The Vineyard
Farmers
By Gerry Watts
“Listen to
another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall
around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the
vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. When the harvest time
approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The
tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a
third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the
tenants treated them the same way.
Last of all, he
sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. But when the
tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let's
kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of
the vineyard and killed him.
Therefore, when
the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” “He
will bring those wretches to a wretched end (Evil men! Evilly will he be
destroying them - CV),” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard
to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
‘The stone the
builders rejected has become the capstone (head of the corner – CV);
the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
“Therefore I
tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a
people (Gr. ethnos – ‘nation’ CV) who will produce its fruit.
He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls
will be crushed (Gr. ‘scattered like chaff’).” When the chief
priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking
about them.
(Matthew 21:33-45
NIV; also Mark 12:1-12 and Luke 20:9-19)
The Vineyard is The Kingdom
Jesus
spoke this parable during His last four days in Jerusalem, just before His
death at Passover of 33 A.D, while He was teaching in the temple courts. The
Landowner is God and the Vineyard represents His kingdom inheritance. In the
Old Testament, the nation and land of Israel represented God’s kingdom,
especially as it was embodied in His capital city of Jerusalem, the place of
His Name, represented in the Temple. The prophet Isaiah spoke of this quite
clearly.
“I will sing
for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a
fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with
the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as
well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad
fruit. Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge
between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only
bad?
Now I will tell
you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and
it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.
I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and
thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.
The vineyard
of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the
garden of his delight. And
he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries
of distress.”
(Isaiah 5:1-7 NIV)
Isaiah
gives us a clear description of Jerusalem as the centre of God’s Vineyard,
referring to a wall, a watchtower and a winepress. Jesus uses these same words
in the parable. These terms are used a number of times throughout the prophets
in relation to Jerusalem and Israel. The winepress is particularly used in
relation to the judgment of Jerusalem and the people of God, as well as the
coming judgment on all nations (Joel 3:12-14; Isaiah 63:2-6; Revelation
14:18-20; 19:15).
The
people of God were supposed to bring forth the fruit of the vineyard –
grapes, but instead of bearing good fruit, the fruit of righteousness, they
bore bad fruit, the rotten fruit of wickedness. This had now come to a head in
Jesus’ time, as the people of Israel were about to reject the Messiah
Himself, the Son of the Landowner.
“I
had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How
then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?” (Jeremiah 2:21 NIV)
“This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Let them glean the
remnant of Israel as thoroughly as a vine; pass your hand over the branches
again, like one gathering grapes.” ”
(Jeremiah 6:9
NIV)
God’s Judgment on Jerusalem
God
is the Owner of His land and His people, as well as being the Owner of the
whole world. For almost 1000 years before Jesus arrived, God had been sending
His servants, the prophets, to His vineyard tenant farmers to collect His
fruit, particularly as the era of harvest time was approaching. (Take note
here that the era of the First Coming of Christ was viewed as a time of
Harvest, yet there is a greater Harvest still to come at the end of this age
in relation to Christ's Second Coming. These things are discussed in the
subsequent parables).
The leaders of
Israel, however, who represented the tenant farmers, proceeded to persecute these servants by beating them,
killing them and stoning them. Then more servants were sent out, but this time
the leaders of Judah beat them, killed them and stoned them. Last of all, God
was now sending His Son to them to claim His rightful inheritance. Was Jesus
respected and accepted by the tenants? NO! Instead, they saw Him as a threat
to their positions of religious and political power, for they knew Him to
be the Heir to the kingdom inheritance. Notice that the Pharisees and the
chief priests knew something of the meaning of Jesus’ parables, for they
knew it was about them (Matthew 21:45). Therefore, they plotted to kill
Him, eventually throwing Him out of the vineyard (Jerusalem) and murdering Him
(on the Mount of Olives, near the place of the Sacrifice of the Red Heifer).
At
this point in the parable, Jesus asked the crowd “When the owner of the
vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” He may have been speaking
rhetorically, yet some of them replied, “Evil
men! Evilly will he be destroying them, and he will rent the vineyard to other
tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.” Little
did they know that out of their own mouths they were pronouncing God’s
judgment on the city of Jerusalem, which was eventually fulfilled in 70 A.D.
Jesus then reminded them of the messianic prophecy in Psalm 118 concerning the
Stone that the builders rejected. The people, via their leaders, represented
as the builders of the kingdom, were about to reject the Chief Cornerstone of
the building of God! Yet even their rejection of the Living Stone fulfilled
the purpose of God to make Him Head of the corner – and it is marvellous in
our eyes!
For
those who fall on this Stone, they will be broken before Him as His humble
followers; yet to those on whom it falls, they will be crushed in judgment,
scattered like chaff in the wind.
God’s New Temple
Through
Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit of God is now continuing to
build His kingdom inheritance with living stones – the Ecclesia of God, the
Body/Bride of Christ, composed of Jew and Gentile.
Consequently,
you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people
and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a
holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to
become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
(Ephesians
2:19-22 NIV)
As
you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God
and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a
spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: “See, I
lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts
in him will never be put to shame.”
Now
to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,” and, “A stone
that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”
They
stumble because they disobey (are stubborn to) the message—which is
also what they were destined (appointed) for.
(1
Peter 2:4-8 NIV)
The
New Nation
Even
though the nation of Israel was promised the rights to the original kingdom
inheritance of God, as they were the vineyard, yet due to their rejection of
Jesus as Messiah and Lord, the vineyard of Jerusalem was to be judged and
destroyed. As a result of this, the vineyard (the kingdom) would be given to a
nation (or people) who will produce the fruit at harvest time. This nation is
the heavenly Israel, the overcomers, the Ecclesia of God who belong to the New
Jerusalem. These are the royal priests who will rule the world with Christ in
a Melchizedek priesthood, and they will inherit the kingdom promises (that is,
age-abiding life), as sons of Abraham and sons of God.
But
you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who
called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a
people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.
(1 Peter 2:9-10 NIV)
“To
him who overcomes
and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— ‘He
will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like
pottery’— just as I have received authority from my Father.”
(Revelation
2:26-27 NIV)
Now
if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with
Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also
share in his glory.
(Romans 8:17 NIV)
If
perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on
the basis of it the law was given to the people), why was there still need
for another priest to come—one in the order of Melchizedek, not
in the order of Aaron? For when there is a change of the priesthood, there
must also be a change of the law…For this reason Christ is the mediator
of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised
eternal (eonian) inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to
set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
(Hebrews
7:11-12; 9:15 NIV)
Even
though many of the true Ecclesia of God have died in faith, not as yet having
received the promised inheritance (because they are not consciously in heaven,
but are in the sleep of death awaiting the resurrection), some having died
before Christ came and others having died since then, nevertheless, the era is
very near when the last living stone will complete the temple of God, and
Christ shall then return to fill His Temple with glory and power as we receive
the kingdom inheritance together – as the Vineyard of the Lord Almighty.
This is the true Sabbath-rest of God that still remains (Hebrews 4:8-11).
These
were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been
promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together
with us would they be made perfect.
(Hebrews 11:39-40 NIV)
Copyright
© Gerry Watts 2006; 2007