33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous 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 fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46 And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.
(ESV)
STOP! Think a little 🤔 What is God saying to you?
- What is the writer saying?
- How do I apply this to my life?
Jesus tells a second parable intended to reveal the spiritual condition of the religious leaders. The story was of a master who prepared a vineyard and then leased it out while he moved to another country. When the time came for the vineyard to bear fruit, he sent servants to collect his share of the fruit (rental). The tenants beat, killed and stoned his servants. He sent a second group and they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son thinking they would respect his son. But when they saw the son they thought that if they killed the son, then they could take ownership of the vineyard (Jewish law stated that if an owner of property died with no heirs, then the occupants of the property could take possession of the property), so they killed him too. Jesus asked the religious leaders what they thought the owner of the vineyard would do to those tenants? The religious leaders know that the story is of grave injustice and that the owner of the vineyard would be right to avenge his son’s death and then lease his vineyard out to those who would rightly give him the fruit he is owed.
The vineyard was Israel (Ps 80:8-16). The Jewish leaders over the years were the tenants who were supposed to give God the fruit of repentance. Over the years God had sent His servants, the prophets, to call for the fruit but these servants were abused or killed (Matt 23:37). Finally, God had sent his Son, Jesus, and they are going to kill Him because they refused to repent. The result is that God was justified in executing judgement against the leaders and the nation and handing it over to a future generation of leaders.
Jesus then continues by referring to Himself as the cornerstone. The Jewish leaders rejected Him but He became the cornerstone of a new building, the church. The kingdom of God was opened to both Jews and Gentiles of which each believer becomes a living stone in the new temple of God.
The Jewish leaders were religious but unfruitful. God doesn’t want people making and following rules that have no affect on their hearts. God want’s people who have a heart change that begins with belief in Jesus and then continues through faith in Him every day to work in them and through them to produce the fruit of righteousness of lives lived for His glory. Which describes you, “religious” or “fruitful”?
This passage made we question whether I sometimes reject God in some ways
We must just make sure that we don’t do what the tenants did to the son because the son is like Jesus being sent so we must not reject him