God Makes the Church Fruitful

Trouble in the Text: Jesus judges Israel’s leaders for being unfaithful & unfruitful.

Another parable condemning the conduct of the Chief Priests and Pharisees in Jesus’ time.

The landowner (God) plants the vineyard (kingdom of God; Isa. 5:2), has a wall built around it, had a winepress built, and has a tower built.

God planted Israel in Canaan with by his providence.

God had a wall built (the law) to protect his people.

God had David take and build up (the winepress) of Jerusalem.

God had the Temple built to watch over his people.

God left keepers to tend and oversee and the vineyard. (Chief Priests and Pharisees)

The landowner sent his servants to gather his portion of the harvest. (God sends a message through the prophets, and he expects what is due him, a portion of the harvest)

The tenants, who live and work on the land, beat, stoned and killed the servants sent to them. (the Chief Priests and Pharisees; rabbis; see Matthew 23:29-39, 1 Kings 19:10, 14; 2 Chronicles 24:18-22; 36:15-16; Acts 7:51-53).

The landowner sends his Son whom the tenants threw out of the vineyard and killed.

The landowner gave the tenants 3 times (required by the law) to do the right thing, to give the agreed upon portion of the harvest as rent.

Jesus asked what the vineyard owner will do when he comes to see why they have killed his son.

In response, those Jesus was teaching called the tenants “wretched,” “wrong-doers,” or “evildoers.”

In referring to their end,

Matthew 8:11–12 NIV

11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Jesus says the landowner will replace the tenants that refuse to do as told with fruitful servants .

Anyone who stumbles on the stone will come to judgment and will be utterly destroyed.

They may have heard Jesus say that the inheritance promised them through Abraham will no longer be granted to them. Yet, the non-transferable and irrefutable promise given to Abraham by God who makes no mistakes is what allowed them to make it through all the tragedies of their past.

What else could they believe is true? What else could have brought them through?

The chief priests and the Pharisees thought that Jesus’ message was so dangerous that they plotted against him, but they were afraid of the people of the number of people that still supported him. They would have to wait for another time.

From Matthew’s perspective the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D. took place several years prior to the writing of this Gospel. Matthew as looking at the life of Jesus through what he had experienced, leading up to that destruction, trying to make sense of what Jesus taught them.

Trouble in the World: We become unfruitful when we dwell too much on ourselves.

So much is going on around us in the world today, many dangerous and confusing things that even has the best of us on our toes, trying to figure out the reason for them or someone to blame.

It maybe best rather to be on our knees rather than our toes.

We need to know that whatever, or whoever, goes wrong, that God is always working to make things right, even if we are the ones needing to be made right.

We need to know that the power of God is effective in bringing the world to the fullness of life that he intended, rather than succumbing to the pessimism of that presumes the inevitable destruction of everything.

Sometimes, we just get so wrapped up with ourselves that we stop focusing on God and how he provides, and how God provides us with the strength, the resolve, and the grace to overcome the evil.

Some time after the fall of Jerusalem, some believers got so wrapped up with seeing themselves as the replacements of the people of Israel, rather than understanding that all people became the inheritors of the promise of Abraham.

It allowed them to disregard God’s faithfulness to all of humanity through his promise, obedience to his law and messages given them through the prophets.

Because sometimes, we seem to only need an object, person or group to focus our anger on to make us feel like we are being just.

Ignoring Jesus’ injunction of extending kindness and loving everyone, even our enemies, incites this evil and errant belief that led to widespread, and so far, unceasing persecution of the Jews.

This same kind of persecution is employed today shamelessly upon anyone considered as outside the grace of God.

Grace in the Text: Jesus promises that unfruitful leaders will be replaced by fruitful disciples.

The parable about the tenants was Jesus’ answer to the Chief Priests and Pharisees questioning his authority. (vss. 23-27) While they did not produce the fruit of God’s goodness that comes by faith but relied upon their genealogies, therefore the promise of God made to Abraham.

Jesus says that God, as the landowner, lends the vineyard to other tenants (to the church comprised of Jews and Gentiles), who will give him his share of the fruit in its season (a people who produce the fruit of the vineyard: of new disciples, and new wine of the Spirit).

Matthew 7:16-19 & John 15:1-4 Jesus promises that branches that remain in him by obedience to his word will be pruned and produce fruit.

To be a tenant of the kingdom of God is to be given both the privileges and responsibilities of being God’s people. God’s purposes worked through Israel up to the giving of the Holy Spirit to the church, but he will work those purposes through the church.

While the Chief Priests and Pharisees threw stones at God’s messengers,

Jesus is the stumbling stone that all who do not believe in him will not inherit the kingdom of God;

Jesus is the crushing stone by which all opponents will see their judgment;

Jesus is the cornerstone of each other those building projects.

This critique of Israel was not meant to condemn them, but to inspire repentance of their unfaithfulness to God. They can find true repentance in salvation through belief in Jesus Christ.

Instead of inciting anti-Semitism & racism, it should inspire a full hearted return to faith in God and his love. Nothing and no one can separate us from the love of God, and nothing other than faith in Jesus Christ can restore our relationship back to him.

Now the people of God are the vineyard that produces fruit protected by obedience to God’s moral law, interpreted by God himself, and led by those who exemplify producing the fruit.

The new tenants are just as responsible of producing fruits of the kingdom of God as those who came before them.

Grace in the World: God makes the church fruitful in the world.

Yet, we have nothing to be punished for but a receive reward as we continue to live serve as witnesses of Jesus Christ.

What will you do with the responsibility of the vineyard? Pluck grapes or produce a mature, full-bodied wine of the Holy Spirit?

Will you help the vintner plant needs and return a portion back to him?