Mat 21;33-46 33 “Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 34 Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. 35 And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. 37 Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?” 41 They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.”42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejectedHas become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. 44 And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” 45 Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. 46 But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.
We are looking at the amazing last week of our Lord’s life before He dies on the cross for us, called Passion Week. His time on earth is coming to an end; this is Wednesday. He entered Jerusalem, cleansed the temple, and is now teaching in that place. The Sanhedrin—chief priests, scribes, elders—come and challenge His authority and question Him. We saw how He put them in a difficult situation by a question about John the Baptist. His authority is already made clear by John the Baptist. They had to say, “We don’t know.” He didn’t stop there. Now, He gives them a trilogy of 3 parables, exposing their hearts. We saw the parable of the 2 sons unmasked their religious hypocrisy and condemns them, saying tax collectors and harlots will enter the kingdom of God, but they will not, because those worse people repented, and in spite of seeing that, they didn’t repent.
Now, He gives them another parable. Here is a parable that shows the coming judgement on their nation because of their rejection of their Messiah. I will use 3 headings: Parable of the Vineyard, Connection to the Leaders, Prophetic Sequel to the Parable.
Verse 33, He says, “Hear another parable.”
Think of it! Now, He condemned them terribly with one parable. That itself is difficult to swallow. Now again, with the authoritative force of a command, Jesus tells them, “Hear another parable.”
From the leaders’ perspective, if anything, what they do not want in their life is another parable! They didn’t welcome hearing anything further from Jesus! They want to kill Him. If they had any wish at all, it was certainly not for another “parable”! Notice that Jesus doesn’t begin by asking this hostile group, “Say, I have another parable. Would you fellows mind if I share it?” No, He spoke with authoritative command. In the form of an imperative, He says, “Hear another parable…” You have to listen to this even if you don’t want.
It is a good example for us. We are His ambassadors for His gospel. We shouldn’t be speaking what people want to hear, but what Christ’s word says, even when people don’t like it and are offended by it. The gospel is a message that is not welcomed in this fallen world. It forces people to repent of their pride, and to admit our need for God’s gracious work of salvation. Nevertheless, as unwelcome as it is, it possesses the full authority of the One who sent us to proclaim it—the One who said that “all authority” had been given to Him “in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18).
It would be inappropriate for us, then, to go tip-toeing around with our hat in our hand, asking if we may please have a hearing for the gospel. We should follow our Lord’s bold, confident example as we proclaim Him to this world. We have a message from God that He has given us in His word; and we should confidently take our stand on His own authority, and say to our fellow man, “Hear!” What a transformation it would bring about in our culture if we would faithfully do so!
So if you are sitting here and wondering, “Pastor, not another parable, tell us some ear-tingling story,” I am here with Christ’s authority to tell what He tells me to tell. He commands you to hear this another parable, so hear it.
1. Parable of the Vineyard
First, we see establishing a vineyard. Verse 33: “Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.”
A very simple scene, a very common scene. The land of Israel is literally covered with such vineyards in the time of Christ; a major crop of their agrarian society was the cultivation of vineyards. The genius of a parable is He took something that was well known to explain something that was unknown. To make them realize a spiritual reality which they are insensitive to, He took something very objective, very concrete, very life-oriented, very perceptible to explain something otherwise beyond the grasp of people.
Now, the vineyard is a very common thing in their life, and they would have understood exactly what was going on. First, you have a certain householder. This is a man who owns the estate. This is the owner. And he decides to take a portion of his land, perhaps a slope on a hillside, which was the common place for vineyards, and he plants a vineyard.
Then it tells us that he hedged it round about. Vineyards were vulnerable to wild animals, and to robbers. And so, in order to protect vineyards, they were always hedged about. Commonly they put a thorny hedge—often even cactus was used. We see this when we go to villages: a mango/vineyard surrounded by thorns, cactus to keep out the animals and the robbers. The point being that the man took care in planting the vineyard. He took care in protecting the vineyard.
Then he says he dug a winepress in it. That’s the place where the grapes could be turned into juice. A winepress could be nothing more than a stone in the ground. The stone would be cut out as a shallow basin, very wide and shallow, filled with grapes. And then there would be a trough or channel pipe running to a lower basin carved in another piece of stone. And as the grapes were crushed, the juice would flow down the trough into the lower basin and be collected there, from which it would be scooped and put into wineskins and pots and jars. That was the way that they turned their grapes into grape juice and wine.
Then it tells us that the man built a tower. A tower was for three purposes really: security, shelter, and storage. A tower would allow someone to watch and be sure no one was trying to invade. It would also be a place of shelter in the event of sun, continuous rain, or other weather problems, and it would be a place for the storage of implements and tools and things necessary for the care of the vineyard.
