The Parable of the Two Sons
28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.
The Parable of the Tenants
33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
has become the capstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.
The Pharisees demanded to know by what authority Jesus was preaching and teaching such things and clearing out the temple the way He did. Jesus refused to tell them, at least not directly. And then He responded with three parables.
In the parable of the two sons, Jesus caught them easily and exposed the religious leaders as the ones who said they would obey, but then they refused to accept the message of repentance preached by first John and now Jesus. The tax collectors and harlots on the other hand, did repentant and so they are the son would originally rebelled, but later obeyed.
MacArthur summarized the parable of the two tenants this way...
What do we learn about God? Listen. We learn about His grace to men, giving them privilege, blessing, giving them a hope of promise, giving them potential great reward, giving them a vineyard of blessing in which they can live and be blessed. We learn about His patience with men. How many times has God sent a messenger and another messenger and another though they are rejected and rejected and rejected. We learn about His love for men because He not only sent messengers, He sent whom? His Son. And that says how much God loves because He sent His Son to die at the hands of those men. We also learn about the judgment of God. He will come in destruction against those who destroyed Christ.
What do we learn about Christ in this story? We learn about His claim to deity. He was the Son. He is the stone. We learn about His willingness to die. He came to die. He knew what was ahead. He knew where they were taking Him. He knew they were going to murder Him. He told them to their face and never tried to avoid that. What willingness to die. We learn about His resurrection. The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. He is restored to the place of glory and majesty and supremacy. We learn that He is the determiner of destiny because what you do with Jesus Christ determines your eternity.
What do we learn about men? We learn that men have great privilege. They have God's revelation. They have the Scripture. They have a world of providential blessing in which they live. They have the gospel. We learn about not only men's great privilege but their great responsibility. The vineyard in a sense is ours and God has put us in a place where we can respond to Him and we can see Him and hear Him and know Him. And then we learn about our accountability, the Lord is going to send His servants to check on how we're handling the things that have been given into our care. There's an accountability there. And then we learn about men's stubborn and willful rejection of Christ. And then we learn that men will be judged for such rejection.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Matthew 22:1-14
1 comment:
Great post. It kinda goes back to the weekend's post about actual fruit versus the appearance of fruit.
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