Matthew 21:33-46

Matthew 21:33-46 NIV

“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. 
“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, letʼs kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“ ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
 the Lord has done this,
 and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesusʼ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When reading the New Testament, we must remember that the tension in the narrative between Jesus and the Pharisees, teachers of the law, scribes and chief priests is a reflection of the animosity between the writers' faith community and the established religious authority. It's easy to think of all Jews as mean spirited, judgemental, scheming, and vengeful.

We forget that the disciples in the gospels are all Jews. Every author of a biblical book or letter is a Jew. We owe our very faith, and therefore our lives to the Jews, God's chosen nation. For through Israel came the knowledge of God. Christianity, Islam and Judaism all descend from the monotheistic faith of Abraham. Through his descendants came the twelve tribes of Israel, the law of Moses, the kingly line of David, the prophets, and ultimately Jesus. God became incarnate in a Jew from Galilee.

In the material in Matthew that follows the tension between Jesus and the religious establishment comes to a fever pitch. It's not Jews, precisely, who killed Jesus. It was powerful men who played a part in trying to silence His voice and crush the movement behind Him, men of Jewish, Iduemean and Roman descent. It's more about politics than race. It's more about keeping the peace than about religious differences. It's more about positions of power feeling threatened by Jesus' popularity and what that might mean for them personally and for Israel under the oppression of Rome.

So as we continue our study of Matthew's gospel keep this in mind. The fierce rhetoric coming from Matthew's Jesus gives voice to the conflict between the early church, a persecuted sect within Judaism, and the religious leadership of the time. The conflict is between two kingdoms, the kingdom of this world system and the kingdom of Christ. We live in the same conflict as these two kingdoms tug at our hearts for our allegiance.

Jesus told another parable to the chief priests who questioned His right to teach the people in the temple. The day before Jesus had overturned the tables of the moneychangers and run them out of the temple. Of course these men responsible for the temple are going to confront Jesus. He walked in like He owned the place. That is of course the irony. Jesus is God, the very God for whom the temple was built, yet the priests and Pharisees do not comprehend it.

In the parable a landowner (God) owned a vineyard (Israel) which he rented to farming tenants (Israel's leadership). The vineyard was walled (Jerusalem) and equipped with a winepress (the temple religious system) and watchtower (the temple, or it could be the kingly line of David). When the time of harvest came the landowner sent his representatives to collect from the tenants the profits from the wine produced by the vineyard. Each one he sent was beaten and thrown out of the vineyard. These abused men represent the prophets sent to Israel over the centuries leading up to the exile under Babylon. Finally the landowner sent his own son, thinking surely the tenants would respect him and hand over what is owed. Instead they killed the landowner's son. Of course the son of the landowner in the parable represents Jesus.

Jesus asked his opponents what will the landowner do when he comes to his vineyard personally to confront these tenants. The chief priests and Pharisees say that the landowner will bring them to a wretched end and rent out the vineyard to others who will give him what is due. More irony, for Jesus' opponents unwittingly prophesy what is coming. Jerusalem will fall to the Romans. The early church will interpret this event as God's judgement on the failure of the religious and political leadership of Israel. For they had not been good stewards. Jesus told the priests and teachers, "The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit."

These men were enraged when they realized that Jesus' parable was about them. They wanted him silenced. They wished to arrest him and put him in chains locked away from the crowds where He might be forgotten. But they were afraid of how the crowds would react, since the people thought of Jesus as a prophet sent from God.

Powerful men are often afraid of losing their power, for their power and authority comes from the people. "People have they power", Patti Smith, the New York City punk rock artist sang. But Jesus' authority and power is not dependent upon the people. His authority comes from God alone. The failure of Israel's leadership to understand that is what this parable is all about. These men are like the idolatrous and corrupt men who led Israel to its doom centuries prior. The authorities then didn't listen to the prophets God sent to them, but instead abused and killed them. And the authorities aren't listening to Jesus, the Son of God. Instead they will do what their ancestors did to the prophets. And their doom will follow, for as Jesus prophesied they will be broken and crushed by the stone (Jesus) they have rejected.

The early church thought of itself as the New Israel. They hoped in a New Jerusalem. So the church became the new tenants entrusted with God's vineyard. The vineyard has expanded beyond the walls of Jerusalem to reach the whole earth. The fruit God expects from the church is disciples of Jesus Christ. Go and make disciples for the landowner is coming to get what is owed Him. What are you doing to bear Him fruit?