Parables of Jesus: The Tenants

Welcome and Recap:

Good morning, and welcome back. As we continue our “Parables of Jesus Series.” Last week, we were reminded that simply coming to church and saying our “Yes” to God and to his call for us to work for his kingdom is simply not enough. The son who does his father’s will is not the brother who says “yes” and then refuses to work in the vineyard. It is, instead, the brother who initially said “no” but then goes anyway to do the work who is the good Son. Today’s parable follows immediately after the parable of the Two Brothers in Matthew’s gospel, and it strikes a similar theme, asking the next logical question. What happens when we do not do the work that God has called us to do?

Intro:

Today, we look at the “Parable of the Tenants” or the “Wicked Husbandmen,” depending on which century your preferred translation takes its language. For those of you joining us, parables are teaching examples rich in language. They are analogies that communicate a truth, not unlike allegories and metaphors. Still, they are exalted due to their connection to the life and ministry of our Lord.

So much so that they permeate the teachings of the first generation of disciple-makers, the apostles themselves, their messages and writings thick with these same examples; today’s parable alone sees usage in Acts 4:11; “The stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.” Nearly identical to First Peter 2:7, Paul uses this imagery in his epistle to the Ephesians, 2:20; “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,” and Romans 9:32–33; “They stumbled over the great rock in their path. God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”

The theme in today’s Scripture is that the authority of Jesus has been and continues to be questioned and rejected by people due to sin and unbelief. In fact, we are likely to wrestle with authority and its abuse until we see Jesus in all his perfect use of authority. The truth of the matter, however, is that to reject the Son is to reject the Father who sent Him.

Scripture:

Let’s look at our Scripture, which is found in Matthew 21:33-46, Luke 20:9-19, and Mark 12:1-12. I’ll be reading from Matthew’s account:

33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner, who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. He leased it to tenant farmers and went away. 34 When the time came to harvest fruit, he sent his servants to the farmers to collect his fruit. 35 The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Again, he sent other servants, more than the first group, and they did the same to them. 37 Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

38 “But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”

41 “He will completely destroy those terrible men,” they told him, “and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his fruit at the harvest.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

This is what the Lord has done and it is wonderful in our eyes?

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit. 44 Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will shatter him.”

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew he was speaking about them. 46 Although they were looking for a way to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because the people regarded him as a prophet.

Interpretation:

This, he cites as the correct interpretation of Isaiah 5, which foretells of a coming Assyrian invasion, the ancient civilization in which Nineveh was the capital. That town that Jonah was upset about delivering the Lord’s prophesy to because he knew that the Lord would forgive them when they repented. It is interesting to me, in hindsight, that the song that this illustration Jesus is using comes from this place in Isaiah because this Scripture is thought to be about something else.

Exposition:

This is what progressive revelation is. This is why, unfortunately, many Jews attribute messianic prophesy to be about the Persian King, Cyrus, who ended the Babylonian captivity, their second Exile, and facilitated their return to the promised land, even helping them build the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Many Jews, again, the theme here is failing to accept the revelation we’ve been given; hence, they’re still Jews, believe the suffering servant language of Old Testament Prophesy to be about King Hezekiah.

This is why you’ll see historians and Bible Scholars saying that Scripture couldn’t have prescribed baptism, or whatever else they’ll say, perhaps they’ll throw out that in 2nd Timothy 3:16, you know, where it says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God,” or God-breathed, or whatever your translation says, “and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness,” they’ll say Scripture couldn’t have made this claim about itself as no New Testament author could have known or intended their writings to become Scripture! To that, I’ll just say it’s a good thing we don’t rely on the Jewish interpretation for who the Savior was!

