Another parable, another teaching!

Mat 21:33-46

33 "Here's another story. Listen closely. There was once a man, a wealthy farmer, who planted a vineyard. He fenced it, dug a winepress, put up a watchtower, then turned it over to the farmhands and went off on a trip. 34 When it was time to harvest the grapes, he sent his servants back to collect his profits.

35" The farmhands grabbed the first servant and beat him up. The next one they murdered. They threw stones at the third but he got away. 36 The owner tried again, sending more servants. They got the same treatment. 37 The owner was at the end of his rope. He decided to send his son. 'Surely,' he thought, 'they will respect my son.'

38 "But when the farmhands saw the son arrive, they rubbed their hands in greed. 'This is the heir! Let's kill him and have it all for ourselves.' 39 They grabbed him, threw him out, and killed him.

40" Now, when the owner of the vineyard arrives home from his trip, what do you think he will do to the farmhands? " 41" He'll kill them-- a rotten bunch, and good riddance, "they answered." Then he'll assign the vineyard to farmhands who will hand over the profits when it's time. "

42 Jesus said," Right-- and you can read it for yourselves in your Bibles: The stone the masons threw out is now the cornerstone.

This is God's work; we rub our eyes, we can hardly believe it!

43 "This is the way it is with you. God's kingdom will be taken back from you and handed over to a people who will live out a kingdom life.

45 When the religious leaders heard this story, they knew it was aimed at them. 46 They wanted to arrest Jesus and put him in jail, but, intimidated by public opinion, they held back. Most people held Jesus to be a prophet of God.

Food for thought!

Jesus uses stories we know to teach us eternal truths. Today's Goodnews is enshrined in a story: "Here's another story. Listen closely", says Jesus. So let's try to understand what Jesus teaches us this time. This parable has much to teach us in three directions, that is, about God, about us, and about Jesus.

(i) It has much to tell us about God.

(a) It tells of God's trust in men. The owner of the vineyard is God, the vineyard is all the earth. The farmhands are you and me; we are the cultivators. Jesus is saying, God made the earth, entrusted it to men and women and went away. He did not even stand over them to exercise a police-like supervision. He went away and left them with their task. God pays men the compliment of entrusting them with his work. Every task we receive is a task given us to do by God.

(b) It tells of God's patience. The master sent messenger after messenger (the prophets). He did not come with sudden vengeance when one messenger had been abused and ill-treated. He gave the cultivators chance after chance to respond to his appeal. God bears with us in all our sinning; God is patient with us.

(c) It tells of God's judgment. In the end the master of the vineyard took the vineyard from the cultivators and gave it to others. God's sternest judgment is when he takes out of our hands the task which he meant us to do. God does not entertain unproductivity.

(ii) It has much to tell us about us.

(a) It tells of human privilege. The vineyard was equipped with everything--the fence, the wine press, the tower--which would make the task of the cultivators easy and enable them to discharge it well. God does not only give us a task to do; he also gives us the means with which to do it; God does not ask us to do the impossible, He equips each one of us with talents, gifts and life.

You and me were equipped by God, not to fail, but to succeed in life.

(b) It tells of human freedom. The master left the cultivators to do the task as they liked. God is no tyrannical task-master; he is like a wise commander who allocates a task and then trusts a man to do it.

(c) It tells of human answerability. To all men comes a day of reckoning. We are answerable for the way in which we have carried out the task God gave us to do in the this life.

(d) It tells of the deliberateness of human sin. The cultivators carry out a deliberate policy of rebellion and disobedience towards the master. Sin is deliberate opposition to God; it is the taking of our own way when we know quite well what the way of God is.

(iii) It has much to tell us about Jesus.

(a) It tells of the claim of Jesus. It shows us quite clearly Jesus lifting himself out of the succession of the prophets. Those who come before him were the messengers of God; no one could deny them that honour; but they were mere servants; Jesus was THE Son. This parable contains one of the clearest claims Jesus ever made to be unique, to be different from even the greatest of those who went before.

(b) It tells of the sacrifice of Jesus. It makes it clear that Jesus knew what lay ahead. In the parable the hands of wicked men killed the son. Jesus was never in any doubt of what lay ahead. He did not die because he was compelled to die; he went willingly and open-eyed to death.