Now, the point of all of that is to demonstrate to you that the man did everything needed. A great deal of investment and effort went into this, and nothing was lacking for that vineyard. He created a perfect vineyard, did a good job putting his vineyard together. All essentials—protection, supply, shelter—were provided.
And then it says he leased it out to tenant farmers and went into a far country. Literally went abroad or went away. Now, this is also common. A man may own land. He can’t cultivate it on his own, and so he leases it out. My relatives do this; they stay in Bangalore, they have land, and lease it out. He works out an arrangement, a contract with the people who are leasing it, and they are to give him a certain portion of the crop each year, the remainder of which belongs to them for their own livelihood. They could have done well with this. It was a properly prepared vineyard; it was properly protected. Their crop could have flourished, given the factors of weather and their careful cultivation work. They could have done very well. The man had gone to all the extremes necessary, leased it out to these people, and went abroad, moved away.
Then verse 34: “Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit.”
“And when the time of the fruit drew near”—literally the season of fruits, harvest time, the time when you calculated the product—“he sent his servants to the farmers, that they might receive the fruits of it.” In other words, it was time to collect his portion as per the lease agreement. So, he sent his servants to them to receive from them what was due to him. They may have given it to him in currency, having sold what was produced. Or in terms of grapes or in terms of wine, which could have been then transferred at the marketplace into cash. Whatever, he came to collect what was rightly his. The servants then came in his name, in his behalf, to receive what was due to him. The hearers of our Lord would have completely understood this. It was very common to lease land for such cultivating purposes.
Now comes the amazing twist. Tenant farmers had not made any capital investment, the owner did everything. They just cultivate, give a portion, the rest is theirs. He didn’t intervene in between, but at the right time of harvest, He asked what was His fair due. Proper legal agreement terms. What a shock! But then an amazing series of events takes place in the parable. Verse 35: “And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.”
Matthew kind of puts all together in 1 verse. If you turn to Mark 12:2-5, he gives the sequence:
“Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.”
The gracious owner who trusted them and gave them a livelihood, when he sent his first servant and asked for what was due, his expectations were not hasty, though he had been at such expense upon it, but He stayed till “the time of the fruit drew near.” They were not high; he did not require them to come at their peril, upon penalty of forfeiting their lease if they ran behind-hand; but he sent his servants to them, to remind them of their duty, and of the rent-day. They beat him, meaning scourged him or beat him until he was raw and bloody, and sent him empty handed. The servant comes beaten up with all stripes without any grape or wine, empty handed. At that point what you would have done as the land owner?
Notice what he did. Verse 4: “Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.”
They wounded him in the head and handled him shamefully. This not only involved some stripes but became more brutal and wounded him in the head. It could have produced death. Then, even shameful to explain, they treated him shamefully. Maybe in the Old Testament, clothing was cut off from the buttocks, publically shaming him. He returns to the master. Can you image the rising sense of tension? Then verse 5: “And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some.”
Another, beyond hitting, they actually killed him. What did the Landowner do? He continued to send servants. Wow! Why? “Beating some and killing some.”
You see the progression of cruelty starting from beating, stoning, and murdering. I mean look at the great patience of this landowner. This good man, who had given them this piece of land to cultivate, by which they could have prospered, sends his servants merely to collect what is due to him by virtue of the arrangement and the fact that it is his land and his vineyard. It’s incredible! These tenant farmers, given such privilege, given such opportunity, had become independent. They had become resentful. They had become filled with hatred for the owner. They had become overly possessive. They wanted everything. They didn’t want to give it to whom it was due.
What a story! One side is the great generous, gracious, merciful patience of the owner. I think after I had sent the first guy, I would have taken some pretty strong action. He sent one, he sent another, he sent another. Terrible injustice of the tenants. This is where the shock element comes. No owner would keep sending servants to be beaten like this. First time beat, then action would be taken. The heinousness of such a thing, the unbelievability of it. Surely these are not honest farmers; they are a bunch of rogues, a land mafia. If this is unbelievably sad, what will you say for the next action?
Verse 6: “Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’”
Matthew says “last of all” or “finally” is full of emotion; it’s full of sadness. Here is a grieved man, and now he’s only got his son left. When all the servants are killed, he had one son, who was beloved peculiarly by him. He decided to send him to these farmers. This was his reasoning. “Surely, they will reverence my son. They have insulted my servants, but if there is any remaining in them some justice, some conscience, and respect that I am one who purchased the land, I took care of the vineyard, protected it. Gave them graciously to take care, in spite of sending servants, they insulted me. If there is a tiny common grace for me, this will turn one’s self around, being ashamed of hurting or injuring. They know how much I love my beloved son. How much he is important for me. He is my only son. Certainly they will turn around from that behavior because of the shame of it. I mean they won’t do it, surely, to my son. They will stand in awe of my son. They will have respect and regard for my son, surely.”
