Workers in God's Vineyard

We ended last week with the scene where the chief priests and elders were challenging Jesus’ authority to teach and perform miracles.

That story flows right into the text we have before us today. In fact, really throughout the next couple of chapters, it is hard to even find a good starting and stopping point, because all the teaching and all the scenes of confrontation flow together in rapid succession.

We have to keep in mind that while the first 20 chapters of Matthew covered Jesus’ entire life up until the age of probably 33, the last quarter of the book covers mostly just one week. We are seeing things play out in rapid succession.

But even though things are moving quicker, the way the scripture is put forward is in keeping with how the rest of Matthew’s writing went. All through we’ve seen miracles or narrative, followed by teaching. Here, we see the same thing - miracles/narrative, then teaching.

Jesus rode in on the donkey, cleansed the temple, healed the lame and blind, received praise from the little children, cursed the fig tree, and had a confrontation with the leaders - miracles and narrative.

Now, we get a long section of teaching again, and it begins with three parables. We are going to look at just two of them today, because these two are nearly identical in their purpose and themes.

The themes of the vineyard come up again in this passage, as Jesus’ often used the culture around him to explain and give light to his teaching.

Here, the parables are about God’s vineyard people, and in each case there are workers.

There are a lot of major themes in these two parables, I’m going to list some of them and you can sort of keep track of what you see as well.

God’s care for his people, the “vine.”

The value of repentance over false professions

The concept of stewardship and human agency in God’s creation

The rejection of God’s authority, and God’s son

The Kingdom of God

Judgment on wicked servants

Jesus is coming face to face with the leaders of Israel’s religion in the most intense ways, and these parables were very pointed.

But we must take heed not to say, “well that hard lesson is just for the Pharisees and the priests and leaders, its really not relevant to us.”

We must take heed because the attitudes, the pitfalls, and even the depths of unbelief and rejection that we see from these leaders is something we are all prone to. These parables are at once warnings and encouragements.

Two Vineyard parables show the importance of repentance and doing God’s will.

1. A Father and His Sons - Vs. 28-32

A. The Parable - Vs. 28-30

Jesus starts off verse 28 with an invitation to think - “what do you think?” He is asking these leaders to seriously consider their positions. This is helpful, too, because it is a reminder that spiritual things are not mindless. Life is not just meditation and emptying ourselves and hoping to be filled with something else - it requires the mind that God created and gave to us.

Jesus invites them, and us by implication, to think about two sons. There is a comparison that is coming. And the means of comparison is this family vineyard. The Father and patriarch is no doubt the owner of a vineyard, and he makes a simple and reasonable request to his son.

“Go and work in the vineyard today.” It would be expected not just culturally but even practically that the son would obey, because it was in everyone’s best interest for the vinyeard to be tended well. If it was a family business, then the livelihood and future of the whole family benefits from cooperation.

We can already see here the weight of what is happening - God has created a world, a “vineyard” so to speak, and he commands his children to work within it. It is not just busywork, but it is productive work. It is a simple and reasonable request.

But in verse 29, we see that this first son answered blatantly, “no!” He said “I will not.” That is an interesting phrase, it literally means “it is not my desire to do this.”

He was honest, but his honesty was dishonorable. This would have been immensely shameful in that culture, and put the son in jeopardy. He was honest, but he was honest in his rebellion.

But after thinking about it, he “changed his mind.” He was very sorry - regretful. And not only was he sorry, we see that he repented and went.

This is much like the parable of the prodigal son in short form. We see here the concept of repentance from rebellion, the struggle of the human will against the will of God.

With the second son, however, things went differently. The father used the same language - he “said the same” to Him. So no different command, no different context. But a different response.

This son immediately said, “Indeed, Lord!” A very respectful and honorable response. This was the response that would be expected of any good son. And this son knew that, he knew just what to say.

But his respectful answer was not followed through with. He simply did not go. Good words, but no action behind them. Sort of like a fig tree with leaves, but no fruit.

That is the simple parable, and it is easy to wrap our minds around. And with both of these parables, the main point of them is summed up in a question that Jesus asks.

B. The Question - Vs. 31a

“Which of these two did the will of his father?”

The answer to that question is the interpretation of the parable. It is a simple lesson, simple but profound.

Well, these leaders of Jerusalem answered, and they answered correctly!

They said, “The first.”

