"Only a day or two before his death Jesus is
quietly teaching in
The Temple, when some of the
chief priests and
elders join his audience and challenge his authority. The object of their question is to trap him into making some statement which will put him in their power. But Jesus skillfully parries the question, and proceeds to tell them this parable.
'A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.
'And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.
'Whether of them twain did the will of his father?' (Matt. 21:28-31).
It does not seem to occur to them immediately that the two sons represent the House of Israel and the House of Judah, because they answer and say, 'The first'. But they know that this is not a pretty Sunday-school story, and that every word is pregnant with meaning for themselves.
While they are still speculating as to his meaning Jesus goes on to tell them another parable. But this time they realize in the first few words the exact meaning of the vineyard to which he refers. How does Jesus do it? Very simply. He used the actual words of another parable of the vineyard in the Book of Isaiah, a passage with which they are very familiar, and which they cannot fail to understand.
This is the parable of Isaiah.
'Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching His vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and He
fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine; and built
a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
'And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard.
'What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
'And now, go to; I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
'And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
'For the vineyard of the "I AM" Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant' (Isa. 5:1-7).
Remembering the intimate knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures which was so constantly displayed by the Lord Jesus, we may safely assume that he was well acquainted with the parallel passage in Psalm 80, where the Psalmist applies the same imagery to the House of Israel, and leads our thoughts to the promised Messiah, who was destined to leave the right hand of his Father in order to become the Son of Man.
'Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
'Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.
'The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.
'She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.
'Why hast Thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
'The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
'Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;
'And the vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that Thou madest strong for Thyself.
'It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of Thy countenance.
'Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, upon the son of man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself.'
With consummate skill Jesus weaves these two passages into a parable which his audience cannot fail to understand.
'There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.
'And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.
'And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.
'Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise' (Matt. 21:33-36).
The chief
priests and
scribes and
elders understand now exactly what Jesus means. The vineyard, as explained by Isaiah, is the House of Israel. God had planted it in Palestine; hedged it about, that is, separated it from other nations and protected it with His power; digged a winepress in it, given to it the Divine Law; built a tower, established the Royal House of David. The servants are the long line of prophets ending in John the Baptist, whose murder only a year or two before is still fresh in their minds.
Having identified the vineyard, Jesus continues the parable,
'But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.'
The Jews know now that Jesus is referring to himself; and they listen attentively because they hope that he will say something that will put him in their power. But, instead of that, they hear their own plot unmasked, and Jesus uttering aloud the very words that they have been whispering in secret. Imagine their amazement as that calm voice proceeds:
'But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.*'
* Ezekiel 44:2 Then said the "I AM" unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the "I AM", the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.
44:3 [It is] for The Prince (Dan. 9:24-27); The Prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the "I AM"; he shall enter by the way of the porch of [that] gate, and shall go out by the way of the same.
48:21 And the residue [shall be] for The Prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy oblation, and of the possession of the city, over against the five and twenty thousand of the oblation toward the east border, and westward over against the five and twenty thousand toward the west border, over against the portions for The Prince: and it shall be the holy oblation; and The Sanctuary of The House [shall be] in the midst thereof.
48:22 Moreover from the possession of the Levites, and from the possession of the city, [being] in the midst [of that] which is The Prince's, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, shall be for The Prince.
But Jesus has not finished yet. He has shown them that he knows why they are going to put him to death; now he intends to warn them of the consequences of their action. So he asks them this question:
'When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?
'They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.'
The answer to our Lord's question comes probably from one of the crowd, or possibly from one of his own followers. Luke, in his version of the scene, puts the words into the mouth of Jesus himself. If one of the chief priests, or scribes, or elders is speaking, then he is very quickly made conscious of his stupidity, for Jesus drops the parable, and turns upon his enemies with these words:
'Therefore say I unto you, the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.'
This statement leaves no shadow of doubt in their minds as to the meaning of the parable. The guilty thoughts of their hearts have been laid bare and they are filled with fury, and the lust for murder, for we read, 'And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him; but they feared the people: for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them.'
- The Fight for The Kingdom