The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN
The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN
Golden Text: “The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner.” (Matt. 21:42)
Lesson Plan:
1. The Vineyard (v 33)
2. The Jewish Nation as God’s Vineyard (Is. 5:1-4)
3. The Owner Commits His Vineyard to Husbandmen (vs 33, 34)
4. Their Treatment of God’s Servants (vs 35-39)
5. The Consequences of Rejecting the Son of God (vs 40-46)
6. Modern Applications
Lesson Setting:
Time: Tuesday, April 4, A.D. 30. The last day of Jesus’ public ministry. Two days after the
Triumphal Entry, and three days before the Crucifixion.
Place: Jerusalem, in the courts of the
Temple.
Research and Discussion: The great Tuesday. The object of Jesus during this day. What the vineyard represents. How did this parable apply to the Jewish nation? Who were the husbandmen? The rejected stone. To whom was the Vineyard committed? How could the destruction of Jerusalem grow out of the rejection of Jesus?
Introduction: We have now come to the last day of the public teaching of Jesus, the Tuesday before the Crucifixion. The day was spent in the Temple courts, in a most earnest attempt to save the nation from the ruin that was certain to befall them if the leaders refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah. It was a strenuous day of hard-fought battles of truth against error. It will be well to make this scene as vivid as possible for your students. A picture of the Temple and its courts would be an excellent background for the scene. Picture Jesus and His disciples dressed as plain Galilean peasants. The scribes and rulers in all the pomp and color of official costume. The court crowded with people of all nationalities, listening intently, taking sides in the controversy.
God’s Gardens: Vineyards were a familiar sight to the Jews of Palestine. Jesus and His disciples would meet them almost everywhere they went in their travels; and all the details of this story- parable were matters of common knowledge; so that the very word “Vineyard” presented to their minds a realistic picture of the parable. But to us the parable and its teaching will become clearer if we present the picture in modern light.
Scripture Reading: Matthew 21:33
1. The Vineyard
The Vineyard is the Palestinian representative of cultivated land – farms, orchards, grain fields, gardens, parks. Transformed into what they are from the wild lands of the world, primeval forests, mountains, deserts, barren rock, rich valleys, marshes, wild-wood tangles, where fierce beasts roam and inferior fruits grow. This was the material committed to man, from which he is to select portions for cultivation, thus transformed into its best possibilities. It was to be accomplished only by being “laborers together with God,” man’s spirit uplifted, inspired, and guided by God’s spirit, to use God’s sunshine and rain and all the forces of nature. Weeds and briers are to be destroyed or transformed into useful plants; wild beasts driven out, or, better, transformed into friends and helpers, as in Isaiah’s picture in his chapter eleven; inferior fruits and flowers are to be transformed and made luscious, healthful and beautiful. And all this was for the training, discipline, and education of man’s whole nature, body, and spirit, to give him a larger life, more comforts, larger usefulness, wider activities, and in the very process of laboring with God, bringing him nearer to God. These vineyards, orchards, farms, gardens, are specimens of what can be done for the whole world. They inspire us to discover new forces and powers in nature. They are object lessons of what the world was meant to be.
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 5:1-4
2. The Jewish Nation as God's Vineyard
“For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah his pleasant plant” (Is. 5:7). God had set apart the nation of Israel to be, in the spiritual world amid all the unbelieving nations, what a vineyard was in the wild uncultivated regions of the earth. They were to be the means through which true religion would prevail over the whole world. God loved them with an everlasting love. He did everything possible for them, so they might bring forth the best fruits of the kingdom of God – obedience, sincere worship, righteous living, the beauty of holiness, love, joy, peace, and all the fruits of the Spirit, intelligence, noble character and mission work among the nations. God placed them in the best country in the then world for His purpose.
v 2 ... “He fenced it,” i.e., built a wall of defense all around it. The New King James version says, “He dug it up.” The Philistines settled along the southeastern shores of the Great (Mediterranean) Sea in the twelfth century B.C. Eventually, all the lands along the Eastern end of the Great Sea were called Palestine. During many centuries this area was also called Canaan and Israel. Later, during Greek and Roman times, the part of this territory where Jesus was born and lived during His marvelous ministry was called Judea, a Greek word for the earlier name of Judah. At the present time, this and other areas in the general region of the Eastern end of the Great Sea are called “The Holy Land.” At the time of our text in Isaiah, Palestine lay between the two great nations of the then known world – Assyria on the northeast and Egypt on the southwest. Neither could reach the other without going through Palestine, along the border of the sea. Each wanted this narrow intermediate country, both as a defense against the other, and as a safe place where they could gather as long as the Israelites obeyed God’s law, and kept pure the true religion, God by this means would in His providence preserve them from outward enemies. He hedged them around with perfect laws, schools, priests, temple, and religious institutions.