Transition:

I don’t want to get too far sidetracked, but I opened the door. Hebrews 1:1 notes that God revealed himself “at many times and in many ways” in the past. Adam received a bit of God’s truth, and so did Noah; God spoke more fully to Abraham, unveiling more of himself and his purposes. He revealed himself supremely in the Old Testament through Moses. Progressive revelation is a movement from truth to more truth and there will be a time, perhaps after our deaths even, when we see full truth. This was the point of our last series, The Story, where we took a look at how God has used His people to tell the overarching High Story, of which everyone else’s Low Story was a part, how He interacts with His people, how our ancestors set us up to be where we are, and how we have the opportunity to be a part of His plan.

Illustration:

As a bit of a segue as it were, getting back on track, I want to tell this story. About 10 years ago, my wife and I were first-time home-buyers. Not knowing any better, we were looking at a new construction inside a housing development. As you do, we wanted to make it our own. The backyard wasn’t that spacious; it had poor drainage and a large hill. Basically, there wasn’t much potential, so we would have to be creative. One of the most obvious problems was a large culvert that sat in the middle of the area where we wanted to build a patio. It was kind of in a dumb place, on top of the hill that I wanted to landscape, so it wasn’t usable for our drainage problem; it became apparent to us during the first hurricane that it was intended for the properties behind our fence that drained into our yard, so as inconvenient as it was, we knew we couldn’t simply remove it. We had to incorporate it into our plans.

After thinking about it for a while, we came up with an idea. We decided to build a patio around the grate, making it a unique centerpiece of sorts. We hired an engineer who helped us design the patio, ensuring that the retaining wall was in the perfect location, opening up tens of square feet. I mean, it was still a small area, but now usable instead of a hill, and we put a firepit in next to the culvert. The whole neighborhood’s floodwater was still directed into it. I had my grill set up around it. It became quite useful as I could hose it off anytime I wanted without worrying about flooding my yard.

As the project progressed, I watched in a kind of humbled amazement as the rocky embankment with the dumb drain became a kind of focal point of my whole yard. It was as if the rock, I mean, it was concrete, so, for the sake of the illustration, we’ll call it a rock, had been destined to be there all along. It had been transformed from an obstacle into a beautiful and functional part of our backyard.

Over the years, we hosted gatherings, and the rock always sparked conversation and piqued interest when people would see it. We loved telling the story of how it had been incorporated into the patio’s design. And we realized that sometimes, problems can be turned into opportunities and that unique solutions can result in something truly special.

Transition:

As Jesus interprets the song from Isaiah 8, the misunderstanding becomes clear. You see, historians and biblical scholars play an important role. But you have to take what anyone says at face value, that they have a specific lens and a goal in mind. They’re not being untruthful; in fact, they’re being accurate, and that’s important. To think that a baptism that Jews did in first-century Judea must have meant or represented the same thing that we do today in Christianity is to do eisegeses—the opposite of exegesis, which is what we want, but instead, interpreting the text in such a way as to introduce one’s own presuppositions, agendas or biases. It is commonly referred to as reading into the text. We don’t want to do that. What a Bible scholar, historians, or translators are not are theologians, who are concerned with the interpretation and application, or pastors, charged with the application of theology and care of a congregation.

Exposition:

The point is some things were for their own time only, later to be set aside. This happened, for example, in the case of the restrictive food laws in Deuteronomy 14:1–21, which were repealed by Jesus in Mark 7:19. The same happened too with many of the laws from the Old Testament that were designed to regulate and separate the lives of the people of God when they were His chosen people. A radical change occurred when the earthly kingdom of the Lord’s people was replaced by the kingdom of God under Christ as King, as seen in John 18:36.

And many principles are still applicable to the realm of appetite and indulgence. In the same way, although we are no longer constituted as an earthly kingdom, we are still concerned for equity, the integrity of the courts, the effectiveness of criminal law, social righteousness, and all the other things the old laws were designed to express and safeguard in the kingdom on earth.

