And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.
The verse tells how the tenants seized the owner's son, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him, picturing how the Jewish leaders rejected, condemned, and crucified Christ when He came to His own. The son and heir is Christ, the only-begotten Son equal with God, sent last of all with divinity clothed with humanity to call for reverence and fruit. When they saw Him they plotted to kill the heir so the inheritance and its honor and profit would be theirs, rejecting Him from envy and hatred of His character, teaching, and rebukes that exposed their selfishness. His murder was the crowning breach of trust completing their rejection of the prophets, so the vineyard and kingdom would be taken from the unfaithful stewards and given to others who would bring forth fruit. The warning reaches beyond Israel to the church today, which has received great privileges and from which God as owner rightly expects faithful fruit in its season.
Parable Setting and Symbols
Matthew 21:39 belongs to the parable of the vineyard, which shows that God chose Israel and richly blessed the nation and gave it a purpose it could have fulfilled through obedience. The owner expected the people to bear fruit by honoring Him and representing the principles of His kingdom, but by failing to fulfill that purpose Israel forfeited His blessing and brought ruin upon itself. The vineyard is the Jewish nation and church, taken as a vine from Egypt and planted in Canaan, nourished and cared for by God and entrusted with His law, His goods and enriched land as a stewardship under covenant to serve His purposes. The gift of the land and its blessings tested obedience, and obedience to its conditions would have brought spiritual and temporal prosperity and magnified His name to the world. Instead He looked for grapes and found only wild grapes, for leaders and people for a thousand years multiplied transgression, abused privileges, forgot God, went into rebellion and national apostasy, and left the vineyard fruitless through ingratitude, resisted grace, hollow formalism marked by pride, self-exaltation, and cruel attributes. A well-cultivated vineyard proves the faithfulness of its caretaker, for the husbandmen were to be loyal, to render fruits in their season, to do unselfish faithful work for every part of the vineyard and cultivate it for God and return the fruit due to Him rather than binding up all blessings and facilities in one part.
The husbandmen or keepers are Israel's priests, teachers, rulers and stewards, including the chief priests and Pharisees, and the Jewish people as a church separated from God, to whom the vineyard was let. They were entrusted with God's people, resources, vineyard and goods, with the people entrusted to God's care, yet sought their own glory and the vineyard's honor, profit and fruit for themselves. The application was plain, for they perceived the parable spoke of them and recognized their own methods and practices. The owner's servants and messengers are God's prophets and ambassadors, sent again and again to receive His own share of fruit and to warn, reprove, save from ruin, and call to duty with promise of pardon and healing if they would return. After Israel entered Canaan and fell into idolatry, message after message was sent, but the keepers treated them as enemies, insulted, abused, beat, stoned, persecuted, despitefully used, murdered and killed them, wandered farther from God, and responded to further messengers with even greater hatred. God did not withdraw His love but instituted the sacrificial system to keep before them the one great Sacrifice.
The son and heir is Christ, the only-begotten Son, One equal with Himself, the Word made flesh dwelling among men full of grace and truth. He was sent last of all with divinity clothed with humanity to do His Father's will, to cultivate the vineyard, to show Israel its true condition and do all that could be done for it, to bring the message of God's love, to seek its fruit and call to duty, with the expectation that He would be reverenced. The love of God is the key to this suffering and humiliation in sending His last reserve. In one telling the vineyard is represented as the world.
Seizure and Killing Described
The verse describes the tenants carrying out their plotted crime against the owner's son, catching and seizing him, casting and throwing him out of the vineyard, and slaying and killing him. The son is Christ, and the vineyard is the Jewish nation richly provided for and entrusted with God's law as a stewardship to serve His purposes, and the murder portrays the nation's rejection of Christ and its failure to honor that trust. He had come to His own people seeking the fruit of the vineyard and bringing the message of God's love, but they rejected His message and crucified Him. That treatment exposed the leaders' guilt as their crowning wickedness, completed the pattern of contempt, injustice, cruelty, beating and killing shown to the messengers and prophets sent before, and pointed to judgment, severe punishment, loss of the kingdom, and the vineyard taken from the Jewish nation. His death was the final act that brought about the nation's downfall, over which He foresaw Jerusalem's destruction and grieved for those placing themselves beyond patient mercy, and it portrays the doom awaiting those who kill Him.
