We have now to call the attention of the reader to the second parable in the group, namely, that of the husbandmen. We shall quote it at full length, believing, as we do, most surely, that there is nothing like the veritable language of holy scripture—the actual words that fell from the lips of Him who spake as never man spake.
" 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. 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. But, last of all, he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But 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. 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, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. 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; this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." Matt. 21:33-44.
Now, while the primary application of this parable is obviously to the Jewish people, yet has it a moral bearing upon all who have been specially favored with religious advantages. For example, who would deny its application to all who have taken upon themselves the profession of Christ—all within the limits of baptized Christendom—all who have within their reach a copy of the holy scriptures? All such are placed under the most solemn responsibility, and will, most assuredly, have to render an account of all those privileges which have been placed within their reach.
But, primarily, as we have said, the parable of the vineyard applies to Israel, as the reader may clearly see by referring to Isa. 5 " Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved, touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, Ο inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now, go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard; I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. And I will lay it waste; and it shall not be pruned nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry." Isa. 5:1-7.
In the divine dealings with the house of Israel, we see man thoroughly tested—so tested, that Jehovah could say, " What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? " It was not merely that they broke the law; but, when brought into the land of Canaan, and put in possession of that fair inheritance, they miserably disappointed the heart of God. They failed to produce a single cluster of acceptable fruit; and not only so, but they stoned and shamefully treated the various messengers which, in patient grace, He sent unto them.
But there was more than this. Man was to be still further tested. "Last of all, he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son/é It was the fond expectation of the heart of God, that His beloved Son would be received with the love and reverence due to Him. We have, in Luke's Gospel, a most exquisite touch. "Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; it may be they will reverence him when they see him"
How deeply affecting is this! How strikingly characteristic of Luke's Gospel—that precious treasury of all that is divinely human! "It may be, they will reverence my beloved Son the moment they see him." The Father's heart cherished the hope that that blessed One, in whom He found all His delight, would instantly command the reverence, love, and homage of the human heart.
Shall we be told that God knew how it would turn out—that He had no such expectation—that He knew the end from the beginning? No doubt God knew all that man would do; but that in nowise touches the fact set forth in our Lord's own words, " It may be." God had a right to expect that men would reverence His beloved and only-begotten Son. It may, with equal force, be said that God knew from the beginning that man would break the law; but how does this touch the question of man's responsibility? Had not God a right to expect obedience to His law? And was not man responsible to render that obedience? Assuredly. How, then, could God's knowledge affect the question? In nowise, unless, indeed, we are to listen to the arguments of a repulsive fatalism, which robs the divine dealings of all their mighty moral force, and reduces man to the level of a mere machine, without a single atom of moral responsibility.
So also as regards the vineyard. Had not God a right to expect fruit, after all the pains and labor expended upon it? And was not man responsible to render Him the fruit? Who would question it, save a fatalist, whose system completely falsifies the divine character, and man's position under the government of God.
If, then, it be thus as regards the vineyard and the law—if God was justified in demanding and expecting fruit and obedience, and if man was responsible to render both the one and the other, how much more might God expect that man would reverence His Son, and how much more was man responsible to yield that reverence! But he did not; he disappointed God in this as in all beside—in this more than all, inasmuch as the mission of the Son was the very highest act of grace on God's part, and the claims which were founded upon this mission were the most powerful that could possibly be put forth. It was bad enough to break the law, to stone the messengers sent to obtain the fruits of the vineyard; but the worst of all was to cast the Heir out of the vineyard, and crucify Him.
What an answer to the fond expectation of the Father's heart! " It may be they will reverence my Son when they see him" What a just expectation! How worthy was that Son of reverence, homage, and worship! But the human heart had none of these for Him. It preferred a robber and a murderer to the blessed Son of God—a robber and a murderer to God manifest in the flesh—God over all, blessed forever.