Progressive revelation is not a movement from error to truth but from truth to truth, the lesser to the greater, the provisional to the permanent, the inadequate to the perfect. In the same way, we teach children, they grasp that Jesus loved us and saved us from sin, but they can’t grasp the garden of Gethsemane. They can’t grasp fully God and Fully man, we have adults who struggle with that still. I hear all the time, “God entered into the world through His Son Jesus.” Eww. That’s just bad theology: God is the Father, God is the Son, God is the Spirit, and the Father is not the Son who is neither the Spirit nor the Father. Three persons, one Godhead. And that’s all another message. The point is, none of that is in Scripture, but we get it from Scripture, and it’s not eisegesis! We now have the Spirit; it’s what Jesus promised when he went away; he said it was for our good.

Application:

Back to today’s message! So, what Jesus reveals about himself through Isaiah 8,

He will be a sanctuary;

but for the two houses of Israel,

he will be a stone to stumble over

and a rock to trip over,

and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

15 Many will stumble over these;

they will fall and be broken;

they will be snared and captured.

16 Bind up the testimony.

Seal up the instruction among my disciples.

17 I will wait for the LORD,

who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob.

I will wait for him.

Interpretation:

And, as we see in our Scripture today, in verse 45, “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew he was speaking about them. 46Although they were looking for a way to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because the people regarded him as a prophet.”

So, the authority of Jesus has been and continues to be questioned and rejected by some people due to sin and unbelief. Still, His vindication can be seen in His death, resurrection, and final restoration.

Application:

Naturally, questions tend to come from unbelief. And we don’t see that convicted here, but in the case of the Pharisees, in that verse 45 shows their knowledge of the prophecy in Isaiah, it says literally, “They knew he was speaking about them.” Their rejection came from misplaced fear. That’s what sin is. Because he’s preaching against the inhabitants of Jerusalem. His ministry is shifting focus away from native Jews and towards Gentiles. Not only is that blasphemy in their eyes, which is defined, by the way, as either a misattribution of or irreverence altogether toward something considered sacred, but it’s also convicting. And we have two options when we’re being accused of something, don’t we? We can get defensive, take it personally, and that usually is tied to our ego. Or, we can receive it. Wrestle with it. Try it on for size and see if the shoe fits. If we’re defensive, it’s usually because someone’s attacking something we hold dear. It’s either true, and we can let it inform us, or it is really just that person’s baggage that they’re trying to work out on everyone else, and it has nothing to do with you in the first place. Either way, when we get defensive, it means pride is involved; just know that. And it’s no different than the illustration Jesus gave.

So, the tenants, the farmers, the Husbandmen, whatever you want to call them, they took the invited guests the Father sends, His Judges; they reject His authority, and they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. So that no one could accuse Him of impatience or cruelty, He sends his prophets, but then again, that is, tenants, the farmers, and the husbandmen reject the Father’s authority more than the first group. Yet, He has grace for them, or can I, at this point, just say us, and finally, he sends his Son. In contrast to the pride of the tenants, the only difference in this story and the truth we receive, again, through progressive revelation, is that the Son dies, not as a result of their sin, but in contrast to it. He takes their sin, saying, “Forgive them; they know not what they do.”

Transition:

There is ignorance, until there isn’t. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the “Rich Man and Lazarus” isn’t coming up until August.

In it, the rich man asks Lazarus to visit his family. “Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.” “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them,” Abraham replies. “No, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.” So, Abraham said, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”

The point is that there are times of error, and there is grace for that. But when you are made aware and consciously choose it, when you get the feeling of defensiveness, ask that defensiveness what it’s all about—because that’s pride. Are you like the chief priests and the Pharisees and know it’s true? Does the shoe fit? If you’re looking for a way to discredit someone or in fear, it’s a good sign your pride is taking place of the grace God has for you.

Illustration:

I developed this morning routine after I had gotten out of the Army and in moving out of the barracks, I had craved a larger bed, a full size, rather than the standard army double mattress! To be honest, the bed didn’t really fit well in the room, and I, in my sleepy stupor, stumbling towards the door, would always stub my toe on the foot of the bed. This happened, of course, until I eventually broke my little toe, and, being reminded of the pain as I would set my feet down for the next several mornings, I would sidestep rather than my typical shuffle. This routine became a habit and replaced my former walk, which would always end in acute pain.