v 2 ... “and gathered out the stones thereof,” the altars of the unbelieving nations, their idols of worship, and their moral looseness.
v 2 ... “planted it with the choicest vine,” the true religion from God Himself, enforced and preserved by the Word of God.
v 2 ... “and also made a winepress therein,” representing the various advantages conferred on the people to help them bring forth good fruit unto the Lord. Every influence, every institution, the teachings of the prophets, the hymns of David, the worship at the sanctuary, all aided the people to produce and develop the virtues, praise, love, character, benevolence, devotion, courage, which the Lord sought from His vineyard as the fruits thereof. The purpose of all this was to plant and keep true religion in the world. It was to be the world’s redemption. It was to be a city of God on a hill, when seen by all nations might draw them towards it.
Scripture Reading: Matthew 21:33, 34
3. The Owner Commits His Vineyard to Husbandmen
The owner: “A certain householder” (v 33), a landed proprietor, owner of an estate. This householder represents God, who is the creator and owner of all things. He owns this world. He owns the church; He has planted it. He owns us. He owned the Jewish nation.
The husbandmen: “And let it out to husbandmen” (v 33). It is customary in the East, as in Ireland and other parts of Europe, for an owner to let out his estate to husbandmen; i.e., to tenants, who pay an annual rent, either in money, or, as apparently in this case, in kind. The husbandmen represented first the rulers of the Jews, and then the nation as a whole. Members of the body of Christ are the husbandmen. What about the people of our nation?
The absence of the owner: “And went into a far country” (v 33): rather, as in the R.V., ‘another country.’ He went abroad. He left his tenants in charge with everything needed for their work. Thus, by his absence, their faithfulness was tested because he gave them the opportunity to develop their characters by fulfilling their duties. Luke says it was “for a long time.” A glance at the history of Israel shows that the time from Moses to the prophets was long. Christ did not come till fifteen hundred years after the planting of the nation. God was not visible. He guided and overruled, but did not interfere with their free action. And still God entrusts to nation, to church, and to individual the things He has committed to their charge, without direct interference. Only in this way can mankind be trained and proven.
The following analogies are discernible in this parable: The householder is God. The vineyard represents the privilege of the Jewish nation. The planting of the vineyard refers to God’s establishment of Israel as a favored nation. The hedge, winepress, tower, etc. represent the Law of Moses. The husbandman represents the religious leaders. The servants who came to receive the fruits are the prophets whom God sent to Israel. The maltreatment of the servants shows Israel’s maltreatment of the prophets of God. The husbandman desiring the fruits shows God’s earnest desire for true religion in Israel, especially God’s desire for a consciousness in Israel of their need of redemption. The son in the parable stands for God’s Son, Jesus Christ. The killing of the son is the crucifixion of Christ. The son’s being sent last of all shows that Christ is God’s last word to man. Their casting the son out of the vineyard prefigures the suffering of Christ without the camp. The taking of the vineyard away from the wicked husbandmen and giving it to others represents the displacement of Israel by the Gentiles in the church. The householder’s going into another country represents God’s leaving Israel to their own devices for a long period to the coming of Christ.
The fruits: “When the time of the fruit drew near” (v 34). The season of fruits was not any definite time, but every occasion when God had reason to expect the results. He had a right to expect that the Jewish nation would be faithful to His laws; that they would be an example of righteousness, purity and faithfulness to the surrounding nations, attracting them to the true God and the true religion. Sometimes it was courage and faith; sometimes patience; sometimes efforts to benefit the other nations; at all times obedience, and the gradual development of nobility of character, beautiful daily life, care for the poor, depth and purity of worship, larger intelligence, liberty, and insight, closer communion with God, which would have made the nation the central sun, radiating light, salvation, holiness, everything good for this world and the world to come.
v 34 ... “He sent his servants ... that they might receive the fruits of it.” The servants were prophets and teachers, faithful rulers and officers of the kingdom, embodying the principles of the kingdom of heaven.
Scripture Reading: Matthew 21:35-39
4. Their Treatment of God’s Servants
The servants: “Took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another” (v 35). A general statement of the increasing degrees of outrage. This is more clearly stated in Mark: (a) The first servant they “caught, beat, and sent away empty;” (b) at the second they “cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled;” (c) they killed other in various ways.
v 35 ... “Killed another, and stoned another.” Some of the prophets were not merely maltreated, but actually put to death. Trusting Jewish tradition we learn that Jeremiah was stoned by the exiles in Egypt, Isaiah sawn asunder by King Manasseh (For ample historical justification of this description, see Jer. 37, 38; 1 Kin. 18:13; 22:24-27; 2 Kin. 6:31; 21:16; 2 Chron. 24:19-22; 36:16; and also Acts 7:52; and the whole passage finds a parallel in the words of Heb. 11:36-38).
v 36 ... “He sent other servants more than the first.” More in number, perhaps also more in quality. These were maltreated like the others.
v 37 ... “But last of all he sent unto them his son.” It is only by placing together three accounts that we can understand the full beauty and power of this passage. “Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he said, I will send my beloved son.
