Parable of the Vineyard
Matthew 21:33-46
The parable of the vineyard is the second of three parables in a row that Jesus spoke as He was being confronted by the chief priests and elders of the Jews in the temple. It was just a couple of days after He made His triumphal entry into the city, and a couple of days before His death on the cross. In the temple this last week, Jesus had cleansed the temple, healed the blind and lame in its courts, received worship in it as Messiah, and taught the people within its walls.[1] The religious leaders refused to recognize Jesus’ authority to do these things, asking Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” (Matt. 21:23).
When the chief priests and elders refused to answer Jesus’ counter-question about the authority of John’s baptism, He declined to answer their question about His authority. If they had repented and recognized John’s authority from God, they would have had the answer about Jesus’ authority. Yet, Jesus doesn’t just drop the matter. He tells a series of parables and continues to question them in order to highlight the real issue, namely their stubborn refusal to repent and believe.
Last time, we looked at the first parable. It told of two sons, one told his father no, but then changed his mind and obeyed. The other said yes to his father, but then didn’t obey. The first was a picture of repentant obedience, the second of hypocritical profession. Jesus applied this parable to them saying,
“Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. 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” (Matthew 21:31-32).
Swindoll comments, “Jesus’ sharp denouncement left the religious leaders reeling, stunned that He would publicly call them out and accuse them of faithlessness and disobedience. But Jesus wasn’t finished with them yet. He followed the first jab with a second, taking a swing at them with a parable …”[2] This parable came with an even stronger judgment—the kingdom of God will be taken from them and given to others who will produce its fruit.
Let’s look at …
1. The Parable (Matt. 21:33-39)
Speaking with the authority of His Father, Jesus commands, “Hear another parable…” (Matt. 21:33). Imagine how this hit these proud men. They did not want to hear another parable, especially not another like the one Jesus just spoke against them! But Jesus didn’t need their permission to speak the word of God in His Father’s house.
First Jesus gives us the,
A. Setting (Matt. 21:33)
“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.” (Matt. 21:33).
Jesus lays out the parable of a certain landowner who owned a vineyard. This man made every provision possible for the success of his vineyard, so that he could draw from it the fruit he desired. While he was away, the landowner leased the vineyard to tenant vinedressers.
There are 6 main components in this parable and each represents an element of God’s relationship with Israel: 1) The landowner obviously is a picture of God the Father; 2) The vineyard represents Israel as God’s kingdom people; 3) The tenants/vinedressers are the Jewish religious and civil leadership; 4) The landowner’s servants are a picture of the prophets who remained obedient and preached God’s word to Israel; 5) The son is Jesus the Messiah who will be killed that very week; and 6) The other tenants who would produce fruit represent the church made up of the remnant of believing Jews and also believing Gentiles.
No Jew would fail to recognize in this story a picture of the relationship between the Lord and His people Israel. Jesus’ parable of the vineyard begins almost exactly like Isaiah’s Song of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5:
1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved
A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard:
My Well-beloved has a vineyard
On a very fruitful hill.
2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
He built a tower in its midst,
And also made a winepress in it;
So He expected it to bring forth good grapes,
But it brought forth wild grapes.
3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.” (Isaiah 5:1-3).
I’m sure the religious leaders (and even the common people) heard the echoes of Isaiah’s prophecy when Jesus spoke His parable. As Isaiah 5:7 says, “For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.” (Isa. 5:7).
The LORD God had planted them. He called their father Abraham out of a pagan world and promised to make him into a great nation. He renewed that covenant with Isaac and Israel. He delivered them from bondage in Egypt and gave them the land of promise. He protected them from their enemies. He gave them good statutes and ordinances that would bless them. He dwelt in their midst in the tabernacle and temple. He entrusted Israel’s care to its priests, kings, and nobles—the “vinedressers” who were to teach the people His word and lead them in His ways.
God, like the landowner in the parable had a right to expect the fruits of His efforts. So next we see Him,
B. Sending the Servants (Matt. 21:34-36)
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.” (Matt. 21:34-36).
The landowner gave the vinedressers time to produce the fruit of the vineyard, then sent his servants to collect what was due him as the owner of the vineyard. But instead of honoring the owner, they abused his servants. But the landowner is gracious and patient. He sent other servants; but they were treated the same.