He sends his son in that hope. Verse 7: “But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’” Verse 8: “So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.”
But those tenant farmers said among themselves, “This is the heir. When that old man dies, this is the one who will become the owner of this land. If we kill him, then the old man dies, we will have the vineyard legally.” “Let us kill him.” They knew exactly who he was. They planned his murder. It was premeditated; first degree; the result of careful, wicked planning, with full knowledge of who he was. They took him, killed him, and cast him forth outside the vineyard.
The highest of insults. They not only kill him shamefully, but not even give him a decent burial. That means little to us. But in Israel, as a barren womb is a sign of disgrace, so not to be buried is a horrible disgrace. One of the judgements pronounced is that their bodies will be in the open field. They threw his body to be food for the fox and other animals and eagles. Highest of insults. They were showing total disdain for the owner of the vineyard. What a story! Never did grace appear more gracious than in sending the Son. Never did sin appear more sinful than in the abusing of Him.
This story, when I explained it, maybe some of you are yawning, but when it was told by the greatest teacher and story teller, our Lord Jesus Christ, it has so much truth, and it is His Father and His story. There must have been an intense emotion, fire in His eyes, warmth, a depth, a drama in His teaching that captivated His audience beyond the ability of any other storyteller. And so, we can imagine that as He told this story, He had that entire audience in the palm of His hand. The vividness, body language, and facial expression of it would have captivated them. Now when they are feeling the story intensely, He asks them a question:
Matthew 21:40: “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?”
Deeply involved in the story, they would have been in a rage at the terrible wickedness and cruelty. They feel so irate at the injustice and evil. It pierces even the hardened consciences of these leaders. The crowd was so captured by the sheer magnetism, fascinated by the sheer realism and injustice. They instinctively respond.
And so, verse 41: “They said to Him, ‘He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.’”
Amazing how the Lord through these parables makes them say right things, so God is justified and they are condemned with their own mouths. He puts it to themselves, for their stronger conviction, a judgement that, “knowing the judgment of God against them which do such things,” they might be the more inexcusable. Terrible judgement that has come on them, they describe. You know if you see Luke, Luke tells us that the people gathered around. Some of them cried, “God forbid. No, no, no, no.” They were so caught up in the story, perhaps, that they were just unable to imagine what he would do to such wicked people. The sympathy of their heart cried out even in behalf of the wicked. Oh what terrible judgement will come on those tenants. Cried out, “No, no, no, no.”
Now, two things are said in verse 41: judgement and replacement. Right out of the mouths of these leaders, they condemn themselves. Judgement: “He will destroy those wicked men miserably,”—that’s number one. “and secondly, replacement: lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.” Miserably destroy the wicked men, lease his vineyard to other farmers who render him the fruits in their seasons.
Mark that. First is judgment, then replacement. So, they have said it with their own mouths. They have concluded the illustration.
So that is the parable and its conclusion.
Connection to the Leaders
Now what is all this talking about? If you read passages in the Old Testament, when you get time read Isaiah 5, you exactly have a parallel. The Lord seems to have taken that chapter and formed this parable. Isaiah 5:7: “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.” Verse 4: “What more could have been done to My vineyard, That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes?”
See the owner is God the Father, He is the one who plants the vineyard which is Israel, as seen in Isaiah. He through Abraham formed the nation, while in bondage in Egypt, until He delivered them from bondage with a mighty hand, and gave them the land of promise. He cultivated His precious covenant people, and protected them from their enemies. He gave them good statutes and ordinances that would bless their daily life, and set up His own tabernacle—His own dwelling place—in their midst. He entrusted its care to its priests and teachers—the “vinedressers” who were to teach the people His word and lead them in His ways.
The Vineyard is the theocratic/kingdom privileges enjoyed by the chosen people of God and as such placed by Him under the law of Moses. The Vineyard was Israel in its privileged position. Tremendous privileges were given to them. The tenants are the Jewish people and their leaders. The removal of the owner to a far country was the withdrawal of God after His manifestation in Mount Sinai and founding and after forming them as a nation. He gave priests and leaders, His word to guide them. God went into a position of expectant passivity. Given privileges, law, and institutions, and now draws back, and gives His written word and His servants to lead them. God waits for fruit. God demanded the fruits of heart devotion, love, and righteousness through servants.
Jews and leaders abused their privilege, robbed from God what was due Him, and didn’t bear fruit. They never gave Him the glory, never demonstrated the fruit of repentance, and they never showed the fruit of righteousness, and they gave God nothing. God sends servants, who are the prophets. How did Israel treat the prophets? Turn to a couple of chapters in Matthew 23:31: “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.”