And, be it remembered, this was not the act of poor blind, ignorant heathen. No, reader, it was the act of those who had the scriptures in their hands, and who heard those scriptures read in their synagogues every sabbath-day. It was the act of those who were in the enjoyment of the very highest religious advantages—of those who were the responsible guides, leaders, and teachers of the professed people of God,—the chief priests, elders, and guides of the only people on the face of the earth with whom Jehovah had ever connected His Name.
How solemn is this fact! How it makes manifest the deep-seated enmity of the human heart to God! Never before had this enmity been so fully declared. The mission of the Son put man's heart to the test most thoroughly. This we learn from our Lord's own words, in John 15: "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin; but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father." Verses 22-24.
Now, it is of the very utmost importance to understand this aspect of the mission of the Son of God. We are apt to lose sight of it. We lose sight of the solemn truth set forth in the words just quoted. " If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin." Had they not broken the law? Had they not slain the prophets? Had they not trampled under foot the sacred institutions of the Mosaic economy? Alas! alas! they had done all this. And yet He says, " If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin." His coming and speaking to them made their sin fully manifest. The light that shone in Him left them wholly without excuse. By refusing Him, they proved their utter hatred of God. " They have both seen and hated both me and my Father."
Terrible fact! It was all over with man. There was not a single ray of hope, so far as he was concerned. Perfect goodness was lovingly displayed before man's eyes, in the Person and life of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the image of the invisible God, the brightness of His glory, and the exact impression of His substance. He was the only perfect Man that ever trod this earth, the living impersonation of all that was pure, true, and good. In Him were perfectly combined, and blessedly displayed, every divine and human perfection. u He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." He was the ever-ready Servant of every form of human need. It was His delight to minister to all the varied wants of fallen and needy humanity. He touched the poor loathsome leper, and cleansed him. He opened the eyes of the blind, and unstopped the ears of the deaf. He fed the hungry, and dried the widow's tears; He made the lame to leap for joy. He healed the broken-hearted, and relieved the oppressed. In a word He was the perfect display of divine goodness in an absolutely perfect human life.
Such was the Man Christ Jesus—the eternal Son of the Father—the perfect embodiment of grace and truth, holiness and love, majesty and mercy, power and patience. And yet man hated Him. The human heart absolutely hated that morally glorious and perfect Being.
Now, we all know that facts are powerful arguments; and here is a tremendous fact recorded in the pages of inspiration, established, not merely by two or three, but by many, witnesses, used by the Holy Ghost to set it before us in all its moral turpitude. Man hated, rejected, and crucified the Son of God—that blessed One, who spent His life in doing good; " who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth"—the holy, harmless, gracious, loving Friend of man, who came from heaven, in perfect love, to serve and to give, to seek and to save that which was lost. Man deliberately preferred a robber and a murderer to this perfect Being. God came down into the world which His hands had made—came, in richest, purest, freest grace—came in the Person of Jesus, to bless men by His presence; and, not only did they challenge Him for His authority, but actually cast Him out, and nailed him to a cross between two thieves.
Terrible fact! What tongue, what pen, can adequately set forth the guilt and just deserts of such an act? How solemn will be the reckoning by-and-by! When the Almighty God shall make inquisition for the blood of His Son: when He shall unsheath the sword of judgment, to avenge the murder of His well-beloved and only-begotten One—as He most surely will—who shall be able to stand?
When our Lord, at the close of His weighty parable, put this pointed question to His hearers, " When the lord, therefore, of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?" they actually pronounced sentence on themselves; " They say unto him, he will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons." How little they knew what they were saying! It is one thing to pass sentence in some abstract case, and quite another to see the application of that sentence to ourselves. " He will miserably destroy those wicked men." Yes; but where does the guilt lie? What about myself? How do I stand in relation to the awful transaction of Calvary? It will not do to say, " Those wicked men;" I must see my own part in the matter. If the crucifixion of the blessed Son of God was the act of the human heart—the act of man—the act of the world; then, if I am part and parcel of the world, if I am an unconverted man, if I have an unbroken, unrepentant human heart, if I have not bowed before God in true repentance, if I have not broken with the world, and taken God's side against myself—I am verily guilty of the rejection of the Son of God. There is no middle ground. " He that is not for me is against me."
