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The Gospel of Matthew

Obedience and fidelity

Chapter 21:28 -46

Continuing His address to the chief priests and the elders of the people, who confronted Him in the temple asking who gave Him permission to teach the people, the Lord Jesus told them two parables:

The parable of the two sons (verses 28 to 32)

Only Matthew records this parable, told by the Lord after these leaders of the people refused to answer His question as to whether they considered the ministry of John the Baptist to have been of divine origin.

In this parable, there are two brothers; the first rudely told his father that he did not want to do the work in the vineyard he was gently asked to do, but later changed his mind and went to do it. The second was asked the same thing and respectfully said he would do it, but did not go.

Then the Master asked these leaders which of the two sons had been obedient to his father? The answer was obvious, and they could not help but answer that it was the first. Therefore, the Lord interpreted the parable:

1. The first son represented tax collectors and harlots. They made no immediate pretence of obeying John the Baptist, but eventually many of them did repent and believe in Jesus. All sinners, no matter how bad, can repent and convert to Christ and, if they do so, will enter the kingdom of God.

2. The second son represented the religious leaders confronting Him.  They professed to approve the preaching of John, but never confessed their sins or trusted the Saviour. If they continued like this, they would remain outside of the Kingdom in spite of their outward religiosity and, like them, so will all those who rely on false piety.

The expression “John came to you in the way of righteousness” means that he came preaching the necessity of righteousness through repentance and faith.

The parable of the farmer (verses 33 to 46)

Without giving them time to respond, the Lord asked for their attention to another parable.  Mark and Luke, in their Gospels, recorded this one also. Whereas the previous parable taught about the reward for true obedience, this second one shows the consequences of the disloyalty and disobedience of those leaders:

“A landowner planted a vineyard, set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, and leased it to the vinedressers, and then he went away to a distant country. When vintage-time drew near ... he sent his servants to the vinedressers to get his share of the crop, but the vinedressers beat one, killed one, and stoned another. When he sent other servants, more than the first, and they received the same treatment. The third time he sent his son, thinking they would respect him. Knowing that he was the heir, they killed him with the idea of seizing his inheritance” (verses 33 to 40).

He asked them what the landowner would do to those vinedressers when he came back. They answered, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons” (verse 41). It would appear that they had not understood that the parable referred to them.

In the parable, the landowner represents God, the vineyard represents the nation of Israel, and the vinedressers their administrative structure. God created the Israelites to be His own nation on earth, and the Lord called them here “kingdom of God”.  God was not personally present on Earth, but had determined an administrative structure, with kings and priests, to take care of the people.

In His absence, God had chosen several men, at different times, to give His instructions to the people.  They were the prophets, inspired by God, who came with messages of warning, reprimand, exhortation, and threats to the administrators of the people when they went along other ways, taking the people with them. In the parable, they are the servants sent to bring the fruits belonging to the owner.

The reception given to the prophets by the administrators of the people was, for the most part, bad. They mistreated, humiliated, scorned, imprisoned and sometimes killed them, like the vinedressers of the parable did to the servants.

Finally, God sent His only begotten son to the people of Israel to straighten their path and teach them about His kingdom of God. Being the Son of God He was superior to all prophets sent before and had the authority of His Father over the nation. He was like the son of the landowner in the parable, whom the owner expected vinedressers to respect.

However, the vinedressers received the son very badly and finally plotted among themselves, grabbed and took him out of the vineyard and killed him. In saying this, the Lord Jesus was foretelling what those who listened would be doing to Him in the coming days.

In their reply to the question, the leaders condemned themselves as wicked men. For them to understand the parable clearly, the Lord Jesus now referred to a passage in Psalm 118: 22.23, complemented in Isaiah 8:14 and 15 (verse 41). These texts speak of a "cornerstone" and a "stumbling block". This "stone" was the Lord Jesus, as He had declared to Peter (chapter 16:18) and it was what Peter proclaimed to these same leaders sometime later (Acts 4:11).

The cornerstone was a stone chosen by builders when they began building a house. It stood in the corner and the foundations and walls started from it, so it bore the greatest weight of the house. It therefore had to be large, well formed, and strong, of the best quality.

The Lord Jesus compared Himself to such a stone at first rejected by the builders, but which became the cornerstone of a building through His wonderful work for us, as in the above Psalm. No doubt, the priests knew this Psalm because it was regularly sung with others in the temple. They should also know the prophecy of Isaiah, informing that the Lord of hosts would be a stumbling block, causing people to fall.

Using the combination of these two texts, the Master explicitly declared to those religious leaders that the kingdom of God would be taken from them and given to a people who produced the fruits of the kingdom. This was the key for them to understand the whole meaning of the parable of the vinedressers. They themselves were the disloyal and disobedient vinedressers.

They were also the builders who rejected the stone, as in the Psalm. Although they rejected it, God chose it and made it the cornerstone of His building: his church (1 Peter 2:4,6,7,8, Ephesians 2:20).

What a huge mistake the temple's leaders made to reject the Lord Jesus! That was the end of their administration of the people of God, as well as of the ambition of the Jewish people of that time to gain their release from the Roman yoke and exaltation on earth.

The kingdom of God would be taken from them and given to people of all nations who would produce the fruits of the Kingdom, i.e. the church of Christ, which includes both Jews and Gentiles saved by grace through faith in Him and that produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 44 is interpreted in different ways, but without any doubt, the Lord Jesus became a stone of stumbling to Israel "Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone" (Romans 9:31,32).

The chief priests and the Pharisees now understood that the Lord spoke about them. They wanted to arrest him, but feared the people who regarded Him as a prophet.

 

R David Jones

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

28  "But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, 'Son, go, work today in my vineyard.'

29  He answered and said, 'I will not,' but afterward he regretted it and went.
30  Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, 'I go, sir,' but he did not go.

31  Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said to Him, "The first."
Jesus said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.
32  For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.

 

33  "Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.
34  Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit.
35  And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.
36  Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.
37  Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'
38  But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.'
39  So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40  "Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?"
41  They said to Him, "He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

42  Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: 'the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. this was the lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes' ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

43  "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

44  And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder."
45  Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them.
46  But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.  

Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21, verses 28 to 46