Verse 37: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” In Acts 7:52, Stephen says to these stiff-necked people, “Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One.” Treated prophets as criminals. Amazing how the Jews were the most bitter enemies of the Lord’s prophets. Tradition tells us they took Isaiah, and with a wooden saw, they sawed Him in half. Jeremiah they stoned. Zechariah was rejected and stoned. Micah was smashed in the face. And this is the norm. This is how they treated the prophets. So the servants are the prophets.
The Son is the Lord Jesus Himself. His crucifixion is the climax of the nation’s sin, which will result in God taking the kingdom and giving it to the Gentiles. You see this is the primary message of the parable at that time to the leaders. They didn’t keep the covenant obedience; they broke the covenant. So the Lord graphically sets forth that Israel’s privileged position will be taken and given to the Gentiles because of their climatic sin of killing God’s son, which will result in the destruction of the farmers.
3. Prophetic Continuation/Sequel to the Parable
Now, the predicted sequel to the parable and its meaning.
See, the parable is incomplete. It ends sadly. It leaves the son dead and thrown out of the vineyard, so our Lord makes a prediction that completes and rounds out the parable. It ends with the question, and they give an answer: “What will he do?” They had rightly judged. He illustrates it by referring to a scripture fulfilled in this. A prophecy that will exactly fulfil what they said. The Lord doesn’t continue the same picture of the vineyard, because to complete the reality of the vineyard will lead. He quotes Psalm 118, the very psalm from which the Hosannas were sung by the people hailing Him as Messiah. He makes a prophetic connection between the parable and the psalm.
Verse 42: “Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
This scripture was familiar to them, and they knew that verse. He begins by saying to them—and it’s very sarcastic—“Did you never read in the Scriptures? You who pride yourself on spending dawn till dusk reading the Scripture, you who say you know the Scriptures, you who excel in the law, did you miss this one?”
When builders want to build a building, a cornerstone is the most important stone in the building. It supports the roof. But more than that, it sets the angles for the walls; it draws the lines by which the uniformity of the building maintains itself. And if the cornerstone is off, then down the way somewhere the whole building is off. The cornerstone was the most carefully selected of all stones. It gives shape, and strength to the building, that the building might be set as to its walls and its form in perfect order. And cornerstones were massive stones; that’s 32 feet by 3 feet by 2 feet—one stone quarried by hand, weighs tons.
So the Psalmist uses a picture where builders rejected one stone. It doesn’t fit, it is not adequate. And they threw it away. Christ uses this prophecy and says these leaders who rejected Him as the Messiah, He brands these men as incompetent builders, who did not know the stone needed for their edifice when they saw it. He is the chief stone of the Father’s house. To reject Him is to reject the son of the landowner, and to be like those wicked vinedressers. But it became, later, the head of the corner. Who did it? “It is the Lord’s doing, and it is a wonder in our eyes.” In other words, the stone which was rejected as unworthy by men’s estimation, God brings back that stone and puts it in the place of the most significance, gives it the most important place in the building. This was the Lord’s activity and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Who is the rejected stone? The rejected stone is the same as the rejected son, whom the tenants killed. The Son who will be shamed and crucified will not remain rejected and dead. This stone whom the leaders will reject, God will raise him from the dead. He shall be made the strategic stone, in the new covenant of God, in the new Israel of God. They reject the Messiah, so God is going to reject them.
Let me show you. Acts chapter 4, verse 10. Peter is preaching in the city of Jerusalem, addressing the leaders of Israel, the Sanhedrin, this same group. You know how he interprets Jesus dying and raising from dead. Acts 4:10: “let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.” That is the lame man that was healed by the Beautiful Gate. Verse 11: “This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Verse 12: Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Who is the stone then of Psalm 118? Who is it? “Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified.” The stone which the builders—what?—rejected, whom God raised from the dead, has now become the head of the corner. The rejected stone is the crucified Christ; the restored cornerstone is the resurrected Christ. He becomes the chief stone on which the new Israel covenant people will be built. The kingdom will be taken from you. You again see Peter saying this in 1 Peter 2:5, “Jesus Christ is a chief cornerstone, elect, precious.” Verse 7: “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.”
So the parable is: “What will they do to the son?” The Prophecy is: “What God will do with their terrible act?” The hand of God was in all this; “This is the Lord’s doing.” Even the rejecting of Him by the Jewish builders was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God; He permitted and overruled it; much more was His advancement to the Head of the corner; His right hand and His holy arm brought it about; it was God Himself that “highly exalted him, and gave him a name above every name; and it is marvellous in our eyes.” Isn’t it so marvelous? The worst crime of humanity against divinity was used to do the greatest good to humanity—Salvation to mankind. But “it is the Lord’s doing.”