Clearly, the story represents the Lord’s repeated appeals to His people through His prophets. When Israel did not produce the fruit that God desired, He sent His prophets, but just as the tenants in the parable mistreated and even killed the servants, Israel rejected God’s prophets (2 Chr. 24:15-16). Jeremiah was beaten and cast into a pit (Jer. 26:7-11; 38:1-28); John the Baptist was killed (Matt. 14:1-12); and others were stoned (2 Chr. 24:21).
In Matthew 23, Jesus will say to the scribes and Pharisees,
34 “Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matt. 23:34-37).
At this point, the landowner does an amazing thing by …
C. Sending the Son (Matt. 21:37-39)
Jesus continues the parable, saying, “Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’” (Matt. 21:37). When the son arrives, there should be no doubt that he carries the authority of his father, the owner of the vineyard. Even if they did not respect the owner’s servants, surely they will honor his son.
But instead, they do the unthinkable. Jesus says, “But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.” (Matt. 21:38-39). The tenants see an opportunity here. They believe that if they kill the son, they will then receive his inheritance, possession of the vineyard. It was bad to mistreat the servants. It was worse to kill them. But to kill the owner’s son is an outrageous act of evil and greed. What a contrast between the gracious and patient landowner and the wicked and irascible vinedressers!
They did not kill the son because they didn’t recognize him. They killed him precisely because they did.[3] This implies conspiracy to commit murder by the Jewish leadership, and it is prophetic in the sense that Jesus is now telling them what they are going to do to Him (see Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 28:16). Although the Gospels do not record their being, “This is the Messiah: come, let us kill him”; yet, in the light of the Scriptures, their rejection of him was no less culpable than if it had been that.[4] They knew His miracle power. They knew His claims. They knew He spoke the word of God. Still, they refused to believe in Him and sought to kill Him.
Once the parable was over, Jesus asked the chief priests and Pharisees a question that brought the application of it home to themselves. So we see the …
2. Self-Indictment by the Religious Leaders (Matt. 21:40-41)
Jesus asks the chief priests and elders, “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?” (Matt. 21:40). And they gave an answer that—perhaps without their realizing it at first—completely condemned them. They said “He will destroy those wicked men miserably…” Or, as it is in the NASB, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end.” What’s more, they admitted that he would rightfully “lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons” (Matt. 21:40). Having pronounced the judgment on the wicked vinedressers, they indicted themselves as worthy of destruction.
Jesus now applies the parable to them. So we see the …
3. Divine Indictment by the Lord (Matt. 21:42-44)
Jesus shows their condemnation by first taking them to the prophetic word.
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 marvelous in our eyes’?” (Matt. 21:42).
Jesus is quoting from Psalm 118, the same psalm that the people quoted when they praised Jesus on Palm Sunday. When Jesus asks them, “Have you never read?” He knows they have read this Scripture he is quoting. They read it every Passover, and they would be reading it again in just a few days. He is really asking them, “Have you never understood?”
The chief cornerstone was the most important stone in the building. The word here could refer either to the cornerstone which formed the foundation of the building or the capstone which was the final stone placed at the top of an arch, completing the building and securing the structure. Jesus is both. He is both cornerstone and capstone. He is the foundation and beginning of God’s kingdom, and he is the one who completes it and brings everything to fulfillment.[5]
Jesus is the stone the builders rejected that God has chosen to honor. The religious leaders are the builders who are rejecting Him even now. It was shocking, “marvelous in our eyes,” that the builders, the Jewish religious leaders would reject the cornerstone, their own Messiah. If anyone should have been able to recognize a perfect cornerstone, it should have been the builders. Yet, in their evil pride and arrogance, they cast out the cornerstone.
But this was no surprise to God the Father or to Jesus. As the psalm says, “This was the LORD’s doing.” It was God’s plan all along. It was prophesied long before it took place. Jesus knew they would have Him killed in fulfillment of the word of God.
To reject Jesus is to reject the son of the landowner and to be like those wicked vinedressers. By the chief priests’ and elders’ own admission, it would be right for the landowner to take the vineyard from them and to give it to someone else. And so, Jesus gives them His verdict, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruit of it” (Matt. 21:43).
