Matthew 21:33-43 "Vineyard For Rent"

It’s possible to rent an amazing variety of things. God, too, has a rental arrangement.

Seven hundred years before Jesus, God sent Isaiah to tell a parable to God’s people, Israel. Jesus loved Isaiah’s story. He retold it with a twist to Jerusalem’s leaders. This old, old parable is not mere history. Jesus tells our story.

“Hear another parable” (v 33). Listen with me again. Do you see what God has done to create us, to sustain us?

The Terms Are Specified

A. God puts the vineyard in excellent condition.

He did so for Israel (Isaiah 5:1-7)

He does so for us through the Good News of Christ, by which He gathers and preserves us as His people

“There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard” (v 33). Deliberately, for each of us, the Lord rooted this earth. Tenderly, he planted so that his prized people have joyful wine! Then the master put a fence around his vineyard. The Lord’s teaching encircles us. God’s good Word protects us from the jungle out there. “And [the master] dug a winepress.” Every good drop he will squeeze out. The Lord’s mouth waters for his scrumptious fruit! “And [the master] built a tower.” From the watchtower, his high place, standing up high on God’s Word, oversee the big picture. God did everything to make his vineyard fruitful.

B. God “rents out” the vineyard (the message of His love and forgiveness) by giving it to us and through it supplying us with faith, strength, and hope.

“And [the master] leased [his vineyard]to tenants” (v 33). He’s eager for us to benefit from his work. The good Lord always delights that his gifts be received and used and shared. His giving and giving and giving rippling out makes sense, since he is the giver of every good gift.

C. God expects us to pay Him rent in kind.

He wants the fruit of faith (Galatians 5:22-23

Because of the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, fruitbearing is not a chore but a spontaneous outpouring in response to God’s benefits.

Could Jesus be describing us? Are we so zealous to protect “our” turf? When God, by the people God puts in our lives, calls on us to share what we’ve worked for? “That’s mine! My time! My talent! My money! That’s my living, my life!” Would we take as our own what’s only been loaned to us? Would you say “that’s mine!” about what your hand can hold only for this day?

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father,” James 1:17 reminds us. “What do you have that you did not receive?” Paul wonders (1 Cor 4:7). Time and again, we do not use God’s gifts as he desires. We close our ears to his “collectors.” If they take leave of us “beaten,” well, “who do they think they are to ask for what’s mine?”! Given all the harvest that our Lord lavishes on us, does the grape then taste in our mouth sour, a gripe? Can you live so selfishly?

Difficulties Are Encountered

A. God had difficulties with His renters

“And [the master] leased [his vineyard]to tenants” (v 33). He’s eager for us to benefit from his work. The good Lord always delights that his gifts be received and used and shared. His giving and giving and giving rippling out makes sense, since he is the giver of every good gift.

“When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit” (v 34). What goodly share would the grateful tenants gladly return to their generous master? Rightfully, their lord was due every last grape.

Whoa! Does this make any sense? “The tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them” (vv 35–36). This happened! The owner sent his servants in two groups. Bible scholars call them the “former prophets” and the “latter prophets.” What happened to them? So many stories—all tell the same. Jeremiah they beat and imprisoned. The great Isaiah himself, the story goes, they stuck into a hollowed tree trunk and sawed in two! Zechariah they stoned to death even in the Lord’s temple courtyard. Then the greatest of the Lord’s servants, John the Baptizer? They lopped off his head.

B. God still has difficulties with us, His renters.

In our world today, we see conflicts between landlords and renters. In Jesus’ day, many of his fellow Jews were poor, chafed at working fields owned by wealthy Romans, pagans. Jesus’ story suggests a darker plot. These tenants schemed to take as their own what was only loaned to them. They conspire to make themselves the master, to self-deify!

Could Jesus be describing us? Are we so zealous to protect “our” turf? When God, by the people God puts in our lives, calls on us to share what we’ve worked for? “That’s mine! My time! My talent! My money! That’s my living, my life!” Would we take as our own what’s only been loaned to us? Would you say “that’s mine!” about what your hand can hold only for this day?

We fail to love His mission to the world.

We fail to love God’s people.

We fail to love God’s messengers.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father,” James 1:17 reminds us. “What do you have that you did not receive?” Paul wonders (1 Cor 4:7).

Time and again, we do not use God’s gifts as he desires. We close our ears to his “collectors.” If they take leave of us “beaten,” well, “who do they think they are to ask for what’s mine?”! Given all the harvest that our Lord lavishes on us, does the grape then taste in our mouth sour, a gripe? Can you live so selfishly?

God Takes Action

A. God shows patience.

He kept on sending servants (vs. 34, 36). What a contrast to what we probably would have done under similar circumstances!

He went so far as to send His only Son (v. 37). Through Christ’s death God atoned for the Tenants’ selfishness and ours. To what great lengths God went to show His love and patience!

He is still giving us time to bring forth fruit. He keeps on loving and seeking our love.

B. Yet God’s patience has a limit.

When the Jewish nation rejected Christ, God gave the vineyard (the Gospel message) to the Gentiles.

If we reject Christ, the Gospel will be taken from us and given to others. Christ, the Cornerstone, will one day fall on us and destroy us.

Man’s rejection of the stone gets overturned by God’s construction. Jesus’ first hearers threw Jesus out of their temple. God says, “Great! I’m building the new temple. This stone is just the cornerstone needed.” Resurrection is “marvelous” to believers. What Jesus finished 2,000 years ago is our forgiveness today, our new life forever.

Our day-after-day grief over our sin at last God kills. Hearts torn, we must confess, “We have crucified the Christ!” But God puts a new song in our mouth.

Yes, Jesus warns the faithless. “The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him” (v 44). Anyone who trips over Jesus the stumbling stone will be shattered. Anyone on whom Jesus the rock falls will be squashed. No one survives Jesus. God kills to make alive (Deut 32:39). God creates faith!

Did you hear the Good News? Yes, many would make the master’s vineyard their own. They would be their own gods, miserly and miserable. But God writes a new story. Jesus promises, “I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits” (v 43).

The God who rules over all once chose old Israel to be his blessing to all the rest of us. Many did welcome him. They shared his fruit. Yet God’s people did kill his prophets, even crucified his Son.

Today, the God over all has chosen you, his Jewish and Gentile “new Israel” (cf Gal 6:16), to be his blessing to all people. Your sin, too, crucified Jesus. The Son has risen to life again! Will you welcome him? Will you share his fruit?

Today is our day to “produce the fruits” of God’s vineyard. Use it or lose it! Not that we can create a single grape. But we can sink roots deep into Jesus’ love for us. Taking the place of us “wretches,” Jesus himself died the “miserable death.” Here he comes now. He pours down our throat the fruit of the vine, his own blood, his forgiveness as the resurrected Son. He means for us to drink deeply. Be filled with his Spirit. Be abundantly alive with the joy of the divine wine.

What a privilege to be a tenant in God’s vineyard and to bring Him His fruits!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.