Rejection and Redemption: The Parable of the Vinedressers

“Then He began to speak to them in parables: ‘A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, and him they killed; and many others beating some and killing some. Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, “They will respect my son.” But the vinedressers said among themselves. “This is the heir, Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. Have you not even read this Scripture: “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing. And it is marvelous in our eyes”?’ And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away.” [00:20:57]

Now you may be aware that when Jesus taught in parables, that almost all of those parables are found either in the gospel of Matthew or in the gospel of Luke. We haven’t seen a parable in Mark’s gospel since the fourth chapter of Mark. They are rare indeed in Mark’s narrative. We also have to take note that this particular parable is not one designed to hide some truth of the kingdom of God from those who are outside the kingdom of God, who have no eyes to see or ears to hear, but the meaning of this particular parable is plain and easy to understand, and those to whom it was targeted, namely the religious leaders of Israel, understood it clearly. [00:20:12]

John Stott once wrote a book called “Christ, the Controversialist.” Jesus had no idea of political correctness. When sin was blatant in front of Him, He didn’t hesitate to call attention to it. Although we notice the difference in the tone by which our Lord rebuked sinners. To the rank and file, to the lowly of heart, He was gentle, tender, and mild. To those in seats of religious authority, when they corrupted the things of God, Jesus pulled no punches. And we see on this occasion one of those episodes where our Lord uses a parable that only thinly veils His wrath and the Father’s wrath against the rulers over Israel. [00:04:42]

But what I want us to notice about this introduction to the scope of the vineyard is the extraordinary care that is given to the vines, the protection, and the tending, the weeding, and the care of it. If you’ve ever been to wine growing countries in Europe or, for example, in California in the United States, you look at those long rows upon rows of the grapes, and you see how precise and neatly they are trimmed and cared for, how careful they are in the way in which the juice is stored in the vats or either metal vats or in wooden containers, and it’s so expensive to do it right that even with modern technology, the care is extraordinary to keep from losing the crop. [00:09:03]

And listen to what happens. “At vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. But they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.” And so the story proceeds. Jesus says, “So again, he sent them another servant. And at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. And again he sent another and him they killed and many others.” Do you see how the cruelty against the servants of the owner escalates first from a beating, second to a stoning, sending the man away in shame and disgrace, and now the next servant that comes, he is killed and many subsequently thereafter. [00:12:34]

How easy is it to see that the vineyard represents Israel? The vineyard is owned by God. Let me go back for just a moment to the Old Testament to the prophetic book of Isaiah, with which these religious leaders were obviously knowledgeable about. In chapter 5, just listen carefully for a moment. The title is “God’s disappointing vineyard.” And it reads, “Now let me sing to my Well-beloved a song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard.” Now God is speaking of His Beloved, who owns a vineyard. “My Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. 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.” [00:14:52]

Now notice in this prophecy, God’s anger is directed against the vineyard, because the vineyard that is owned by the Lord’s Beloved is barren. The vineyard brings forth rotten grapes after the choicest vines had been planted, all the care of tending the vines had taken place, and in the end, the fruit is worthless. And so God says about the vineyard, “I’ll burn down the hedge. I’ll burn down the vines, and they will not produce any fruit. I won’t let any rain fall upon them. So this is a prophecy, beloved, of God’s judgment on Israel. But notice when Jesus borrows from the very language of Isaiah, chapter 5, in the parable that I have just read to you, the judgment is not directed at the vineyard. It’s not the vineyard that is going to be destroyed. It’s the wicked vinedressers, the clergy. God is not going to destroy His church but rather His corrupt clergy who have been placed in charge of it to nurture it, to feed it, and to tend it. [00:17:16]

And of course, the servants that were sent to the vinedressers were the Old Testament prophets who came speaking the Word of the Lord to the leadership of Israel, as Jeremiah did in his temple speech saying, “You say this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. You trust in lying words, words that do not profit. I say that this temple will be destroyed. Go to Shiloh and look at it, and you will see the ruins there of that sanctuary, and that’s what Jerusalem is going to look like, because the leaders were false prophets and would not respect the Word of God. [00:18:59]

You understand, dear friends, that when the Son of God walked the earth, there was not a moment from the time of His birth until the time of His execution that His life was safe among human beings. Nobody wants to hear it, but our basic fallen nature is such that we are not simply indifferent to God, beloved. We hate God. God is our mortal enemy, and fallen human beings will stop at nothing to rid themselves of the sovereignty of their Creator. If God Himself as the Father came to Orlando and power were given to the people of Orlando to destroy Him, His life would not last for sixty seconds. Don’t believe this attitude of tolerance and indifference that the world says they have towards God. There is such a hostility in the human heart that if God’s life were made vulnerable to human beings, He would be destroyed. [00:23:23]

He will come and destroy the vinedressers and give the vineyard to others. He’ll destroy the temple. He’ll destroy the whole Jewish sacrificial system. He’ll destroy the Jewish priesthood, the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, and give the vineyard to the Gentiles, which is one of the great mysteries of redemptive history, that Paul elaborates in what we’re studying on Sunday night in Romans 11. Have you not read the Scripture, “The stone which the builders rejected—the builders rejected.”? God was building a building, another metaphor here, and the stones were His people, and the builders were the construction workers, the contractors who were responsible to build that building on a foundation, a firm foundation of the prophets and the apostles. But instead they built their house on sand, and they took the Chief Cornerstone and tripped all over it, and rejected it. But that stone which they rejected became the chief cornerstone in God’s church. “This was the Lord’s doing,” the prophet said, “And is marvelous in our eyes.” [00:25:45]