Jesus followed up His reply to the Chief Priests and Elders in the Temple with two parables. In the first He questions their ways, in the second their motives.
Notice how Jesus introduced them: He asked of the priests and elders, "What do you think?" He was pressing them, not letting them off the hook. His attitude was not, "Take it or leave it as you please." He wanted them to take it; they were in spiritual danger, as we have seen. Jesus has withheld a truth they said they wanted from Him, because it would not be in their interest to give it to them. But He wants them to be able to. He is 'fishing' for their souls. And He does so the way He always did, by starting with them where they were and inviting them to think for themselves. It was His way. To our discredit, it is not always ours. We want to insist that people just be told, young people especially. We do not have the patience or the inclination for discussion with them. We do not wait for insight to dawn. Jesus did. He was prepared to wait. He did not plant seeds of truth on hard ground; He took the trouble to break up the ground and prepare it.
Notice too that both parables are about a vineyard. Ever since Isaiah's day, Israel had been likened to a vineyard of God's planting in the world, from which He looked for the fruits of faith and righteousness (Isa. 5). In our Lord's time the chief priests and elders were its God-appointed tenants, so to speak. Like the second son in the parable, they had said, when God spoke through John the Baptist, "Yes, Sir." They knew John's ministry was from heaven. John came 'in the way of righteousness,' and they, the exponents of Israel's ethic, knew that they could not argue with the great ethic John declared. Yet they had not obeyed. Affirming their loyalty to God - "Yes, Sir" - they "did not go." But the tax collectors and harlots who had said "I won't" were going! v. 29 "afterward he repented" is the point, as in v. 32. In responding to Jesus they were repenting in droves, following in the way of righteousness for which John had pleaded. And seeing that, the priests and elders still refused to acknowledge Him or respond.
Says Campbell Morgan: "The parable was indeed a white light, a fierce fire; and the King, standing there in the Temple challenged as to His authority, instead of answering to the quibble, assumed the throne of judgment, welcoming into the Kingdom harlots and publicans who set their faces toward it, and condemning the men who professed to be its exponents." (G. Campbell Morgan, 'The Gospel according to Matthew' [Revell] p. 260)
It is easier than we might suppose to fall into the trap into which the priests and elders had fallen. If we have not indulged the excesses blatant sinners do, and been abstemious in our life and religion as the priests and elders were, it is easy to condemn sinners who are given to excesses in the excitement of their conversion, and not admit, even to ourselves, the quiet compromises in which we persist.
Jesus draws a parallel between 'doing' and 'believing' in this tale; really to believe is to do; cf. v. 31 & v. 32. A faith that does not express itself in obedience is not really faith at all. It is idle to say I trust my doctor if I refuse the surgery he recommends.
Matt. 7:21, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
Matt. 12:50, "Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."
There is a third category of course, the best: those who say "Yes" and do.
The second parable is a digest of Israel's history and God's dealings with her. * Our Lord summed up Jerusalem's record of the treatment its people had given God's prophets in His lament over the city: 23:37, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you ..." and Luke 11:49, "God in his wisdom said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.'" Compare Heb. 11:37, "They were stoned; they were sawn in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated ..."
The lesson of the parable is quite plain; not even the Priests and the Pharisees themselves could miss the point. The son is killed, the tenants put to death and the vineyard let out to other tenants, just as Jesus the Son of God will be crucified, Jerusalem destroyed, and the Church of All Nations replace the Jews as God's people. (v. 45) **
The Parable has much to say about God, man and Jesus:
i. He trusts us I Tim. 1:12
"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he
considered me faithful, appointing me to his service."
ii. He is patient with us II Peter
3:9
"He is patient, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to
repentance."
iii. He Judges us Psalm 50:21
"Because you have done these things and I kept silent, you thought I
was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your
face. Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to
pieces, with none to rescue."
There does come a time for judgment. God's patience does not run out while we are still capable of repenting; but when our continued resistance hardens us to the point where repentance is no longer possible, judgment falls.
i. Privilege II Cor. 9:8
"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all
things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in
every good work."
All the means to do the job are supplied.
ii. Freedom Phil. 2:12-13
"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in
my presence, but now much more in my absence - continue to work out
your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work
in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."
We have a choice: to serve with honour, or to disregard our
calling.
iii. Answerability I Peter 1:17
"Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially,
live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear."
It is because we are free that we are responsible. Freedom cannot be
separated from responsibility. The moment we fancy that being free we
are not responsible, our freedom has turned to enslavement ... to our
own passions.
iv. Perversity Psalm 78:57
"Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless; they twisted
like a deceitful bow." It was impossible to make their aim true. What
a comment on us!
i. His Claim (v. 37)
"Afterward He sent His son." He was the Son. As always, He makes the
claim in a disguised fashion. He does not go round, chest out,
fingers in lapels, asserting arrogantly, "I'm the Son of God, I am."
If He had, He would not have been!
ii. His sacrifice (v. 39)
"So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed
him."
In the ritual of sacrifice it was the sinner, not the priest, who
slew the lamb. That detail of the ritual had its factual fulfilment
in the Cross. ***
iii. His Authority - "I tell you ..."
(v. 43)
"Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from
you and given to a people who will produce its fruit."
That was a formal, solemn pronouncement, made by the King's Official
Representative.
In reply to their challenge it was a telling metaphor to use with the Priests and Elders. In effect Jesus said to them: "You are Israel's builders, the builders of her faith, and you see Me as a stone that lies in your way, to be removed. You see me as a stumbling block to your purposes, and you want to fling me aside."
But He is:
1. The Foundation Stone
The lines along which the whole building will grow are set in every
direction by its foundation stone.
Every line of development in our lives should be 'trued' to Him.
****
2. An Obstacle to our Perversity
Christ is that: we have to resist Him to go our own way. The
pursuit of selfish interests really is as though we banged our head
against a wall. Isa. 8:13-15: "The Lord Almighty is the one you are
to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you
are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of
Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that
makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap
and a snare. Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken,
they will be snared and captured" - because they insist on going
their own way, and there is no way we can do that except we go
against Him.
3. The Cause of Destruction
If we do not 'fall' on Him, He will 'fall' on us. The quotation's
sources are:
Dan. 2:34: "While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue (the nations) on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth."
Dan. 2:44-45, "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, not by human hands - a rock that broke (the nations) in pieces. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy."
We cast yourself on Christ, or He will be cast on us. A stone of stumbling He will become to us, a rock of offence. Fall on it, and we shall be broken. The person broken that way can be healed - "He has torn, that He may heal us; He has stricken (as a surgeon) that He may bind us up (bandage us)." (Hos. 6:1) But let it fall on us, and we will be ground to dust, and there is no healing then.
He is the Truth - the Truth of all ages - and by Him all will come to judgment.
* v. 34: the phrase '... when the season of
fruit drew near' echoes the announcement Jesus made as He began His
ministry, "The season (time) is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God has
drawn near." Mark 1:15
** v. 37: 'He sent His Son ...'; contrast Mark's version, "He had one
left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying,
'They will respect my son.'" It is more piquant. God is not angry
with them so much as grieved, troubled.
*** It makes for considerable difficulties with a crude view of
substitutionary atonement, for if the laying on of hands signified a
transfer of identity, then what was symbolised in the ritual was a
suicide. It is better so to understand the O.T. ritual that God is
represented by the lamb, the sinner by the priest.
**** This parable restores what was missing in the previous one: the
resurrection. The stone 'rejected' (in the crucifixion) is made the
head of the corner (in the resurrection).
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