The seizure, casting out, and killing portray the Jewish leaders' rejection, condemnation, and crucifixion of Christ, whom they were already planning to kill when He came to His own. They repaid good with evil and love with hatred, hated His character, teaching, and rebukes because these exposed their selfishness and evil, sought to kill the Son to seize the inheritance and be left free to do as they pleased with its fruit, chose Barabbas and demanded that Jesus be crucified, and had Him condemned in Pilate's judgment hall and taken by wicked hands. The application was plain, for the priests and elders perceived He spoke of them and recognized their own methods and practices, and by answering what should be done to such stewards they condemned themselves and declared their own just doom. Yet they did not repent but were ready themselves to fill out the picture by killing the heir and sought to lay hands on Him at once, restrained only by God and by fear of the multitude who took Him for a prophet. By this the past and future history of the Jews was illustrated and their true religious character presented, showing the justice of the punishment soon to fall in withdrawing national privileges, letting the vineyard out to other husbandmen bringing forth fruit, and ending in destruction of temple and city and dispersion of the nation.
The vine cast beyond the wall, bruised and trampled, represents Christ's rejection and apparent destruction. Yet the Husbandman preserves the vine beyond human reach, so that Christ is kept safe and its branches remain accessible and others may be joined to Him. The slain heir is connected with the rejected stone that becomes the chief cornerstone, showing that the rejection of Christ and its consequences had been foretold. He was fulfilled as the despised and rejected man of sorrows acquainted with grief, who trod the winepress alone with none of the people with Him. He endured the sorrows of death and hell compassing Him as He cried to God amid shaking earth, divine wrath, smoke and devouring fire, darkness underfoot, and God bowing the heavens and flying on the wind.
The verse belongs to Jesus' final warning at the temple to priests and rulers so hardened by greed and unbelief that efforts to reform them would be in vain. Yet evidence of His divine mission still had to be given to the people. His blood, soon to be shed for the world's sins, would be little appreciated by them.
Motives Behind the Murder
When the tenants saw the heir they said he must be killed so that the inheritance would become theirs, and in seizing him and casting him out and slaying him they meant to take the vineyard for themselves. Their aim was to keep its honor and profit in their own hands and to be left free to do as they pleased with its fruit. Behind that human plot stood a desperate counterworking of God, to cut off every ray of light shining amid moral darkness and to cut off communication coming from the throne of God.
They hated His character, teaching, and rebukes because these exposed their selfishness, and His truthful and godly life bore witness against their evil works and their refusal to obey the Owner. Envy of His influence and authority, jealousy of His standing with the people, and resistance to convincing evidence of His divinity and divine authority in His teaching and works moved them to reject Him rather than honor the Owner's claim. Claiming to possess the only true religion, they turned from truth itself and became responsible for crucifying the Holy One of Israel, the Light of the world, choosing Barabbas and demanding that Jesus be crucified. Their murder of Him came from hardened hearts and persistent resistance to light in spite of that evidence.
That hardening was their own choice, for they carried ambitious desires so far that the love and fear of God departed from them. Long disobedience forged bonds of spiritual bondage that no human power could break, and their rejection was not an arbitrary hardening by God. Satan strove to gain control of minds in order to wreak hatred and revenge on the only-begotten Son of God, working through disobedient men to accomplish the killing.
Christ had come to His own vineyard seeking its fruit, bringing the message of God's love, claiming what belonged to Him, showing Israel its true condition, and doing all that could be done for it. He came in person with continued hope and unwearied effort to plead with the impenitent city and to save the people He had cared for as His own, sent from heaven in human form to do His Father's will and cultivate the vineyard to produce fruit. Though men were dependent on Him for life, He endured ignominy, shame, and disgrace He could have escaped, and they repaid good with evil and love with hatred, taking Him by wicked hands and crucifying Him.