The first son, remember, at first said “no, it is not my desire to go!” But then he repented - he changed his mind and heart and went.

And their answer, being correct, was an answer that put them immediately in their place within this story. Because they were in this story, they just didn’t know it.

In fact, we are all in this story, to some degree or another. We may not know it, but Jesus knows it, and he knows exactly where we are.

C. The Application - Vs. 31b-32

Jesus goes right from their answer into application, and he immediately brings them into it.

He says, “truly! I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God before you...”

This coupled phrase, we’ve seen before. What were tax collectors and prostitutes? They were sinners! They were clearly unrighteous! But in this story, the tax collectors and prostitutes are the first son.

They at first say “no!” to God’s ways, and go on in rebellion. But That rebellion only lasts until something happens - they repent. They have a change of mind and heart that leads to a change in behavior and they go, in this case, into the Kingdom of God.

The lowest people, in these leader’s eyes, were this class of people. Yet, Jesus is saying that by repentance, these lowest of lows - the people of the earth - are the first going into the Kingdom. They are becoming citizens of the True Kingdom of God while these religious leaders are left behind. Why is that?

Because the religious leaders, and much of Israel with them, are the second son. They put on a good face, put on a good act, say and do the right things in public, but when the rubber meets the road, they do not do the will of the father.

Jesus ties their rejection back to John the Baptist’s ministry, which ties this parable back into Jesus’ question to them about John’s authority.

Jesus is affirming that John, and therefore Jesus’, authority comes from Heaven above. and he says to them, “Righteous john came to you and you didn’t believe Him.”

When it came time to believe, you didn’t. When it came time to “go into the Kingdom,” you said no. If they had been asked at any point if they would consider themselves citizens of God’s true kingdom, they certainly would have said yes! But when it came time to go in, they rejected.

Even when they saw the lowest of the low radically changed by this new message, they stayed stubborn in their hardness and unbelief, and they would not go in.

Jesus ends his statement here with “you did not change your minds.”

That goes right back to the start, where Jesus asked them, “what do you think?” Their minds were made up - they were no longer “thinking,” they were just acting inside of a rut, a channel which kept them from going along with Jesus. It may have been for many reasons, fear of Rome, fear of losing power, fear of losing status or class, maybe just rugged traditionalism. But their minds were shut, their hearts were hardened - and they would not.

Dear one, we are somewhere in this parable. Jesus is showing us how it is better to be a repentant ragged sinner than a squeaky clean religious person who is bright and shiny on the outside but stone cold and hardened on the inside.

The lowest of the low, in our day, too, might hear the Gospel of Christ and be changed - and that person is far better off than the lifetime churchgoer who always went with the motions but never answered the call of Christ to actually repent and follow Him.

2. A Landlord and His Tenants - Vs. 33-44

A. The Parable - Vs. 33-39

The first parable was a call to think - to consider their position and see if they were truly working in God’s vineyard. They were working, alright, but they were not working for God in the final analysis.

This parable, then, becomes a warning. And Jesus simple says to them, “listen to another parable.”

In this one, we see a master of a house again, like the first, but in this case he is not dealing primarily with his family but with tenants - renters. This was a pretty common experience, where a wealthy landowner would establish a vineyard and then lease it out to experienced vinedressers to work and keep. The vinedressers would get much of the increase and profit, but they would have to share the harvest and pay the lease.

Well, this master planted a vineyard. He went to great lengths to care for this vineyard and set it up for success. He gave it protection, preparation, watchcare, and then brought in these agents to work in it and produce fruit.

The listener’s minds might have gone right to Isaiah 5. Because the same language is used in that chapter to refer to Israel as the vineyard that God planted.

Isaiah 5:1–2 (ESV)

Let me sing for my beloved

my love song concerning his vineyard:

My beloved had a vineyard

on a very fertile hill.

He dug it and cleared it of stones,

and planted it with choice vines;

he built a watchtower in the midst of it,

and hewed out a wine vat in it;

and he looked for it to yield grapes,

In this case, Isaiah is speaking of Israel as the vineyard. God is the master - the one who planted it and cared for it.

In that case then, the servants here would be prophets. The Son is none other than Jesus Himself. The “tenants,” here, are the people. And specifically, the leaders who have charge and leadership and influence over the people.

It would be these very chief priests and elders, and the pharisees and Sadducees.