This is most solemn. There are just the two classes, and the reader belongs to either the one or the other; there are those who own and worship the Son of God; and there are those who reject Him, those who, by their works and ways—the true index—say, a Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." It is easy to see how we stand in reference to Christ—easy to see the bent of our affections—the object of our hearts. If we really love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth, that love will express itself in a thousand ways, negatively and positively. It would be impossible to conceal it; in what we do, and what we do not do; in what we say, and in what we do not say; in where we go, and where we do not go; in everything, in short, the real bent of our hearts will come out.
It is a common saying amongst us, that a feather will tell the direction of the wind; so in the life of a person, the merest trifle may make manifest the real current of the soul. Take, for example, the simple matter of reading. Let the reader put this plain question to himself, " What do I really like to read?" Is it something about Christ, or something about the world? Whether does the Bible, or a novel, or a newspaper most command my heart? Whether would I rather read a chapter in the New Testament, or the report of a trial in a criminal court?
Let us be honest with ourselves. It really resolves itself, after all, into the question, " This man, or Barabbas?" "What think ye of Christ?" Momentous question! "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha." Christ is God's standard, His test for everyone and everything. The state of the heart toward Christ gives character to all we think, and say, and do, from morning till night, and from the beginning to the end of the year. How important it is, therefore, for each one of us to look well to the real attitude of the heart in reference to the Christ of God. We are either lovers or haters of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. There is, positively, not the breadth of a hair of neutral ground.
Header, do, we entreat of you, weigh, in the very deepest depths of your soul, this weighty question, How am I treating the Heir? Am I reverencing or rejecting the Son of God? Consider, we beseech you, our Lord's solemn words at the close of His address to the chief priests and elders. Mark what He says about the rejected stone—that marvelous stone, the history of which runs all through the inspired volume, from Genesis to Revelation—from Jacob's prophetic address, to the foundation of the new Jerusalem.
Christ is that stone. He was presented to the builders of Israel; but, instead of building on Him, they stumbled over Him, and rejected Him. Where is He now? Exalted to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, and proclaimed in the gospel of the grace of God, in order that every poor burdened, heavy laden, sin-sick, broken-hearted sinner may build on Him, in simple faith, and be saved with an everlasting salvation.
Hear those precious words of the prophet Isaiah—hear and believe: " Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion"—the seat and center of royal and triumphant grace—" for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not be confounded." Isa. 8
Say, dear friend, are you satisfied with God's foundation? Is His precious Stone enough for your soul? Or do you want to add something of your own, be it what it may? God says,"! lay:" and what then? " He that believeth" God is satisfied with Christ without anything of yours. Are you satisfied? Can you trust God's foundation? He assures you that if you simply believe in His tried, chief Corner Stone, you shall never be confounded, world without end. If you build on aught else, you will be covered with everlasting confusion. The moment is rapidly approaching when the rejected Stone, now hidden in the heavens, shall fall, in crushing judgment, upon this wicked world, grinding to powder all that in which the human heart finds its delight and satisfaction.
What a moment will that be! How terrible for all who reject God's precious Stone! Oh, that the reader may not be among the number! No human language can set forth the awful condition of those who reject Christ, as all do who refuse to build upon Him now. A person may say, " I do not mean to reject Christ, I quite, I fully intend, some day, to give attention to these things; but it is time enough yet. I want a little more of the world, a little more pleasure, a little more gain."
Alas, what folly! This night thy soul may be required of thee; then what of thy pleasures and gains? How will they profit thee in the awful day of judgment? Be not deceived. Come now, we earnestly entreat thee, and find rest, peace, safety, and everlasting blessedness in God's precious Stone. Come to Jesus, just now, just as thou art! Give Him the full confidence of thy heart, and then, when the hour of judgment comes, thou shalt be as exempt from judgment as the Judge Himself. Amazing fact!—a fact only to be accounted for by the death of the Son of God.
(To be concluded in our next, If God permit.)