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone… Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces.” I learned to walk differently. In the same way, had we removed the drain, I would have likely flooded my house. We learned to work with it.

Summary:

So, what’s it all about? The point is that the authority of Jesus has been and continues to be questioned and rejected by people due to sin, not so much unbelief. In the context of today’s message to an already convicted people, this is not a message to people who don’t believe; it’s to people who would rather not look at themselves critically or receive conviction, and therefore, more of a “what happens when we do not do the work that God has called us to do.”

So, I ask you this, what did the people reply in verse 41? “He will completely destroy those terrible men… and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his fruit at the harvest.”

Though revelation is progressive, as I said earlier, it is not a movement from error to truth but from truth to truth, the lesser to the greater, provisional to the permanent, inadequate to the perfect.

This is no different than an illustration from Second Samuel. God is nothing if not consistent. A pastor or theologian could say that, but never a biblical scholar or historian. This is why context matters. In chapter 12, after Nathan tells David about a horrible rich man and what he did to his poor neighbor concerning a lamb he stole and prepared for a traveler. In verse 5, it says, “David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” Of course, Nathan says, “Yeah, so that guy is you.”

Transition:

In the same way, as in the English language, we have some cool relationships between words like S-O-N son and S-U-N sun; both provide light and are essential for all living things. In Hebrew, there is only one letter difference between the words for “son,” ben, and “stone,” eben. In this parable, Christ reveals Himself as both. On the one hand, He is the Son, sent by the Father, that we might have reverence for Him. On the other hand, He is also the cornerstone on which the whole structure of God’s truth rests.

He is the rock that no one can ultimately get around. All of us must reckon with Christ, and we will, one way or another. God has made Him the stone on which we must build or over whom we will stumble. That is how He has designed the kingdom.

Point:

So, Jesus is alluding to the vineyard in Isaiah 5. The question he leaves us to contend with is from verse 4 of that passage, which simply reads, “What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it?

God is asking Israel what more he could have done to help them become the people he intended them to be. And the answer is, of course, nothing. God had already provided Israel with everything needed to fulfill its mission. This is especially true for those of us who have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. So, given that God has already done for us and provided us with all we need to live our perfect lives in Christ, what we should then be asking ourselves is, “What is it that keeps me from being the type of Christian I want to be?”

If God has already given us all we need, I believe the answer is “us.” We are the problem. We are preventing ourselves from having the fullness of life in Christ. He’s already given us everything we need. He has given us his Holy Word in our own language. He gave us this church as a community of dedicated disciples. He’s given us access to Bible studies, study Bibles, prayer groups, and more opportunities to help the needy and the lost than we could possibly imagine, both inside and outside the church. So, what’s keeping you from being the person you imagined moments ago?

Close:

Is there some sort of sin that is weighing you down? If that’s the case, repent of it. Is there a hobby that takes up the hours in the day that you’re otherwise convicted of spending serving Christ and His Kingdom? If so, move on. Are you older, feeling weaker, and less capable than before? Then pray. Pray for individuals by name. Please pray for me. Pray for the church. Pray for your families; pray for each other’s families. Pray for God’s righteousness and justice to prevail in this world. If you are young, use the time and energy God has given you to work in the vineyard and build God’s Kingdom on earth.

Regardless of what stage of life you find yourself in, the truth is that you are most likely the one thing preventing yourself from living the life you have always desired in Christ. We decide how to use our free time, treasure, and talents each day. The problem is ours. The issue is our selfishness and obsession with the world and its temptations. The problem is that the monotony of life lulls us to sleep and prevents us from laboring in the vineyard, no matter how enthusiastically we say “yes” on Sunday mornings.

We prevent ourselves from living the complete life we envisioned in Christ. God has already provided us with all we need to care for the vineyard He’s placed us in, anticipating that our lives will produce good fruit.