Verse 34 goes on, and says that the “time for fruit” came. The master sent his servants to collect his share of the fruit.

We can easily apply this even now - God expects fruit from His people. Just like Jesus cursed that fig tree when there was no fruit, in the same way, God’s people are meant to produce the fruits of righteousness and peace that fill the earth God created.

It is no wonder that David said of the righteous blessed man in Psalm 1:3

Psalm 1:3 (ESV)

He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

Now, in the laws governing leased vineyards like in this parable, the owner had to maintain his claim on the vineyard. If he failed to make a claim or send for his share for 3 years, then on that 4th year the tenants could legally claim the vineyard as their own property and possession.

So in this case, the owner of the vineyard is making his interest in the vineyard known by sending his servants to collect on his investment.

In this very same way, God places agents in the world to work and till it, but it is always His world. God always has a rightful claim to both expect fruit and to receive the glory from that fruit being produced.

Even when we do produce the good fruit of righteousness, may we never boast in that as if we are autonomous. We may have periods of freedom where we are allowed to work and make decisions and use our gifts, but we are always accountable to Him. Without, we would have neither the world, the gifts, or the life in which to use those gifts.

But in verse 35, we see that the tenants vehemently rejected these servants. They beat and killed and stoned them. In real life, this rejection of the servants would mean that the tenants were rejecting the claim of the master on his property. They would be trying to stake their own claim and autonomy.

The idea here, then, is Israel rejecting God’s servants, who were at first the prophets. That is akin to them saying, “no, this is our world and we will do with it what we please.” It is literally to reject God.

To reject God’s message is to reject God himself, it is to rebel against him, and to state your own sufficiency and ownership of His world.

The tenants had quickly forgotten that without the master, they would have no vineyard to work. No vineyard means no grapes, no grapes means no living. How quickly we bite the hand that feeds us.

The idea of Israel rejecting the prophets is found in several places in the Old Testament.

Jeremiah 20:1–2 ESV

Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord.

1 Kings 18:4 ESV

and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.)

2 Chronicles 24:20–21 ESV

Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God, ‘Why do you break the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you.’ ” But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord.

Do you see that? Beating, Killing, and Stoning God’s messengers.

Jesus wasn’t making this up to make a point -this had been an attitude and rebellion that had been circling back around for hundreds of years.

Jesus will pick this theme back up in chapter 23 when he speaks out against “Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets...”

But Jesus moves on and takes a big step in this parable.

Because The master sent the first servants, and then a second time sent more servants. But they did the same to them.

Finally, in verse 37, he sends his son. “Surely, they will respect my son.” He says.

The incredible thing in this story is that this master even gives these wicked tenants one more change. Anyone reasonable would have struck them out and charged them with murder after the first incident. But not just once, but twice more this master shows patience and gives a chance for these tenants to act righteously.

This is meant to display to us the immense compassion God has even toward his enemies. Even when His own people rebel against Him, he gives chance and chance again for them to repent, for them to realize their error and turn to Him.

God is not “business-like” in dealing with his people, he is gracious and slow to anger and abounding in mercy.

And his mercy is most clearly displayed, his benevolence most vividly seen and declared in the sending of His Son.

Hebrews 1:1–2 ESV

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

That is the exact framework of this parable. God sent his servants and spoke by the prophets, but in the last days, the final word is from the Son.

Surely, the son of the master would be accepted? And surely, the Son of God would be accepted by His own poeple?

But we read in verse 38-39, that the tenants were just emboldened all the more in their rejection.

They say, “This is the heir! Let us kill him and have his inheritance!”

If we’re following the parable by way of the culture, this third visit would have been the third year, which meant that after one more year they could claim the property for their own. Doing away with this final message from the owner would mean that it would be theirs.

They took him, and threw him out, and killed Him.

A total rejection. How gracious had the Master been, yet how hard and wicked had these tenants been?

They had altogether staked their claim on the vineyard. They had rejected the Master by rejecting his servents, and ultimately by rejecting His Son.

In the same way, Israel’s leaders and much of the people were finally rejecting God by rejecting His Son. To reject the Son is to reject God. You cannot have the Father without having the Son. You cannot go around the Son to get to the Father.

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Israel may have thought they were preserving their religion, their Judaism by rejecting this Jesus - but what they were actually doing was fully and finally rejecting God Himself. They held on to their teachings and traditions, but once the messiah is rejected, there is no life left. No substance or reality - only a shell of religious activity and tradition.

