The Workers Of The Vineyard

Matthew 21:33-43

Today’s Scripture reading continues the theme for the past week of the vineyard.  As the passage opens, Jesus is with a crowd of people, both His disciples, Pharisees and other Jewish religious leaders, and other regular folks.  He has been teaching them lessons about the Kingdom of God, and He tells the group another parable, a story with a religious and moral lesson.   A landowner plants a vineyard, puts a hedge around it, along with a winepress,  He leases it out to vineyard workers to tend to the vines, and departs.  When harvest time comes, the owner sends servants to bring back the crops, but the workers beat them up, even killing some.  He sends more, and they treat them the same way.  When the owner sends his son to the workers he felt they would treat him with respect, but he was mistaken.  These vineyard workers take the son out of the vineyard and kill him.

Jesus then asks the crowd around Him what the owner should do.  Without waiting for a response, He tells them that the vineyard will be taken from those wicked workers, and given to others who will honestly work for the owner.  Most of those who would have been hearing this parable would have known who each character in this parable referred to.  The people of Israel were often referred to in the Old Testament as God’s vineyard, and God as the vineyard Owner.  The workers would have been known to be the Jewish religious leaders throughout the years.  The Pharisees and other religious leaders who heard this parable from Jesus were quite angry with Him for telling this, as they knew He was speaking it against them, as both Mark’s and Luke’s account record (Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19).  They especially didn’t like the fact that He said that God would take the Kingdom from them and give it to other nations, which meant to the Gentiles, whom they despised.

Repeatedly over the centuries God has sent His messengers to the people of Israel, but they have abused, mistreated, and rejected them, even killing many.  Even a casual reading of the Old Testament will show how often the prophets of God were mistreated by the people. (II Chronicles 36:15-16; Nehemiah 9:26)  Jeremiah was abused, both physically and verbally, even being thrown into a pit filled with slimy, contaminated muck.  Elijah had to flee for his life from the hands of the wicked, idolatrous Queen Jezebel, and hide in the wilderness.  She had already killed many of God’s prophets and preachers (I Kings 18:13).   Though not specifically mentioned in the Bible, tradition holds that the great Prophet Isaiah was killed during the reign of the wicked King Manasseh, by being sawn in two, which is possibly alluded to in Hebrews 11:36-37.

Why would the people so overwhelmingly hate the prophets and preachers that brought them God’s Word?  It’s the same reason why today many preachers who stay steadfast in preaching the Bible are mocked and ridiculed - their message from God is not what the people want to hear.  Then as now, people want messages that tickle their ears and make them feel good.  They want to be told how good they are, not that they are sinners who need to repent and turn to God.  They also like messages of prosperity and blessings, not that there might be tribulation or hardships for God’s people.  People don’t like the truth about their sins, and when a preacher might speak against this things, the reaction is angry and sometimes even violent.  In I Kings 22 we read about the Prophet Micaiah who was true to God’s Word, and how the many false prophets who only spoke what the people wanted to hear, imprisoned him and violently mistreated him.  We know what happened to John the Baptist; he was beheaded for speaking the truth from God.

Over and over again, God sent His prophets to the Jewish people, and finally He sent His Son, Jesus Christ.  Was He given more respect, as God’s Son?  No!  They took Him and threw Him out of the vineyard, outside the Holy City of Jerusalem, and killed Him.  God did not leave Him dead in the grave.  He rose again, and is now the Chief Cornerstone.  Because of their rejection of the prophets, and especially His Son, God, the Vineyard Owner, has taken the Kingdom and all spiritual advantages from Israel and given them to the Church, which is made up of primarily Gentiles.

In thinking back over this parable, we, as believers, need to accept God’s messengers when they are bringing us His truth from the Word.  It may not always be what we like to hear, but it will be what we need to hear.  Let us not harden our hearts against the Lord and His messengers, like the Pharisees did.