He sent him also last unto them, saying “They will reverence my son” (v 37). He was so great, so good, so powerful, so like his father, his closest representative, that the father had a right to expect that he would be treated better than the servants he had sent. God sends His Son: This was Jesus Himself. He lived as the Son of God. He expressed God’s feelings, and character, and love for man. “God so loved the world.” This was and is the highest proof of God’s love. In Jesus, His Son, are the highest possible powers, working together for the salvation of man – the forgiveness of sin, the light of truth about God and immortality, the strongest motives, hope, fear, love, duty – the influences of the life-giving spirit, a perfect example. There is no conceivable influence or power by which men are drawn to God that is not found in Jesus Christ.
The murder of the Son of God: “They said among themselves, This is the heir” (v 38), the one who has a right to the vineyard and its fruits; the Messiah, through whom and through whose principles, methods and powers the vineyard can successfully bear divine fruits.
v 38 ... “Come let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.” If Jesus was the Messiah, introducing the kingdom of God, the whole spirit of which was so different from theirs, then they would lose their places as rulers, teachers, and men of influence, their authority over people and their chief business. They were deeply connected with a system – a system with wrong ideas, principles and customs; a system that with the reign of Christ must pass away. In other words, if Christ prevails they must fall. But they imagined that if they could destroy Christ they could continue in possession of the inheritance, be rulers over Israel, teachers and leaders of the people, the possessors of the nation.
v 39 ... “And they caught him [as the rulers were about to do] and cast him out of the vineyard.” They rejected Jesus and refused to let Him have His place as the Messiah, with perhaps an allusion to the fact that He was crucified outside of the walls of the Holy City (Heb. 13:11-13).
v 39 ... “And slew him,” as the Jews were intent on doing to Jesus.
Scripture Reading: Matthew 21:40-46
5. The Consequences of Rejecting the Son Of God
v 40 ... “When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh.” When the time comes for God to take open notice of this rejection, and to make a settlement with the nation. And it came very soon.
v 40 ... “What will he do unto those husbandmen?” Jesus asked this question of leaders who, at this stage, had no idea that the story applied to them. So, they freely answered according to what they regarded as just punishment for such conduct:
v 41 ... “he will miserably destroy those wicked [‘miserable’ in Greek] men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.” They unconsciously condemned themselves. Others, according to Luke, exclaimed, in horror, “God forbid!” Any one suffering such a fate, even if deserved, is sad.
Jesus enforced the same truth by another illustration: v 42 ... “Did ye never read in the scriptures,” (Ps. 118:22, 23. See also Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:7).
v 42 ... “The stone which the builders rejected,” in building the Temple, as not of the right shape, or quality, apparently unfitted for any place in the building, and hence left on one side in the masses of rock “is become the head of the corner.”
The rejected stone: It is said that when building Solomon’s Temple one of the stones appeared unsuitable for any portion of the building. The workers tried to use it in different walls, in various other places, but it did not seem to fit anywhere. The Temple took many years to build; so many, in fact, that the stone became covered with moss, and grass grew around it. Everybody passing by ignored the stone. The eventful day came when the Temple was finished and soon to be opened. A multitude assembled to see the grand sight. A builder said, “Where is the top- stone?” “Where is the pinnacle?” No one had an idea where to find the crowning marble, until someone said, “Perhaps that moss covered, refused stone would make a good top-stone?” So, they hoisted it to the top; and as it reached the summit everyone noticed how well it was adapted (From Spurgeon). Jesus was the Messiah, the corner stone of the religion of God, and of His kingdom. The Jews rejected Him, did not realize that He was the Messiah. But He became the foundation of the true religion, realized in the Lord's church.
v 42 ... “Marvellous in our eyes.” The change that was made from the Jewish religion to the Lord’s church was one of the most marvelous, if not the most marvelous, change in the world’s history. In verse 43 Jesus directly foretells what actually took place a few years later.
v 44 ... “Whosoever shall fall on this stone,” etc. Who falls on the stone? Those who are offended at Christ in His low estate (Is. 8:14; 53:2; Lk. 2:34; 4:29; Jn. 4:44). Those now listening to Jesus were already guilty of this sin. The stone falls on those who set themselves in self- conscious opposition against the Lord, i.e., those knowing better, who put themselves in opposition to Jesus Christ and His kingdom.
