allow His Son to enter, and pass out of it, without receiving at least some testimony as to who He was. From end to end that big city was moved, so that they have to say, “Who is this?” It was a wonderful moment as they spread their garments before Him, and cut down branches. His entry thus meant the fulfillment of Scripture, and as the true Son of David entered the city that day, and the multitudes, mightily moved, said, “This is Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee,” it looked for a moment as if Israel knew her King. Alas! she did not.
May I ask you, my reader, has your heart ever yet been moved in the presence of Jesus, the Lord Jesus, the eternal Son of God? If not, do not forget that you are on trial now in that respect, and that if you miss the present moment of getting blessing from Him, as a Saviour, you will pass before Him when He sits upon a bench for judgment. That day will soon arrive of which Scripture says, “God hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:3131Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:31)).
In the scene before us, the Lord judges morally as He cleanses the temple, while withal He shows Himself to be the Son of David as He healed “the blind and the lame.” When David, the son of Jesse, wanted to get hold of Jerusalem, the lame and the blind were hated of David’s soul (see 2 Sam. 5:6-86And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither. 7Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David. 8And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house. (2 Samuel 5:6‑8)). Here is the true David, however, and what does He do? He heals the lame and the blind. What a Saviour Jesus is, full of tender grace, and love, and goodness!
The next thing here is that as He returns to Jerusalem in the morning, he sees a fig tree. He looks for fruit, but finds “nothing thereon, but leaves only”. He curses that tree, and, as the disciples look at it, it withers away. Oh, what a picture of a Christless professor. “Nothing but leaves.” Is that your case? God knows. If you are born of God there will be fruit. The fig tree was always the symbol of Israel as a nation, and it is very striking that the Lord blights that tree as a sign of what was coming. He had shaken the city, opened the eyes of the blind, and had judged the fig tree; and then these self-constituted judges come and say to Him, “Who gave thee this authority?” By way of reply the Lord puts a question to them― “The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?” (vs. 25.) Now you see they are being judged. They were afraid to say from heaven lest He should ask why they had not believed John; and they were afraid to-say from men because of the people. Aye, you will find that even the leaders of religious thought may have people like slaves under them, but they themselves are afraid of them. Hence they cannot tell. That was indeed a confession of their state, they did not know from whence John’s ministry was―a wonderful ministry that shook the land from end to end.
Then the Lord unfolds the parable of the two sons. “A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went” (verses 28, 29). When the Lord first speaks to us, we generally say, “I will not.” Of this son we read he “afterward repented, and went.” It is a happy thing if you have repented; but if you have never been brought to bow to Jesus, I pray God you will be led to repentance now. May Jesus’ voice reach you. That voice of the Son of God has reached to the ends of the earth. And do you know what he says from heaven? ― “Repent!” God has commanded all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day for judgment. When will that day be? I do not know, but it is nearer than you expect. If the Lord came for His people tonight, Tomorrow the judgment would begin. It is a wonderful thing when a man repents towards God; it is always the moment of blessing.
But we read on― “And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.” You have here easy-going profession, lip confession. “I go, sir,” is easily said, but what did he do? He went not. Have you ever been born of God? If not, you are of this class, Who were they who said, “I go,” and went not? They were before the Lord at that moment. Who were they who said, “I will not”? The publicans and the harlots. They knew they were sinners, for they said, “I will not.” But grace changed their attitude, for God can meet sinners of the deepest dye, and the publicans got into the kingdom of God. Many of them were converted, and blessed of God. Why? Because they repented. Not so was it with the leaders of religious thought the Lord was addressing, hence He says, “John came unto you, in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not” (vs. 32). They were a very religious people He was talking to. John’s clarion voice, pressing repentance, had rung through the land. It went to the conscience of many a publican and harlot, and they got into God’s kingdom. But what about those who had merely said, “I go, sir, and went not”? They believed not John’s testimony, and this, you see, the Lord charges on the leaders of the nation―the scribes and Pharisees. He shows where they were.
Religion never saved a man yet, nor ever can. Christ, and only Christ, can save sinners like you and me. Ritual is all external. The work of God’s Spirit is all internal. The first is man’s doing, the latter God’s. When you have the conscious sense that you are a lost sinner, then it is you repent, so I ask you again, Have you ever repented? Profession without possession is valueless, nay, even positively dangerous. There might be at first open rebellion, but, if grace leads to repentance, God blesses that soul. My friend, it is a wonderful thing to get out of the devil’s grip. May God save you now; but mark you this, it is not often that a religious man gets hold of God’s salvation. I have very little hope of a downright religious man. He does not know, and refuses to know that he is, what he is, a lost sinner. The devil will whisper to him; You are not the man that needs salvation, that preacher does not mean you; he means publicans and harlots. Ah, he blinds your eye. And by-and-by you will learn this, that your religious history has been a religious sham.
