The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen (Matthew 21:33-34) Part 5
“Hear another parable: There was a certain householder who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to husbandmen and went into a far country. Now when the time of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first, and they did to them likewise. But last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘they will reverence my son.’ But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘this is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.’ And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those husbandmen? They said to Him, “He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and lease his vineyard to other husbandmen who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone shall be broken. But on whomever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder”
“And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first, and they did to them likewise” (verses 35-36). The covetous husbandmen refused to relinquish the cherished grapes harvested and picked from the vineyard. They denied the householder’s right to receive the rent paid through the vintage the vineyard produced. They abused their delegated privileges and attempted to wrest ownership of the vineyard from the householder, even when it entailed brutally beating and killing his servants who were sent to collect the fruits for him. The terrible abuse they suffered included s t o n i n g , s c o u rg i n g , verbal abuse, banishment, beatings, threatenings, and ultimately murder! Verses 35 and 36 well recount the unending, bitter persecutions God’s prophetic messengers experienced under the secular and religious leaders of Israel down through the centuries. The prophets often times were used of God to expose the abuse and flagrant sins of the Jewish rulers. Rather than repenting and forsaking their cherished sins, the kings and statesmen of Israel refused to acknowledge the truthful charges made against them. So out of desperation to save face with the people and preserve their affluent standing with the nation, the prophets were put to death or severely persecuted in order to suppress them from any further exposure of the accumulated iniquities of the corrupt leaders.
The prophets did not refrain from boldly pronouncing God’s scathing rebuke and condemnation on the aristocratic and political classes of Israel who greedily prospered at the expense of vanquishing the poor of all means of sustenance and perverted justice to serve and exalt iniquity as the ruling standard. The tenants, like the political rulers of Judah and Israel, were sternly admonished by the righteous servants of the divine Householder. The prophets of Israel warned of the judgment to come if the princes and nobles of the nation refused to give the required fruits and persisted in making flagrant consumption of the subletted vineyard Israel. Hence, God
the harvested grapes from the vineyard. But, as Jesus strikingly indicates, they kept the fruits reserved for the householder alone, and horribly disposed of the first group of ambassadors he sent. They were systematically eliminated by murder and violence. Every kind of suitable benefaction was given by the Lord to sustain and bless Israel, and yet they openly rejected Him and went so far as to brutally slay the prophetic envoys sent to them. All that God required in return for His provisional blessings was simple trust and obedience from Israel. In return, for every honor and blessing, they look to themselves and to the blessings instead of the great God who bestowed these things upon them. By their malignant treatment of the householder’s servants, the husbandmen turned against the householder and had no intention of rendering the fruits of the vineyard to him. As a result of their unlawful gain, the husbandmen, like apostate Israel, repudiated God from His rightful place in their lives. The people intentionally removed the Lord from their memory as the nation founded, chosen, and blessed by Him. In their selfish departure, due in some degree to the abundant material blessings received, Israel attempted to prosper and exist without the all-sufficient care of God. “For the house of Israel, and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against Me, says the Lord. They have lied about the Lord,
All that God required in return for His provisional blessings was simple trust and obedience from Israel.
Summer 2022
responded through His servants the prophets of coming judgment on these wicked men. “The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of His people and the princes thereof, for you have eaten up the vineyard” (Isaiah 3:14). The prophets came to advise and warn, when necessary, the rulers of the duties in taking proper care of God’s chosen inheritance, Israel. The civic caretakers of Israel were instructed by the Lord to “rule over men with justice, ruling in the fear of the Lord” (2Samuel 23:3). In this spirit of administrative obedience, it was then surely expected of the husbandmen to freely remit to the householder’s servants
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