Luke 20:13, commentary and pictures

In the parable the owner of the vineyard is God, the tenants are the priests, rulers and people of Israel entrusted with His goods, the servants sent beforehand are His prophets, and the beloved son sent last is Christ the heir. His sending comes after repeated messengers were despised, mistreated and killed, as a final appeal in the hope that seeing the Son will lead the tenants to honor Him. Instead they resolve to reject and kill Him to seize the inheritance for themselves, fulfilling Israel's rejection of Christ at His first advent. Their guilt in withholding the fruit, setting human teaching above God's law and turning the people from Christ brings judgment, so the vineyard and the kingdom are taken from them and given to others who will render its fruits. That warning reaches beyond Israel to the church today, which God has richly endowed and from which He requires the fruit of obedience, love, humility and self-sacrificing service, while those who teach the law is not binding repeat the guilt of the wicked husbandmen.

Parable Setting and Meaning

The lord of the vineyard is God, the beloved son is Christ the heir, the servants sent before him are God's prophets and messengers, and the husbandmen or tenants are the priests, teachers, rulers and Jewish nation entrusted with the vineyard. The son is sent to the religious leaders after they have rejected God's messengers, and their response foreshadows their rejection and killing of Christ. The husbandmen withhold the fruit and reject the son, and their guilt is refusing to return to God the fruit of His ground and robbing Him of claimed service by misleading the people. They set human teaching and man-made commandments above God's law as the standard of obedience and turn the nation from Christ. When Christ came presenting God's claims they denied His right to come between them and the people, would not accept His rebukes and warnings, set themselves to turn the people against Him and to destroy Him, and would not sacrifice pride of reason and praise of men for truth.

The sending of the son comes after repeated sendings of servants whose messages were disregarded. Those servants were mistreated with contempt, injustice and cruelty, persecuted and killed, with later messengers treated with even greater hatred. The rejection included disregard of the sacrificial symbols pointing to Christ's death. The tenants' abuse of the servants exposed the Jewish leaders' treatment of God's messengers and their hostility toward Jesus.

The sending is a final appeal and last resort to reach hearts and turn the people to God. It represents Christ's first advent to Israel after the prophets' messages were not heeded. It was given in the hope that the tenants will reverence and honor him when they see him and respect the son when they see him. Christ's rejection brought sorrow because of the people's sins and their refusal of God's offered care.

The vineyard is God's covenant entrustment of His goods and the fruits of an enriched land to the Jewish nation. It requires loyal, unselfish service and faithful returns. The Saviour used a vineyard to represent the world, and the vineyard figure in parables is worth studying.

Rejection, Guilt, and Judgment

The tenants' resolve to cast out and kill the son foreshadowed Israel's rejection and killing of Christ after the servants had been mistreated and the prophets' messages disregarded. The son sent last is the heir, even Christ in His first advent to the religious leaders, and the hope was that they would respect Him when they saw Him. That killing was the work of Satan carried out by the hands of men gathered under his banner, driven by the husbandmen's desire to seize the inheritance for themselves. It was meant as a final appeal to reach hearts and turn the people to God, and its refusal brought sorrow over sin and refusal of offered care.

The husbandmen's guilt lay in withholding the fruit of ground enriched by God and robbing Him of the service He claimed. They misled the people by setting human teaching and man-made commandments above the law of God as the standard of obedience, and so turned the nation away from Christ. When Christ came presenting God's claims they denied His right to come between them and the people, refused His rebukes and warnings, set themselves to turn the people against Him and to destroy Him. They would not sacrifice pride of reason and praise of men for truth, and for the rejection of Christ with the results that followed they stand responsible.

That rejection exposed the guilt of the priests, teachers and rulers and their contempt, injustice, cruelty and hostility toward Jesus and toward God's messengers before Him. A nation's sin and a nation's ruin are due to its religious leaders, who are held responsible for turning the people and bringing destruction upon the wicked husbandmen and upon the Jewish nation. The parable therefore declares punishment and judgment: God would punish the nation, the vineyard would be taken from those who had abused their trust, and the guilty would face destruction.

The vineyard and the kingdom of God are taken from unfruitful hearers and rulers and entrusted to others who will obey its Ruler and produce its fruits. The wicked husbandmen are destroyed, and what was forfeited is given to a people who will bear fruit. Yet the very sending of the son at the point when judgment was expected for a world filled with transgression displays God's patience, love and grace. Instead of destroying transgressors He sent His beloved Son in hope that men would honor Him, for Christ came to save the world and to give Himself as the propitiation for human sin.

Claim on Church Today

The warning and appeal of the lord of the vineyard dealing with those entrusted with his vineyard in Luke 20:9-19 apply not to the Jewish nation alone but to the church in this generation. God has endowed His church now with great privileges and blessings, and He expects corresponding returns from what He has given. The sending of the beloved son to claim the fruit of his ground means Christ coming to present the claims of God and demand obedience to the word of God and to God's law, a demand God's messengers still bring at the Master's bidding. The fruit demanded is obedience bringing love and humility and self-sacrificing service to God's glory, for obedience to the laws of God in the spiritual as in the natural world is the condition of fruit-bearing and the only way to elevation of character and fulness of blessing.

Teaching that the law of God is not binding, educating in transgression, and exalting human traditions, ordinances and customs withholds that fruit from the Lord. Those who grow angry when the claim of God's law is set before the people and use their influence to lead men to reject it repeat the guilt of the Jewish leaders, place themselves outside the channel where God's blessings flow, and prove unfaithful servants. God placed His goods and the fruits of an enriched land in the hands of those entrusted with the vineyard, requiring loyal, unselfish service and faithful returns. The vineyard's resources were to be used for every part and not concentrated in the portion under the husbandmen's immediate care, a lesson that applies to sharing resources so the good news reaches every people.