Do you realize that Jesus is here, telling them to their face that He knows they’ll kill Him? He exposes their hearts and knows even as they are listening to Him, their heart is crying to murder Him and plotting it. That’s right. There’s no surprise to Him. Even He predicts they will kill Him outside the vineyard, outside the city.
So the Lord connects the parable and the prophecy. After the wicked tenants kill the son, He is going to destroy them and replace them. In that process, He is going to fulfil the prophecy: the stone which they will reject, He will make it a corner stone for His new covenant people by raising Him from the dead. They were so blinded, we know even the resurrection message they tried to spread lies about. They wanted Him dead because they were afraid to lose their position and their power, their control.
So he directly applies it in verse 43: “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.”
He predicts the replacement (v. 43) and judgement (v. 44). Two results. Replacement: “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, [and] given to a nation.” They themselves judged the owner: “He will lease his vineyard unto other farmers who will bear fruit.” And you said it right. The kingdom of God was taken from the Jews, not only by the temporal judgments that befell them, but by the spiritual judgments they lay under: their blindness of mind, hardness of heart, and opposition or indignation at the gospel, even today (Romans 11:8-10; 1 Thessalonians 2:15). He will give it to the other nation that bears fruits—the fruits of repentance, the demonstration of righteousness that comes out of the life that is turned from sin. He predicts there not only His death, but God rejecting them as a covenant people and turning to all nations. Out of other nations, He will build His church which will be the new Israel. 1 Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people.” We are the new channel through which God can bring the Gospel of salvation to a world.
They said, “He’ll miserably destroy those wretched sinners.” That is what He will do. Verse 44: “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”
God will make this stone the corner stone, but whoever stumbles on this stone, he will be broken, and when this stone falls on them in judgement, it will grind them to powder. Jesus presents Himself as this unavoidable “stone” that all must encounter. “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” Two sorts of people: Some, through ignorance, stumble at Christ in His estate of humiliation; when this Stone lies on the earth, where the builders threw it, they, through their blindness and carelessness, fall on it, fall over it, and “they shall be broken.” The offence they take at Christ will not hurt Him, any more than he that stumbles hurts the stone he stumbles at; but it will hurt themselves; they will fall, and be broken, and snared (Isaiah 8:14; 1 Peter 2:7; 1 Peter 2:8). The unbelief of sinners will be their ruin.
Others, through malice, oppose Christ, and bid defiance to Him in His estate of exaltation, when this Stone is advanced to the head of the corner; and on them “it shall fall,” for they pull it on their own heads. The former seems to bespeak the sin and ruin of all unbelievers; this is the greater sin, and sorer ruin, of persecutors, that “kick against the pricks,” and persist in it. Christ’s kingdom will be a burdensome stone to all those that attempt to overthrow it, or heave it out of its place. This Stone cut out of the mountain without hands, will break in pieces all opposing power (Daniel 2:34; Daniel 2:35). Christ will utterly destroy all those that fight against Him.
This talks about the terrible judgement coming on everyone who stumbles by not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ whom God has raised from the dead and made Him the corner stone, in whose name alone is salvation. “in the final judgment, when He falls on you, you’ll be crushed to powder.” That’s what it says. Oh, my. Strong words. Strong words. Paul echoes the thought, “Whosoever loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.” That is what will happen to these leaders and nation: grind to powder and cursed.
That brings me lastly to their reaction, verse 45 and 46.
Verse 45: “Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them.”
Well, they got the message. Other parables may not have been clear, this was clear to them. They knew He was talking about them. They knew they were the ones who killed the prophets and tried to hoard the vineyard. He claimed to be God’s son, and they will kill the Son as well. It was unbearable, unspeakable outrage, to hear that God will take the kingdom and give it to another nation. They knew He spoke of them. They had but read their own doom. Note, “A guilty conscience needs no accuser.” Even these hardened and blind leaders perceive it here, and He exposed them and put them in the category of the wicked tenants. They saw themselves mirrored in the parable. This parable exposes them. They had already decided to kill him.
You say, “Did that bring a repentance, a revival? Were they convicted? Did they turn their hearts toward Christ?” Verse 46, so sad: “But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.”
Their murderous heart was more determined. They wanted to catch him. They were afraid of the crowd because they regarded Him as a prophet. Fear of people, they’re afraid. That’s the only thing that holds them back. They wait for the right time. So blind and lost. They’ve just heard the truth about themselves; they could care less. They know He’s the Son of God; they don’t care about that either. Oh, my. What unbelievable unbelief. But it is characteristic of all unbelievers who reject the truth. So sad.