The privilege of Israel, of her leaders, would be ripped violently away, and it would be transferred to others. No longer would Israel’s twelve tribes comprise the people of God. Rather, through His twelve apostles Jesus would build a new people of God, His church, a new race comprised of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, being fruitful, multiplying, and bearing fruit for His kingdom.
The dividing line is the cornerstone Himself, Jesus Christ. He is both the Savior and the Judge. He says, “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” (Matt. 21:44). Jesus is quoting from two Old Testament Scriptures: Isaiah 8:14, which speaks of a rock of stumbling, and Daniel 2, which speaks of the rock of the kingdom which will crush all the other kingdoms of the earth (Daniel 2:44-45). In quoting these passages, Jesus applies these Scriptures to Himself. He is the Messiah, the Son of God. He is the Savior to all who will receive Him, but He is the rock of judgment to those who reject Him.
The repentant tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners were like the ones who were broken by Jesus. They believed God’s message (Matt. 21:32). They repented of their ways (Matt. 21:28-29). Their old lives were broken. But Christ saved them, healed them, and gave them new life. They were being granted entrance into the kingdom (Matt. 21:31).
The religious leaders to whom Jesus was saying these things were like the ones this same stone falls on. When it came to true righteousness, they were all show and no substance (Matt. 21:30). They were missing the kingdom (Matt. 21:31). They did not believe God’s message when they first heard it from John, and they did not believe and repent even now (Matt. 21:32). They were the vine-growers who killed the landowner’s son to claim his inheritance (Matt. 21:39-39). They were the builders who rejected the chief cornerstone of God’s kingdom (Matt. 21:42). This stone would fall upon them and scatter them like dust (Matt. 21:44).
The apostle Peter says the same thing about Jesus in 1 Peter 2 where he writes: “7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.” (1 Peter 2:7-8). Jesus is the cornerstone. He is precious to all who believe in him. But to those who do not believe, He is a stone that causes them to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.
What will you do with Jesus Christ? Either you will fall on Christ, repentant and broken over your sin, believing in His death and resurrection for salvation, or, rejecting Him, you will be crushed, ground to powder by His judgment. You will either bow the knee to Him in this day of grace, or you will bow the knee on the day of judgment.
Now, you would think that any sane person at this point would repent, But no, Jesus was right about them. Look at the …
4. Reaction by Chief Priests and Pharisees (Matt. 21:45-46)
When Jesus told the religious leaders the meaning behind the parable of the tenants, they only hardened their hearts even further. Matthew records,
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. (Matt. 21:45-46).
Matthew’s conclusion gives us three insights into the attitude of the religious establishment. 1) They are jealous and envious of Jesus’ popularity with the common people. This encroaches on their authority and power to govern. 2) They have come to the realization that Jesus is talking about them. This hurts their pride and embarrasses them in front of the people. 3) They understood the analogy of the son and that Jesus was referring to Himself. To them, this was blasphemy, and they would now seek to kill Jesus. From here the leaders would meet in secrecy to plot how they would get rid of Jesus. God in the Scriptures foretells this very event, and these men, prompted by hatred, rush to bring it to pass.[6]
We apply this parable to our lives by asking two questions. First, have you come to know Christ as your Lord and Savior, or have you rejected Him like the Jewish leadership did? You need to repent and believe in Christ as the only One who can save you from the penalty of your sins. Fall on Him, He will save you now.
Second, if you are a believer, are you producing the fruit of righteousness? You owe Christ your very life. You have been saved because of the mercy, grace, and patience of God. You deserved none of it. Are you living in grateful obedience to Christ? Is your life bearing fruit for the kingdom? Believers may vary in the amount of fruit they produce, but there is no such thing as a fruitless believer.
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[1] Greg Allen, An Encounter with the Cornerstone, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2008/042708.htm
[2] Charles Swindoll, Insights on Matthew 16—28, Tyndale House Publishers, p. 161.
[3] R. Alan Cole, The Gospel According to Mark, Wm. B. Eerdmans’ Publishing, p. 259.
[4] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 453.
[5] Ray Fowler, Kingdom Taken, Kingdom Given, https://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/kingdom-taken-kingdom-given/.
[6] D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 454.