While Jesus was telling this parable, we have to remember that some within his very audience were planning his death. They were planning to “throw him out and kill Him.”

This is not the main point, but it is a big point - by teaching this, Jesus was teaching clearly His own Sonship, His deity, and the finality of His ministry.

Do you reject God’s Son? In the final analysis, that is the question that truly matters. All righteousness and peace and life flows from Him. Do you reject Him?

B. The Question - Vs. 40-41

Like the first, the meaning of this second parable is all wrapped up in the question.

Matthew 21:40 ESV

When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

The listeners gave the correct answer - the “moral” answer. They could see the wicked injustice in the story. But they could not see that they were themselves in the place of those tenants.

This is just like the story of David, when he was confronted by the prophet Nathan about his sin with Bathsheba and killing Uriah.

Nathan came to David and told him a parable about a poor family who had one lamb, but then a rich man who had many lambs came and took that one lamb and killed it for a feast. David’s response is much like these leaders.

2 Samuel 12:5–7 (ESV)

Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

Nathan said to David, “You are the man!”

Just like David, these leaders were blinded to their own rejection of God through His Son. And their own answer to this parable condemns them.

C. The Application - Vs. 42-44

Jesus lets the scripture condemn them, and he quotes from Psalm 118:22-23

Psalm 118:22–23 ESV

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.

Jesus’ use of this Psalm here is important, not just because it was an answer to these leaders, but because it establishes the use of this psalm in reference to Jesus by the Apostles.

Acts 4:11 ESV

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.

1 Peter 2:6–7 ESV

For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”

Ephesians 2:19–20 ESV

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,

Peter affirms it first in Acts in his sermon to show the Jews their rejection of Jesus, and how massive of implications that has.

He then uses it again in His epistle to the believers to encourage them, and show them that they can have great joy because they are built on the cornerstone.

Then, Paul uses it and applies it to the Gentile believers who are grafted into the household of God, Christ being the very cornerstone of that household.

Those who were far off had been brought near.

Much like the tax collectors and prostitues were entering the Kingdom before these leaders, in the same way, the gentiles along with the true believers in Israel were receiving the Kingdom.

In his patience, up until this point, God had preserved Israel as the poeple through whom God was made known. Israel had been God’s lightpost, His example and a means of displaying his glory.

But now,that task is removed from them and given to a “people” who will produce his fruit.

This “people” is not a “people” by lineage or nationality, but a people by blood - the blood of Christ.

Both Jew and Gentile, as Paul would say. No separation, no distinction, no tiers of importance.

One new man in place of the two - brought together in Christ as His true people, His new holy nation, his Kingdom brought to life.

Ephesians 2:14–15 ESV

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,

Ephesians 3:6 ESV

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

The image of the stone falling on people and crushing them comes from Daniel, where Daniel prophecies of the “stone that was made without hands.” And Isaiah also refers to it in Isaiah 8.

Isaiah 8:14–15 ESV

And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

Jesus had become that stumbling stone to these leaders, and to much of Israel.

But to those who believe, like those tax collectors and prostitutes. Like those gentiles who were far off, that same stone is not a stumbling stone, but the corner stone.

3. A Realization and Determination - Vs. 45-46

Matthew 21:45–46 ESV

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

The leaders do understand this parable, but it does not drive them to their knees in repentance, rather it pushes them further in their rebellion and hardness.

They would avoid a scene here for fear of the people who followed Jesus, but soon enough they would fulfill this proiphetic parable.

In short History, they would be scattered, their temple and city destroyed, and the Kingdom of Christ would grow and flourish and spread throughout the world with both Jew and gentile being one new Man in Jesus Christ.

Do you reject Christ?

If you are a long-time Christian, is your life’s foundation on the cornerstone of Christ, or is it built on mere religious tradition?

If Christ is new to you, would you follow Him?

And if you are following Him, would you give Him thanks and praise that you had a change of heart and mind, that he brought you near by His blood, and that you were able to enter His Kingdom by his grace?

And if you are one of God's Kingdom people, know that he has placed you in His vineyard to work and to produce fruit. It is His world, and we are here by His grace and for His glory. May we produce the fruits of righteousness, the fruits of His Spirit as we work for His glory.