Application
1. This parable explains the lesson from redemptive history. God had blessed the nation of Israel with many, many privileges, made them His chosen people. He expected fruits of heart devotion, holiness, and love to God. God was very, very patient with them, kept sending prophets upon prophets, but they killed them. But when they didn’t listen to the Son and killed Him, the Lord lost His patience and brought destruction on them and took the kingdom from them and gave it to the Gentiles. The crucifixion was not only the great center point of all of history, but it was the great transition from God’s peculiar dealing with the nation of Israel as His special vineyard. Now they will no longer be His special vineyard. God seeks the redemptive purposes and the fruit of His gracious dealing from among all the nations. The Jews are set as an example of what will happen to a nation, both physically and spiritually, if they test God’s patience. Their miserable destruction which was brought upon them by the Romans was an unparalleled ruin, with all the most dismal, aggravating circumstances. It is the result for all that follow in the steps of those that have enjoyed the greatest share of church privileges, and have not improved them and borne fruit. The hottest place in hell will be the portion of hypocrites. This is the lesson of redemptive history.
This Parable displays God’s amazing patience and forbearance to privileged sinners. The whole significance of the parable is the tedious preparation of the vineyard. Isaiah 5 celebrated it. God says, “What more could I have done to make my vineyard fruitful?” It was an amazing privilege to be part of theocratic Israel. Romans 9 says to be a Jew is advantageous in every way: they had the scriptures, priesthood, covenants of promise, and prophets. All these privileges. Look at the patience of God. When He doesn’t receive fruit, He doesn’t immediately come and destroy them. He keeps sending servants, until He sends His Son. Then the day of God’s patience is ended, and judgement falls. Oh what patience He shows.
My friends, now the kingdom has come to us. What a serious lesson this history should teach us? We are not Jewish people, but Gentiles, but the gospel has come to us. Are we bearing the fruits God is expecting? What great privileges God has blessed us with in the gospel age? Do we realize we are not in hell for one reason: in spite of all the privileges we are not bearing fruits? Why has judgement not come on us? God is still excessively patient to privileged sinners. What privileges we have, think of it in terms of the parable.
1. Greatest privilege: The earth of itself produces thorns and briars, but vines must be planted. If God took such pains to plant the Old Testament vineyard, what parable will suit to explain the tremendous efforts and investment and cost God paid to establish the New Testament church, which is His own body? The being of a church is owing to God’s distinguishing favour, and His manifesting Himself to some, and not to others. Oh what investment and cost and effort He had to put to form His church. It costed Him to send His only beloved Son as God-man, to live a perfect life, to endure the horror of Gethsemane, the scourging and mocking of Gabbatha, and the cry of Golgotha. The blood of His only Son, and raising Him from the dead, seating Him at the right hand side, as prophet, priest, and king, sending His Holy Spirit, with all gifts, and forming His church, and built it on the foundation of apostles and prophets. Still He is interceding for them. What parable will suit that? The giving birth of a mother? Oh, the cost of planting this vineyard!
He protects it. He hedges around it. God’s church in the world is taken under His special protection. He sits as king and protects that church from all its spiritual enemies. He will not have His vineyard to lie in common, that those who are without may thrust in at pleasure; not to lie at large, that those who are within may lash out at pleasure; but care is taken to set bounds about this holy mountain. He gives pastors and deacons to guard that church.
He built a winepress. God instituted ordinances in His church, spiritual nourishment by the word regularly He gives, for the due oversight of it, and for the promoting of its fruitfulness.
Jews didn’t have the full revelation of God. But God in His grace not only has given us full revelation, but preserved it through 1,000s of years and through the reformation, given us His word in our own tongue. We have the liberty for every one to read it, which generations didn’t have. We have the Gospel, and permission to every one to hear it.
The Holy Spirit is given in a special way not in the Old Testament. What could have been done more to make it every way convenient and fruitful?
When God had in a visible appearance settled the Jewish church at Mount Sinai, He did in a manner withdraw; they had no more such open vision. In the same way after forming the church Himself and going back to heaven, we were left to the written word. He was gone into a far country, but He is watching for the fruit of His church.
God’s expectation of rent from these husbandmen: It was a reasonable expectation, for “who plants a vineyard, and eats not of the fruit thereof?” Note, From those that enjoy church-privileges, both ministers and people, God looks for fruit accordingly.
What spiritual mercies we have in abundance, peculiar privileges which the Old Testament didn’t have. What a privilege today: of 8 billion population, how many have this? How thankful we ought to be! However, the poorest man may say this morning, “There are more than 7 billion immortal souls worse off than I am. Who am I, that I should differ? Bless the LORD, O my soul.”
2. Just like Israel, God gave so much light, when the rest of the world was in darkness. Our country is filled with a sea of false teaching, a famine for the word. Despite 1,000s of churches, God led us to the right church. Not 1 or 2, many, many years of regular truth. How much of the truths we receive. 3. There are millions in our community, people in your streets living who have not heard about the living God, still living in utter blindness and idolatry. But you are getting the pure word of God. The voice of God heard regularly. 4. There are millions who never get prayed for. Their names not mentioned in before the throne of grace prayer, but your names are named 1,000s of times. We pray regularly for you. What do you do?