The Father's love is the key to this suffering and humiliation, for the Father sent His Son last of all, expecting reverence, with divinity clothed in humanity. Christ's soul was filled with grief over Israel's backsliding, He foresaw Jerusalem's destruction and its coming desolate punishment, and He wept over those who placed themselves beyond patient mercy. Despised and rejected, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, He was compassed by the sorrows of death and hell amid shaking earth, divine wrath, darkness, and the heavens bowed, and His hatred-filled rejection brought sorrow unto desolation.
Judgment on Unfaithful Israel
The killing of the son was the crowning act of wickedness and disobedience, the final breach of trust that completed a long pattern of rejecting the prophets and added guilt upon guilt from generation to generation. It exposed the unfaithfulness of the once-chosen people, who disregarded commandments, exalted themselves, mingled the sacred with the common, and could no longer expect favor and sustaining care. Persistent sin of this kind brings removal of blessing and terrible judgment.
The priests and elders perceived the parable was spoken against them and recognized their own methods and practices in it. They condemned themselves by answering what should be done to such stewards, and in recalling the parable they understood the sentence against the wicked tenants as declaring their own just doom. Christ had exposed their deceptions, their contempt, injustice, and cruelty toward His servants, and the severity of the coming punishment with the kingdom taken from them and given to the obedient. They were filled with anger and would have seized Him at once to silence Him, but were restrained by God and by fear of the multitude who took Him for a prophet.
Because of this rejection the vineyard and kingdom would be taken from the Jewish nation and its leaders and let out to other husbandmen who would bring forth fruit. The blessings abused and privileges forfeited were transferred to the Gentiles, to a nation bringing forth fruit, while severe punishment fell on the unfaithful. The withdrawal of national privileges had already begun and pointed forward to retribution upon those who put the Son to death.
By failing to fulfill the purpose for which it had been richly blessed, Israel forfeited God's blessing and brought ruin upon itself. The leaders withheld from God the service He claimed, turned the people from Christ, rejected His authority and warnings, and so became responsible for His rejection and the ruin that followed. That ruin ended in the taking away of national privileges, the destruction of the temple and city, the dispersion of the nation, calamity, desolation, and the bursting of retributive judgment. The Son's death was the final act that brought about the downfall foreseen with grief over those placing themselves beyond patient mercy.
God had taken Israel as a vine from Egypt and planted it in Canaan, nourishing and caring for it, yet He looked in vain for grapes and found only wild grapes. He did not withdraw His love but sent message after message by prophets to warn, reprove, call to duty, and save from ruin, with promise of pardon and healing if they would return. He instituted the sacrificial system to keep the one great Sacrifice before them, and at last came in person in Christ, the Word made flesh full of grace and truth, with unwearied efforts and continued hope to plead with the impenitent city He cared for as His own. Instead they wandered farther, persecuted and killed the messengers, rewarded Him evil for good, and had Him condemned to death by crucifixion.
For a thousand years leaders and people multiplied transgression upon transgression, abused privileges, forgot God, and fell into idolatry, rebellion, and national apostasy. Selfish leaders appropriated God's goods for self-enrichment, exaction, and dishonest rule, enjoying all the benefits of the vineyard while returning no fruit and rejecting the Light of the world. Religion became hollow formalism marked by pride, self-exaltation, ingratitude, and cruel attributes, leaving the vineyard fruitless through resisted grace and refusal of compassionate opportunity. Their long disobedience forged bonds of spiritual bondage that no human power could break.
Israel's rejection belongs to the story of its failures, while God's plan continues through a faithful remnant who will receive the covenant promises.