It is this solemn exposure of man’s heart that introduces the striking parable of the Householder. You may say to me, What is the meaning of that parable? Turn to the fifth chapter of Isaiah, for Scripture always explains itself. “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant” (vs. 2). This is the explanation of the parable before us. The thing is perfectly plain. You have the first man upon trial. Man is seen in responsibility, and he absolutely and utterly fails before God. He is an utterly lost sinner. In our parable you have the whole of the history of Israel in responsibility. Put man under law and what does he do? He breaks it. Is there fruit for God? No. The Lord here, before the whole nation, brings out this solemn truth, that what God justly may look for from man, He does not get. When the Owner of the vineyard looked for grapes, He found wild grapes.
Then you may say, How can I be saved? Not by law. You may be saved by grace, but not by law-keeping. Grace only can save you. It takes a man perhaps a good long time ere he reaches what the apostle Paul unfolds in the Epistle to the Galatians: “We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (chs. 2:15-21).
What does the Gospel bring out? That man cannot do anything but sin. There comes in the need of the Saviour. What we have exposed here is the total ruin of man. They had the Word of God; they had the testimony, but it produced no fruit. “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.” That is the way the world treated the Son of God. The Son of God was here, love incarnate, and the husbandman said, Let us kill Him. They effected their purpose, for “they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.” That is perhaps what you call bygone history. I ask you, Do you think that God has taken no account of this? Will not God take account of the murder of His Son? Yes, He will. Of this the Lord’s hearers were assured, for when He propounded the query, “When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men.” They had a perfectly right judgment of what the lord of the vineyard should do.
Is it not a wonderful thing that God has put up with the murder of His Son for eighteen centuries, and that He is waiting yet to win souls? Thank God that the Lord did not come back at once to execute judgment.
If you are wise you will see that there is a terrible breach between God and the world, and you will take your side with the One who has thus been cast out by the world, your heart will turn round to that rejected Saviour, and you will own Him as your Lord ere the day of God’s retribution arrive. It will come, for “Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner” (vs. 42). God has exalted the despised Jesus. This is a quotation from the 118th Psalm. What is the stone? Have you any idea who the stone is that the builders rejected? Read Acts 4:10, 11,10Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. 11This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. (Acts 4:10‑11) if you have a doubt. The prophecy of the Psalmist is now explained by the Holy Ghost. These Jewish builders had no room for Christ. What about you, in your life’s history? What is your relation to Christ? Is He the foundation stone? Is He the corner stone? Ah I you say, I have not had much thought about that yet. Then, in your case too, Christ is the stone set at naught. Yours is a very serious case, for the charge of the Holy Ghost against you is that you prefer anything and everything to Christ. Friend, that is a very serious charge to have lying at your door.
Oh, look up, and see that exalted Man at God’s right hand. It is only due to Him that He should be there, and as seated there, He can save and bless you, for the Lord informs the Jews, “Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof”―i.e., God gave up the Jews, and sent out the Gospel to the Gentiles. Alas! among them, too, as a whole, Christ is not believed. Here and there hearts have been won, but apart from the working of grace, the Gentiles have in no sense behaved differently from the Jews.
But we read further: “And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” All must bow to Jesus. I tell you what bowed my heart―it was the love of Christ that broke me down. Who fell over the stone? The Jews fell over it. They looked for a grand and glorious Messiah. When they saw Jesus come in lowly grace, Jerusalem knew not the day of her visitation. “What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ?” said Pilate. “They all say unto him, Let him be crucified,” was the awful answer (Matt. 27:2222Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. (Matthew 27:22)). They stumbled over Him, and the nation was broken. The murder of the Messiah was followed soon after by the destruction of Jerusalem. That is the fulfillment of the first half of verse 44; but what means “on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder”? That is you, my friend, if you are unconverted. Terrible as was the judgment that fell upon the Jews for rejecting their Messiah when seen here on earth, far more terrible will be the judgment of the Gentiles, who have refused a glorified Saviour.
There is a terrible judgment before the man who has heard about Jesus and has not believed on Him. Are you that man? God forbid. No, my friend, if you are wise you will hear what Peter says: “This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:11, 1211This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:11‑12)).
You may be saved just now, where you are. Oh, hear the voice of Jesus. Seek His face. You are welcome; you may get God’s salvation, without money and without price. Salvation like a shining river is flowing through this dark scene of sin. Jesus is a Saviour who eternally saves His people from their sins and all their consequences, and you have just simply to believe in Him who died and rose again. Do you know what will then happen? Jesus will take you in and save you on the spot.
When you come to the Lord, you see what the world has done to Him; it has refused Him, and you cannot be on the world’s side and Christ’s side too. You will be like the Ethiopian eunuch we read of in the eighth of Acts. Philip preached Jesus unto him, and he believed, and then said, “What doth hinder me to be baptized.” He had heard the news that the life of Jesus was taken from the earth (Isa. 53), and he wished to be identified with Him. The whole truth of the Gospel was opened up to that seeking soul, and he saw the blessed truth that Jesus had gone into glory, and his heart followed him there. Friend, if you are simple, you will say, I should like to take my place seriously and really with the One whom the world has cast out. Shall it be so? God help you from this moment to say, “Lord, I believe.”
W. T. P. W.