And what are we doing ourselves with all our privileges? Truly that is a serious question, and one that ought to make us think.
It may well be feared that we are not, as a church, living up to our light, or walking worthy of our many mercies. Must we not confess with shame, “The fruit that the Lord receives from His vineyard in compared with what it ought to be, is disgracefully small.” It may well be doubted whether we are not as provoking to Him as the Jews.
Oh, the weight of this application! How it should make us so serious. What is your reaction? God through this application is asking, “What have you done with all the privileges? Where is the fruit?” Are you like the Israelites, telling when He asks for fruit, “Oh God’s messengers, get away from me.” Do you close your ears, stop reminding of what has a right to expect from me in the vineyard of my privileges?
Oh, how patient God is. You hear terrible sermons, but still you don’t make it a matter of the heart, and you know why God doesn’t crush you immediately and continues to give you time. Romans 2:4: “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”
Don’t you feel the horror of your ingratitude? God has nursed us as a precious vineyard. What amazing privileges! Isaiah: “What more could have God done to make you bear fruit?” What have you given that God? Nothing! Only outward leaves. “I go, I go,” but you never go. Goodness and patience of God is intended to lead you to repentance.
But God is patient, and even now through His application comes and asks for the fruit. Oh may we never neglect and take this easy like the leaders. God is patient with us in spite of our abuse of privileges and not bearing fruit. May we realize God’s patience leads us to repentance.
2. Secondly, this parable predicts the frightening destiny of those who abuse the privileges and patience of God. It not only displays the amazing patience of God to privileged sinners, but it also predicts the frightening destiny of those who despise their privileges and overplay the patience of God.
First, a temporal judgement. A time came when the longsuffering of God towards the Jews had an end. When will it end for you and me? Forty years after our Lord’s death, the cup of their iniquity was at length full, and they received a heavy chastisement for their many sins. Their holy city, Jerusalem, was destroyed. Their temple was burned. They themselves were scattered over the face of the earth. “The kingdom of God was taken from them, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.”
And will the same thing ever happen to us? Will the judgments of God ever come down upon us, because of our unfruitfulness under so many mercies and privileges? Who can tell? We may well cry with the prophet, “Lord God, thou knowest.” We only know that judgments have come on many a church and nation in the last 2,000 years. The kingdom of God has been taken from the African churches. God used the Islam power to overwhelm most of the churches of the East. There is a terrible judgement going on even today on churches that abuse privileges. Our confession says some have so degenerated as to become no churches of Christ, God left them but synagogues of Satan. Oh how this lesson should sober us and drive us to pray. It becomes all believers to intercede much on behalf of our churches. Nothing offends God so much as neglect and abuse of privileges, taking the privileges for granted. Much has been given to us, and much will be required.
We learn about not only our great privileges, but our great responsibility. The vineyard, in a sense, is ours. The kingdom has come to us now, filled with estimable privileges. Not realizing like those sin-hardened leaders, if we insensitively, spiritually, continue to take it for granted, and test God’s patience, may we fear and repent.
God will have a church in the world in spite of abuse of privileges and unworthiness. The unbelief and waywardness of man shall not make the word of God of no effect. If we continue to abuse, and fail to bear fruit, the kingdom will go to someone else who will bear fruit. If one will not, another will. The Jews imagined that no doubt “they were the people, and wisdom and holiness must die with them; and if they were cut off, what would God do for a church in the world?” But when God makes use of any to bear up His name, it is not because He needs them. If we were made a desolation and an astonishment, God could build a flourishing church upon our ruins, for He is never at a loss what to do for His great name, whatever becomes of us, and of our place and nation.
Not only temporal, but eternal judgement on those who abuse the privilege.
Notice verse 44: “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”
When you have seen God taking this rejected Son, raising Him from the dead, and making Him the chief corner stone, instead of believing Him and bringing forth the fruits of repentance, you say, “Oh, I will not bear fruit, I will love my life. I will not repent.” When they stumble on the stone in unbelief, they don’t move that stone, they only break their own bones. Nothing will happen to that stone, but those who stumble will be grinded to power by the same stone.
This stone will come in glory and power and He will come to flaming fire. On whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. Oh goodness, do you want to meet Omnipotence as a grinding stone upon your poor, frail humanity? Who knows the power of Your anger?
The Well-Beloved who came in meekness, who allowed tenant farmers to take Him by wicked hands and have Him nailed upon the Roman cross, to strip naked, jeered and mocked. That Christ will come in the fury of omnipotent anger. He will grind you to powder, everyone who stumbles upon Him.