Warning and Stewardship Today
The vineyard parable applies not only to the Jewish nation but also to the church in the present generation, which has received great privileges and blessings from God and from which He expects a corresponding return. Its warning stands for today, for professing Christians who follow in the steps of the wicked husbandmen will likewise have the sacred trust taken from them and given to others. The modern counterparts of those husbandmen are religious teachers who turn people away from God's word and commandments, withhold the fruits of the vineyard, and reject God's claims, authority and warnings while leading others to do the same. By turning the people away from Christ they become unfaithful servants, responsible for His rejection and for the ruin that followed.
Responsibility for God's work rests not only with priests and rulers but with every person, for God gives talents great or small to each and expects diligent use that will bear fruit and bring Him a return. Those given responsibility are warned not to reject His claims, since He looks for the fruit their labor should produce. As owner of the whole vineyard He made terms with His stewards to return to Him a certain amount of fruit in its season at a specified time, and as owner He has a right to expect that revenue. Its produce and returns belong to Him and are to be faithfully cultivated and rendered to Him rather than treated as one's own, including possessions, abilities, resources, goods, enriched land and institutions entrusted under covenant with room for character development.
Fruit is shown in faithful stewardship that returns tithes and offerings for His work, which He approves, and in benevolence that relieves the poor and suffering and sustains every good work. Work in His vineyard is varied, requiring different kinds of plowing to produce a harvest of different kinds of fruit, and through discipline in that work His people learn to gain the true riches and perfect a character after the divine likeness, a complete Christlike character that alone can be taken into the heavenly courts. Those who have received light and advantages must reflect that light by precept and example and be decidedly and intensely earnest in drawing fellow men from destruction, while those who never had light will not answer for light they never had. Selfish, covetous appropriation of means and mingling selfishness with His service dishonors God and makes largely of no effect the message after message He sends by His servants to oversee His vineyard, as He did to ancient Israel.
The vineyard shall be worked by cultivating barren wastes and parts hitherto neglected, sowing the seeds of truth, planting the standard of truth in cities and countries that have never heard the warning message, supplying with entrusted means the messengers who carry the work forward, and cooperating unselfishly and intelligently with God. Husbandmen were to do loyal, unselfish, faithful work for every part rather than binding up all blessings and facilities in one part, for a well-cultivated vineyard proves the faithfulness of its caretaker while leaving parts barren limits their power to bear fruit. Centering everything possible in a few places, appropriating facilities away from the more destitute fields, leaving fields desolate and bare, closing doors God opened for blessings to flow forth, and selfishly refusing to respond is the unfaithful stewardship He calls by name from ancient Israel to the present day. God designed through His nation to magnify His name in all parts of the world and to prepare His way so He could gather fruit from the trees of His planting, but selfishness and covetousness were brought in and the good He purposed was not done.
Those who receive light but disregard His commandments, exalt themselves, mingle the sacred with the common, and mislead others cannot expect His favor and sustaining care. Persistent unfaithfulness and sin bring removal of gifts and resources, barrenness, terrible judgment, and transfer of the trust to other agencies and to a nation bringing forth fruit, while God finds another way to accomplish His purpose. Ingratitude, neglect of blessings and opportunities, selfish use of His gifts, and use of entrusted resources for self-gratification and self-exaltation brought ruin on Israel and bring ruin on the world today by hindering the work He desires to accomplish. Professing Christians follow the wicked husbandmen when stirred to anger by the claims of the law of God and the light of the pure doctrines Christ enforced, hating that light and continuing warfare against God and His truth under Satan's converting power, and the same corrupting sentiments of antichrist that moved the husbandmen to kill the Householder's Son when He came to receive fruit are working in the children of disobedience in the present time to their ruin.
The parable is a lesson about preparing for Christ's second coming, calling for solemn waiting joined with earnest, vigilant labor to reach those in darkness and help them perfect Christian character while rendering to Him the fruits of the vineyard. The vineyard work belongs to its Master, and when difficulties arise those carrying it out are to bring their needs to Him.
