The Parable of the Wicked Tenants.
The Parable of the Wicked Tenants reminds us that even God’s chosen people – the Jews are in need of a Saviour.
Indictment of a Nation
It’s a rare parable that we will be looking at in this installment of Secrets of the Kingdom. Up until this point, the majority of the parables Jesus spoke had a positive truth in them as the main focal point. Things like where to find true salvation, how to live for God and show love to one another. In Matthew 21, Mark 12, and Luke 20, we find a parable that serves primarily as the indictment of a nation.
While there is a glimmer of hope at the end, this was a parable that would have afforded the hearers in that time no comfort. Here is the parable of the wicked tenants, from Matthew 21
The Parable of The Wicked Tenants
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. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And 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. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 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.” 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’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.
Matthew 21:33-46
A Prophetic Glance
This parable comes immediately after the last one we looked at, when Jesus is speaking with the chief priests and elders, about those who say they will do God’s will and don’t, compared with those who actually do what God desires. As with a few of the other parables, we see a prophetic glimpse of what Jesus was about to experience.
God is the master of the house who planted the vineyard. The tenants, are the people of Israel, as represented by the priests. That’s what a priest was, a representative of the people before God. The servants that had been sent by the master were the prophets of the Old Testament, and finally the son, was Jesus himself.
Moving Away From God
This all fits, we read in the Bible that God had created the earth, including the land promised to the people of Israel. He made it to be fruitful land, and he placed his people there to do his work. We see continually through their history that the Israelites would move away from God, follow after idols, and so God would send prophets, many of whom were rejected, even killed. Jesus confirms this, speaking on behalf of His Father in Luke 13 when He says,
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not!
Luke 13:34
Listen to The Son of God
And now Jesus was there, surely the people of Israel, the Jews, would listen to the Son of God. Surely, they would perceive his miracles, hear his teachings and respect him, show him proper reverence. But they would not! They would send him to be crucified by the Romans, saying “We have no king but Caesar.”
As a result, God’s gift of grace and love, the right to be God’s representative to the nations, would be taken away from the Jews and their religious leaders, and extended to his followers, and the gentiles, from which the church would be formed. That’s the glimmer of hope, and we’ll circle back to that at the end of this program.
A Strongly Worded Accusation
For the Jews here, this was a very strongly worded accusation. Particularly for the priests who believed themselves to be living righteously, but are being told that not only are they rejecting God’s authority now, but they always have been. This wasn’t intended to be a hidden message, or even a subtle one. The Bible even tells us that the priests and the Pharisees perceived Jesus was talking about them. This was an outright rebuke of the religious leaders, coming straight from the authority of God.
The Jews thought very much about their heritage, and their past relationship with God. To be God’s chosen people, His representatives to man on earth was no small thing. It set them apart from the other nations. At times, they even prospered politically, when the surrounding nations would recognize the power and authority of the God of Israel. Now, Jesus is outright telling them that responsibility will now fall to others, because of their rejection of him. Now, another group of people will be God’s representative to the world.
A Point of Clarification
It’s important to pause here for a point of clarification. This parable is not nullifying the promises that God made with the Israelites.
Those covenants, with people like Abraham, Moses and David still remain in effect. The church does not replace Israel. Romans 11 gives us a clear indication that for the time being, the focus of God is on the church, all those, Jew or Gentile, who have placed their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation and righteousness. But according to that chapter in Romans, and some passages in Revelation, there will come a time when God redirects His attention to the nation of Israel, and they will be restored, because they will finally recognize Jesus Christ as the true Messiah they have been waiting for.
Rejection Coming
When Jesus told this parable, however, he was indicating that for a time starting very soon, in fact it would all take place in the next two months, God was going to reject the Jews, because of their rejection of His Son.
At the end of the parable, Jesus shares from Psalm 118 saying
Psalm 118:22The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
Jesus was using this in both a prophetic sense and to indicate a fulfilled prophecy. He was that stone, rejected by the Jewish authorities, but to become the very foundation for true righteousness and faithfulness among mankind. This is the glimmer of hope that is contained in the story.
Rejected But Risen
Jesus was crucified, but he rose from the grave on the third day. His death was the atonement for our sin. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:15 that Jesus died and rose on our behalf. The gospel message is very clear. All have sinned, gone against God’s plan and design for how we should live, act, and think. Because God is holy, sin must be punished, and the punishment for sin is eternal separation from God, eternal death.
God loves His creation so much that He does not want us to perish like that, so despite our sin, He sent His Son in love, who came and died for our sin, taking the penalty of sin away from all who accept His sacrifice by believing in Jesus. He then rose from the grave, obtaining the victory over death, and declaring to all those who believe, that they too shall have eternal life in heaven. Even if they die physically, they will be raised up with Christ, because He lives, we also will live.
God’s Favor
Until this point in time, when Jesus is talking with the priests and Pharisees, God’s favor was on the children of Israel. They enjoyed His special protection, His covenants, His mercy, His word, the scriptures. Only on rare occasions historically, would we see these things that belonged to the Jews extended to those of other nations, and most of the time, it was to make those other nations see how special the Israelites were to God, or simply to recognize that He is the One true God.
Now, God’s special favor and blessing is being extended to anyone who would believe in Jesus as the Son of God for salvation. That includes you and I today. We don’t need to be Jewish by heritage or ancestry, we don’t need to convert to Judaism first. We simply must believe that Jesus is Lord, and that He died and rose again to secure our salvation and peace with God. What a great hope we can have in Jesus Christ right now.
Hope For the Future
And there is more hope for the future, toward the end of the book of the Revelation, in Chapter 21 it gives a brief glimpse of the new heaven and new earth, and it says this;
“Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
This will be a time, when all those who have recognized Jesus as the true saviour both Jew and Gentile, will be united in worship of the true God of heaven, and of His Son, the stone that the builders had rejected, and is now the cornerstone.
What have you learned from the Parable of The Wicked Tenants? What is your response to Jesus’ parables? We would love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
Stephen March
Stephen March is the President of FBH International and HopeStreamRadio. He graduated from the Broadcasting Program at Niagara College in 2001, and has previously worked in television production and post-production.
Stephen lives in St. Catharines, Ontario, with his wife Corinne and their four children.
Read and hear more from Stephen March on his contributor’s page. Stephen currently has 5 Programs on HopeStreamRadio:
- Please Forgive Me
- Isolation Chronicles
- Faith By Hearing – The Twelve
- Bibles and Baseball
- Bible Tech Talk
More Podcasts Below:
More Blogs:
Palm Sunday, The Coming King, and the Last Week of Christ
Images courtesy of:
Tenants Attack – Jan Luyken, Public Domain
Tenants in Vineyard – Lumo Project
Looking up – Engin_Akyurt
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