Oh, as an unconverted man, it will shudder me. I will crawl and get mercy and escape. Oh God’s appointed judge will grind you to powder.
See the goodness of God and the severity of God. He keeps sending servants in patience and gives all privileges. If His goodness doesn’t lead you to repentance, I warn you to flee from the wrath to come. That stone will grind you to powder. Wake up from your spiritual dullness, inactivity, and passivity. Seek the Lord while He may be found.
Leaders understand He is talking about them. We can even be so worse and indifferent, not even realizing that God is talking to us today in this parable. Do you realize that it is talking about us?
Sad condition some of us: week on week, we hear from God’s word and God is talking to us, He is pointing out our carelessness and sin, and calling us to repent. It is exactly for me. What do we do? What we hear Sunday after Sunday is all true. We know that we are wrong and that every sermon condemns them. You love your sin, and your world, you never repent. You continue like that, harden your heart. After a point, God will harden you. Beware. Let us all beware of this awful state of mind. Millions in hell will cry forever, like the chief priests, to have been convicted by their own conscience, and yet to have died unconverted.
End, is spoken for caution to all that enjoy the privileges of the visible church, not to be high-minded, but fear.
4. No amount of men’s wickedness can frustrate God’s purposes. Jesus in the parable takes us to the point where the tenants won the day by killing the son. The Son was sent with the intention, “They will reverence my son.” It seemed they had the last word when they killed Him. In that very rejection, you have accomplished the divine purposes. The rejected stone crucified became the exalted Lord who is made the corner stone. They think they will kill the son and live sinfully, but God laughs. In killing His Son, they accomplish God’s decree and become a means for God sending a saviour for the nations.
That God is alive today. He reigns today. When all the horrible things are going on in the nation and the trials in our life, He reigns over all that. Whatever this world may reject Christ, but the rejected stone is the head of the corner. The world may reject today, but He is the corner stone. So as we live for God and labor for the gospel, it is successful work. He will win. “I will build my church.” We are not dependent on the economy. He reigns with governments upon His hands.
All disguise is at an end. The kingdom has been taken from the churches of Asia Minor, Africa, and Syria.
II. Each person must unavoidably encounter this “stone.” I say “unavoidably,” because it’s the nature of the human heart, gripped with unbelief, to wish to avoid making a decision about Him. The same “cornerstone” is at the same time a “sanctuary” for those who trust Him, but also “a stone of stumbling and rock of offense” for those who will not. Isaiah 8:13-15 warns: “The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread. He will be as a sanctuary, But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel, As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble; They shall fall and be broken, Be snared and taken.” But try as people may to avoid doing so, each must make a decision about Him. He keeps intruding into this world because of the word about Him that continues to be preached, and because of the lives He continues to transform. As Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:18, the message of the cross of Jesus Christ “is foolishness to those who are perishing”; “to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God” (vv. 23-24). As Peter writes: “Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.’ Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,’ and ‘A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.’ They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy” (1 Peter 2:6-10). Jesus is the cornerstone of salvation. And a decision about Him must be made. When people hear about Him, they must unavoidably encounter the cornerstone. They must make a choice. They will either bow the knee to Him now in the day of grace, or bow the knee to Him on the day of judgment. Dear brother or sister, let’s love people enough to tell them about Him, and to let them face that decision that they must make.
III. That encounter will either result in a “brokenness” unto eternal life or a “grinding” unto eternal destruction. It’s fascinating to see how Jesus puts this in verse 44. He says, “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken…” He speaks of the person “falling” as the one performing the action; and says that such a person will be, literally, broken into pieces. And may I suggest that this is the way someone must come to Him in order to be saved by Him? When they encounter Him for who He is, they must become convicted by who they themselves are. They must fall before Him and say, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). They must cry out as Isaiah did when He encountered the Lord; and say, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). Once someone comes to the end of themselves in that way; once they become “broken” of all that they trusted in concerning themselves; once they fall upon the Lord Jesus, and admit their need for salvation, then—at last—they can be built upon the Cornerstone.
Jesus goes on to say, “…[B]ut on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder” (v. 44b). Here, it’s the stone that performs the action of “falling”; and the result the stone has upon the one on whom it falls is to be, literally, ground up in such a way as to be winnowed away as the chaff—with nothing remaining.
The great preacher and commentator Matthew Henry once wrote, “When those who hear the reproofs of the word perceive that it speaks to them, if it do not do them good it will certainly do them hurt.” And here is an example. It’s infinitely better to fall on the Cornerstone today and be broken by Him from our pride and self-righteousness, than to have that Stone fall on us later and crush us in judgment! How important it is that today—while we can—each one of us makes absolutely sure that we have encountered the Cornerstone and have responded to Him by faith. He truly is the Cornerstone of salvation that each one of us must encounter!
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 