The verse tells how the tenants seized the owner's son, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him, picturing how the Jewish leaders rejected, condemned, and crucified Christ when He came to His own.
The son and heir is Christ, the only-begotten Son equal with God, sent last of all with divinity clothed with humanity to call for reverence and fruit.
When they saw Him they plotted to kill the heir so the inheritance and its honor and profit would be theirs, rejecting Him from envy and hatred of His character, teaching, and rebukes that exposed their selfishness.
His murder was the crowning breach of trust completing their rejection of the prophets, so the vineyard and kingdom would be taken from the unfaithful stewards and given to others who would bring forth fruit.
The warning reaches beyond Israel to the church today, which has received great privileges and from which God as owner rightly expects faithful fruit in its season.
Parable Setting and Symbols
Matthew 21:39 belongs to the parable of the vineyard, which shows that God chose Israel and richly blessed the nation and gave it a purpose it could have fulfilled through obedience. The owner expected the people to bear fruit by honoring Him and representing the principles of His kingdom, but by failing to fulfill that purpose Israel forfeited His blessing and brought ruin upon itself.
The vineyard is the Jewish nation and church, taken as a vine from Egypt and planted in Canaan, nourished and cared for by God and entrusted with His law, His goods and enriched land as a stewardship under covenant to serve His purposes. The gift of the land and its blessings tested obedience, and obedience to its conditions would have brought spiritual and temporal prosperity and magnified His name to the world. Instead He looked for grapes and found only wild grapes, for leaders and people for a thousand years multiplied transgression, abused privileges, forgot God, went into rebellion and national apostasy, and left the vineyard fruitless through ingratitude, resisted grace, hollow formalism marked by pride, self-exaltation, and cruel attributes. A well-cultivated vineyard proves the faithfulness of its caretaker, for the husbandmen were to be loyal, to render fruits in their season, to do unselfish faithful work for every part of the vineyard and cultivate it for God and return the fruit due to Him rather than binding up all blessings and facilities in one part.
The husbandmen or keepers are Israel's priests, teachers, rulers and stewards, including the chief priests and Pharisees, and the Jewish people as a church separated from God, to whom the vineyard was let. They were entrusted with God's people, resources, vineyard and goods, with the people entrusted to God's care, yet sought their own glory and the vineyard's honor, profit and fruit for themselves. The application was plain, for they perceived the parable spoke of them and recognized their own methods and practices.
The owner's servants and messengers are God's prophets and ambassadors, sent again and again to receive His own share of fruit and to warn, reprove, save from ruin, and call to duty with promise of pardon and healing if they would return. After Israel entered Canaan and fell into idolatry, message after message was sent, but the keepers treated them as enemies, insulted, abused, beat, stoned, persecuted, despitefully used, murdered and killed them, wandered farther from God, and responded to further messengers with even greater hatred. God did not withdraw His love but instituted the sacrificial system to keep before them the one great Sacrifice.
The son and heir is Christ, the only-begotten Son, One equal with Himself, the Word made flesh dwelling among men full of grace and truth. He was sent last of all with divinity clothed with humanity to do His Father's will, to cultivate the vineyard, to show Israel its true condition and do all that could be done for it, to bring the message of God's love, to seek its fruit and call to duty, with the expectation that He would be reverenced. The love of God is the key to this suffering and humiliation in sending His last reserve. In one telling the vineyard is represented as the world.
Seizure and Killing Described
The verse describes the tenants carrying out their plotted crime against the owner's son, catching and seizing him, casting and throwing him out of the vineyard, and slaying and killing him. The son is Christ, and the vineyard is the Jewish nation richly provided for and entrusted with God's law as a stewardship to serve His purposes, and the murder portrays the nation's rejection of Christ and its failure to honor that trust. He had come to His own people seeking the fruit of the vineyard and bringing the message of God's love, but they rejected His message and crucified Him. That treatment exposed the leaders' guilt as their crowning wickedness, completed the pattern of contempt, injustice, cruelty, beating and killing shown to the messengers and prophets sent before, and pointed to judgment, severe punishment, loss of the kingdom, and the vineyard taken from the Jewish nation. His death was the final act that brought about the nation's downfall, over which He foresaw Jerusalem's destruction and grieved for those placing themselves beyond patient mercy, and it portrays the doom awaiting those who kill Him.
