This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
The words were spoken during the final visit to the temple, when Christ was acting as Israel's King to give an unbelieving people evidence of His divine mission, as part of a warning He repeated even though He knew reforming the corrupt priesthood would be in vain. In the vineyard parable they identify the rejection of the son and the outcome that follows as the Lord's doing, marvelous to those who witness it. The rejected stone is Christ Himself, rejected by the builders, who became the head and chief cornerstone by the Lord's doing, marvelous to behold and marvelous in human sight.
As that cornerstone, He is the rock upon which the church is built and the sure foundation of the Christian church. That rock is Christ Himself, not Peter, for when He said upon this rock I will build my church He referred to Himself. The husbandmen in the parable represent the Jewish religious leaders, who rejected Christ and withheld from God the service He claimed, turned the nation away from Christ, and brought upon themselves responsibility for its sin and ruin.
Their rejection does not defeat God's purpose, but leads to their judgment and to the vineyard being entrusted to others. The vineyard parable applies not only to the Jewish nation but also to the church in this generation, which has received great privileges and blessings from God and is expected to return corresponding fruit.
The words were spoken during the final visit to the temple, when Christ was acting as Israel's King to give an unbelieving people evidence of His divine mission, as part of a warning He repeated even though He knew reforming the corrupt priesthood would be in vain. In the vineyard parable they identify the rejection of the son and the outcome that follows as the Lord's doing, marvelous to those who witness it. The rejected stone is Christ Himself, rejected by the builders, who became the head and chief cornerstone by the Lord's doing, marvelous to behold and marvelous in human sight.
As that cornerstone, He is the rock upon which the church is built and the sure foundation of the Christian church. That rock is Christ Himself, not Peter, for when He said upon this rock I will build my church He referred to Himself. The husbandmen in the parable represent the Jewish religious leaders, who rejected Christ and withheld from God the service He claimed, turned the nation away from Christ, and brought upon themselves responsibility for its sin and ruin.
Their rejection does not defeat God's purpose, but leads to their judgment and to the vineyard being entrusted to others. The vineyard parable applies not only to the Jewish nation but also to the church in this generation, which has received great privileges and blessings from God and is expected to return corresponding fruit.