The fulfillment of this prophecy: In the summer of A.D. 70, forty years after this parable was spoken, Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple was burned and laid in ruins by the Roman army under Titus, after the most terrible siege on record, in which the besieged “fought for miserable scraps,” chewed belts and shoes, and tore off the leather from their shields, and ate wisps of hay, and even then died by thousands from the horrors of famine; 97,000 were taken prisoners, and 1,100,000 perished. Yet these Jews, if they had been faithful, might have been the leading nation in the world, walking as kings and princes among men, the joy of the whole earth, shedding the light of God’s truth and (Judea Capta).
6. Modern Applications
God has certainly given a wonderful vineyard to the people of the United States of America; marvelously fruitful and marvelously protected. But we are greatly mistaken if we imagine this to be ‘our’ country, to do with as we please. It has been assigned to us for a period of time. We must also remember that we will certainly give an accounting to God for our use of it. Every advantage has been given to us for bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, liberty, and true religion. There is only one way through which we as a nation can keep the goodly heritage in which God has placed us. By obedience to His laws, by true and earnest spiritual life, by faithfulness in taking and giving the Gospel to others, by justice and righteousness to all – to the poor, native Americans, blacks, Orientals, the Jews, all races, and to every oppressed soul. Only by this kind of loyalty to almighty God can we possibly keep our country. Reject the Son of God, His principles, truth, and power, and we are lost. To do so is to reject the very foundation of what makes any nation great, growing and powerful – God.
Application to the universal church of Christ: The church of our Lord is peculiarly God’s vineyard which He has planted. Its origin and life come from Him. He has committed to it His truth, His Holy Spirit, Sunday the Lord’s Day, intelligence, piety, property, influence, Bible School, mission-work, organization, every means and opportunity for bringing forth good fruit of the Spirit. Therefore, He has reason to expect in return abundant and glorious fruits. If the body of Christ in a certain area or region does not yield the fruits of righteous lives, i.e., saving souls, helpfulness, spreading the Gospel, then that particular local church will certainly decay, and its work and power will no doubt be transformed to some other church bearing the good fruit for God.
Application to us: God has entrusted to each Christian a blessed and fruitful vineyard, which we are to culture for Him. He has planted His new life in every Christian, providing both life and soul. Our heavenly Father gives each Christian a portion of all those things He has committed to the church of Christ as a whole. He makes every Christian fruitful through His Holy Word and His Spirit, providing every means of grace. He opens up to each Christian wonderful opportunities and He expects much good fruit from such a vineyard. For every vineyard entrusted to Christians, for every privilege and blessing, God has a right to expect fruits in the proper season. There is no other way to enjoy a successful spiritual life. Have you noticed that even in this life, those who use the world for personal gains and pleasures, gradually lose the blessings they seek to keep for themselves?
Illustration: James Bender wrote about the story of a farmer who grew award winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it always won a blue ribbon. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked. The farmer replied, “Well sir, don’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grown good corn.” This farmer is very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor’s corn also improves. So it is with life. Want to live in peace? Then help their neighbors live in peace. Want to live well? Then help others live well. Want to be happy? Then help others find happiness. The value of one life is measured by the many lives it touches. In other words, the welfare of each is bound up in the welfare of all.
Conclusion: We need each other – Christian fellowship is not the superficial social event the word sometimes signifies in our churches these days. Neither is it some mystical association that exists in the mind of God but is without practical consequence to us. It is the space-time nearness we have to one another, the purified interactions we share with one another, the mutual concern we have for one another’s welfare, and the practical involvement we have with each other to encourage the living out of the things we say we believe. It is as if the best answer to the question, “How do I become a Christian?” were essentially the same as to the question, “How do I become an artist?” or “How do I become a surgeon?” One should be able to say, “Go to the community of people already about that task to learn from, observe, and imitate them.” Reading manuals and learning the rules isn’t enough. One needs to be able to go where experienced, competent, and wise practitioners of the art are found. There is a discipline and craftsmanship to their process that develops newcomers over time. One can’t simply follow his feelings but has to be initiated into a highly specialized skill like brain surgery or sculpting or spirituality over time under the oversight of skilled practitioners. Fellowship begins in the fact that we are “baptized by one Spirit into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13). It is affirmed when we see one another across the table of Christ and “discern the (one) body” (1 Cor. 11:29). It is manifest to the world when we live in unity, harmony, and love for one another. Skilled practitioners who have come to know God and whose lives are being lived in the power of the Holy Spirit are the best persons to train novices in the art of holiness. By virtue of God’s presence and activity within it, the church is greater than the sum of its human parts. It is the living body of Christ. His spiritual body? Yes, but His fleshly presence as well. He has no eyes to see, feet to approach, mouth to speak, or hands to serve this generation of human-kind, unless we see them in their true situation, go to them in their distasteful settings, speak to them without stuttering mouths, and serve them with our inept hands. Occasional flashes of brilliance or showing up at just the right time or doing something that genuinely makes a difference will be God’s activity through us. And that is why we need each other.