The seizure, casting out, and killing portray the Jewish leaders' rejection, condemnation, and crucifixion of Christ, whom they were already planning to kill when He came to His own. They repaid good with evil and love with hatred, hated His character, teaching, and rebukes because these exposed their selfishness and evil, sought to kill the Son to seize the inheritance and be left free to do as they pleased with its fruit, chose Barabbas and demanded that Jesus be crucified, and had Him condemned in Pilate's judgment hall and taken by wicked hands. The application was plain, for the priests and elders perceived He spoke of them and recognized their own methods and practices, and by answering what should be done to such stewards they condemned themselves and declared their own just doom. Yet they did not repent but were ready themselves to fill out the picture by killing the heir and sought to lay hands on Him at once, restrained only by God and by fear of the multitude who took Him for a prophet. By this the past and future history of the Jews was illustrated and their true religious character presented, showing the justice of the punishment soon to fall in withdrawing national privileges, letting the vineyard out to other husbandmen bringing forth fruit, and ending in destruction of temple and city and dispersion of the nation.
The vine cast beyond the wall, bruised and trampled, represents Christ's rejection and apparent destruction. Yet the Husbandman preserves the vine beyond human reach, so that Christ is kept safe and its branches remain accessible and others may be joined to Him. The slain heir is connected with the rejected stone that becomes the chief cornerstone, showing that the rejection of Christ and its consequences had been foretold. He was fulfilled as the despised and rejected man of sorrows acquainted with grief, who trod the winepress alone with none of the people with Him. He endured the sorrows of death and hell compassing Him as He cried to God amid shaking earth, divine wrath, smoke and devouring fire, darkness underfoot, and God bowing the heavens and flying on the wind.
The verse belongs to Jesus' final warning at the temple to priests and rulers so hardened by greed and unbelief that efforts to reform them would be in vain. Yet evidence of His divine mission still had to be given to the people. His blood, soon to be shed for the world's sins, would be little appreciated by them.
Motives Behind the Murder
When the tenants saw the heir they said he must be killed so that the inheritance would become theirs, and in seizing him and casting him out and slaying him they meant to take the vineyard for themselves. Their aim was to keep its honor and profit in their own hands and to be left free to do as they pleased with its fruit. Behind that human plot stood a desperate counterworking of God, to cut off every ray of light shining amid moral darkness and to cut off communication coming from the throne of God.
They hated His character, teaching, and rebukes because these exposed their selfishness, and His truthful and godly life bore witness against their evil works and their refusal to obey the Owner. Envy of His influence and authority, jealousy of His standing with the people, and resistance to convincing evidence of His divinity and divine authority in His teaching and works moved them to reject Him rather than honor the Owner's claim. Claiming to possess the only true religion, they turned from truth itself and became responsible for crucifying the Holy One of Israel, the Light of the world, choosing Barabbas and demanding that Jesus be crucified. Their murder of Him came from hardened hearts and persistent resistance to light in spite of that evidence.
That hardening was their own choice, for they carried ambitious desires so far that the love and fear of God departed from them. Long disobedience forged bonds of spiritual bondage that no human power could break, and their rejection was not an arbitrary hardening by God. Satan strove to gain control of minds in order to wreak hatred and revenge on the only-begotten Son of God, working through disobedient men to accomplish the killing.
