Matt. 21:33-45; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19
“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 οί’ 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. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.” — Matthew 21:33-45.
Our Lord’s own words give us the interpretation of this parable: “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you [Jews], and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” This was the result, after constant and repeated failure of yielding fruit to the householder, and at last of open rebellion and murder.
The figure is taken from the East, where men do not generally pay rent for the land in money, but in fruits — a certain percentage of the increase of the land, according to the nature of the soil, and other circumstances. In some cases it may have been paid in money, as we read in the Song of Solomon 8:11, “Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon: he let out the vineyard unto keepers: every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.” And verse 12 would seem to point out the proportion that was to be the keeper’s share, and what paid to the Owner:” My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, Ο Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.” This would, doubtless, be, as in our parable, when the owner provided vines, winepress, tower, and everything but the labor; for when arable fields are let in the East, a percentage much less than this is paid as rent, the tenant having to find seed, implements, and so forth, as well as labor. It has been stated as about a tenth of the produce.
The owner providing all things, and calling for the chief part of the fruits, is the more applicable to what God did for Israel. He took them up as Syrians ready to perish (Deut. 26:5), did everything for them, and then looked for fruit.
We read that” when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.” They could not well fail to see the application of this parable, because of what they had read in the prophet Isaiah:” 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.” (Isa. 5:1-2.)
The appeal is then very pathetic:” What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” There was, alas! no remedy: the hedge was taken away, the wall broken down, and the vineyard laid waste. Neither could there be any mistake as to who this vineyard was: “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.”
Now, in our Lord’s day on earth, Israel had but to look back, and see that this prophecy had been fulfilled. Israel was not at that time the flourishing vine, nor the fruitful vineyard, it had formerly been — at least in measure. Now they were to hear that the guilt was brought home to them. They had ill-treated God’s prophets, stoned the messengers, and now the Son was there: how would they treat Him? He was the stone that was to become the head of the corner, but which the builders rejected, for it would indeed set them all aside. He was the stone on which they stumbled and fell when He was here in grace; but when He comes in judgment, He will grind His rejecters to powder.
But though the chief men of Israel knew that our Lord spoke of them, and though they had seen the prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled in their very midst, yet it all had no effect on them: they wished to seize Him then and there, but feared the people. Thus, they sought to verify the parable. The vineyard should be taken from them, and” given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.”
A useful lesson we may surely learn from this parable. God had asked what more could He have done for Israel? May we not ask, What more could He have done for His church? And when we look at what it was at the first, and what it still is in the mind of God — “the pillar and ground of the truth;”“ the body of Christ:” “one body;”“ His house,” and so forth — and now see its broken and corrupt state, we can but sigh, and cry, by reason of its state, and lament that Christ will have to say to that which bears the name of His church,” Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.” Thank God, He also says,” Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” (Rev. 3:10-11.)