Christ had come to His own vineyard seeking its fruit, bringing the message of God's love, claiming what belonged to Him, showing Israel its true condition, and doing all that could be done for it. He came in person with continued hope and unwearied effort to plead with the impenitent city and to save the people He had cared for as His own, sent from heaven in human form to do His Father's will and cultivate the vineyard to produce fruit. Though men were dependent on Him for life, He endured ignominy, shame, and disgrace He could have escaped, and they repaid good with evil and love with hatred, taking Him by wicked hands and crucifying Him.
The Father's love is the key to this suffering and humiliation, for the Father sent His Son last of all, expecting reverence, with divinity clothed in humanity. Christ's soul was filled with grief over Israel's backsliding, He foresaw Jerusalem's destruction and its coming desolate punishment, and He wept over those who placed themselves beyond patient mercy. Despised and rejected, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, He was compassed by the sorrows of death and hell amid shaking earth, divine wrath, darkness, and the heavens bowed, and His hatred-filled rejection brought sorrow unto desolation.
Judgment on Unfaithful Israel
The killing of the son was the crowning act of wickedness and disobedience, the final breach of trust that completed a long pattern of rejecting the prophets and added guilt upon guilt from generation to generation. It exposed the unfaithfulness of the once-chosen people, who disregarded commandments, exalted themselves, mingled the sacred with the common, and could no longer expect favor and sustaining care. Persistent sin of this kind brings removal of blessing and terrible judgment.
The priests and elders perceived the parable was spoken against them and recognized their own methods and practices in it. They condemned themselves by answering what should be done to such stewards, and in recalling the parable they understood the sentence against the wicked tenants as declaring their own just doom. Christ had exposed their deceptions, their contempt, injustice, and cruelty toward His servants, and the severity of the coming punishment with the kingdom taken from them and given to the obedient. They were filled with anger and would have seized Him at once to silence Him, but were restrained by God and by fear of the multitude who took Him for a prophet.
Because of this rejection the vineyard and kingdom would be taken from the Jewish nation and its leaders and let out to other husbandmen who would bring forth fruit. The blessings abused and privileges forfeited were transferred to the Gentiles, to a nation bringing forth fruit, while severe punishment fell on the unfaithful. The withdrawal of national privileges had already begun and pointed forward to retribution upon those who put the Son to death.
By failing to fulfill the purpose for which it had been richly blessed, Israel forfeited God's blessing and brought ruin upon itself. The leaders withheld from God the service He claimed, turned the people from Christ, rejected His authority and warnings, and so became responsible for His rejection and the ruin that followed. That ruin ended in the taking away of national privileges, the destruction of the temple and city, the dispersion of the nation, calamity, desolation, and the bursting of retributive judgment. The Son's death was the final act that brought about the downfall foreseen with grief over those placing themselves beyond patient mercy.
God had taken Israel as a vine from Egypt and planted it in Canaan, nourishing and caring for it, yet He looked in vain for grapes and found only wild grapes. He did not withdraw His love but sent message after message by prophets to warn, reprove, call to duty, and save from ruin, with promise of pardon and healing if they would return. He instituted the sacrificial system to keep the one great Sacrifice before them, and at last came in person in Christ, the Word made flesh full of grace and truth, with unwearied efforts and continued hope to plead with the impenitent city He cared for as His own. Instead they wandered farther, persecuted and killed the messengers, rewarded Him evil for good, and had Him condemned to death by crucifixion.
For a thousand years leaders and people multiplied transgression upon transgression, abused privileges, forgot God, and fell into idolatry, rebellion, and national apostasy. Selfish leaders appropriated God's goods for self-enrichment, exaction, and dishonest rule, enjoying all the benefits of the vineyard while returning no fruit and rejecting the Light of the world. Religion became hollow formalism marked by pride, self-exaltation, ingratitude, and cruel attributes, leaving the vineyard fruitless through resisted grace and refusal of compassionate opportunity. Their long disobedience forged bonds of spiritual bondage that no human power could break.
Israel's rejection belongs to the story of its failures, while God's plan continues through a faithful remnant who will receive the covenant promises.
Warning and Stewardship Today
The vineyard parable applies not only to the Jewish nation but also to the church in the present generation, which has received great privileges and blessings from God and from which He expects a corresponding return. Its warning stands for today, for professing Christians who follow in the steps of the wicked husbandmen will likewise have the sacred trust taken from them and given to others. The modern counterparts of those husbandmen are religious teachers who turn people away from God's word and commandments, withhold the fruits of the vineyard, and reject God's claims, authority and warnings while leading others to do the same. By turning the people away from Christ they become unfaithful servants, responsible for His rejection and for the ruin that followed.
Responsibility for God's work rests not only with priests and rulers but with every person, for God gives talents great or small to each and expects diligent use that will bear fruit and bring Him a return. Those given responsibility are warned not to reject His claims, since He looks for the fruit their labor should produce. As owner of the whole vineyard He made terms with His stewards to return to Him a certain amount of fruit in its season at a specified time, and as owner He has a right to expect that revenue. Its produce and returns belong to Him and are to be faithfully cultivated and rendered to Him rather than treated as one's own, including possessions, abilities, resources, goods, enriched land and institutions entrusted under covenant with room for character development.
Fruit is shown in faithful stewardship that returns tithes and offerings for His work, which He approves, and in benevolence that relieves the poor and suffering and sustains every good work. Work in His vineyard is varied, requiring different kinds of plowing to produce a harvest of different kinds of fruit, and through discipline in that work His people learn to gain the true riches and perfect a character after the divine likeness, a complete Christlike character that alone can be taken into the heavenly courts. Those who have received light and advantages must reflect that light by precept and example and be decidedly and intensely earnest in drawing fellow men from destruction, while those who never had light will not answer for light they never had. Selfish, covetous appropriation of means and mingling selfishness with His service dishonors God and makes largely of no effect the message after message He sends by His servants to oversee His vineyard, as He did to ancient Israel.
The vineyard shall be worked by cultivating barren wastes and parts hitherto neglected, sowing the seeds of truth, planting the standard of truth in cities and countries that have never heard the warning message, supplying with entrusted means the messengers who carry the work forward, and cooperating unselfishly and intelligently with God. Husbandmen were to do loyal, unselfish, faithful work for every part rather than binding up all blessings and facilities in one part, for a well-cultivated vineyard proves the faithfulness of its caretaker while leaving parts barren limits their power to bear fruit. Centering everything possible in a few places, appropriating facilities away from the more destitute fields, leaving fields desolate and bare, closing doors God opened for blessings to flow forth, and selfishly refusing to respond is the unfaithful stewardship He calls by name from ancient Israel to the present day. God designed through His nation to magnify His name in all parts of the world and to prepare His way so He could gather fruit from the trees of His planting, but selfishness and covetousness were brought in and the good He purposed was not done.
Those who receive light but disregard His commandments, exalt themselves, mingle the sacred with the common, and mislead others cannot expect His favor and sustaining care. Persistent unfaithfulness and sin bring removal of gifts and resources, barrenness, terrible judgment, and transfer of the trust to other agencies and to a nation bringing forth fruit, while God finds another way to accomplish His purpose. Ingratitude, neglect of blessings and opportunities, selfish use of His gifts, and use of entrusted resources for self-gratification and self-exaltation brought ruin on Israel and bring ruin on the world today by hindering the work He desires to accomplish. Professing Christians follow the wicked husbandmen when stirred to anger by the claims of the law of God and the light of the pure doctrines Christ enforced, hating that light and continuing warfare against God and His truth under Satan's converting power, and the same corrupting sentiments of antichrist that moved the husbandmen to kill the Householder's Son when He came to receive fruit are working in the children of disobedience in the present time to their ruin.
The parable is a lesson about preparing for Christ's second coming, calling for solemn waiting joined with earnest, vigilant labor to reach those in darkness and help them perfect Christian character while rendering to Him the fruits of the vineyard. The vineyard work belongs to its Master, and when difficulties arise those carrying it out are to bring their needs to Him.