The Parable of the Vineyard

The imagery of a grapevine or vineyard is frequently used in Scripture as a metaphor for the nation of Israel. Isaiah specifically used this analogy to describe the lower kingdom of Judah. The prophet composed a song comparing them to a vineyard for which God had carefully prepared the soil, planted it with the most superior quality of grapevines, built a tower in it and dug out a winepress. This vineyard, however, produced bad fruit instead of good and was utterly and completely destroyed. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God asked the people the following sobering question:

 

I planted you, a choice vine from the very best seed. How then could you turn into a degenerate, strange vine?

 

In fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophetic sonnet, as an act of God’s judgement against them, Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. and Judah was destroyed by Babylon in 586 B.C. Jerusalem was ransacked, the walls torn down and the temple demolished.

 

The people were carried away into exile in a foreign land. When they returned, the nation of Judah came to be called Judea and the people were called Jews. The parable of the vineyard owner that Jesus spoke was about their second chance. God allowed them to be re-established as a nation, to reconstruct the walls around Jerusalem and to rebuild a new temple. He built the vineyard anew:

 

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. He leased it to tenant farmers and went away.

 

When the time came to harvest fruit, he sent his servants to the farmers to collect his fruit. The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another and stoned a third. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first group, and they did the same to them.

 

Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

 

Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers? ‘He will completely destroy those terrible men’ they told him, ‘and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his fruit at the harvest’

 

…Therefore, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit…When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew he was speaking about them. Although they were looking for a way to arrest him, they feared the crowds because the people regarded him as a prophet.

 

The Landowner Established His Vineyard

 

God the Father is the Landowner. A landowner looking to get into the grape business would:

 

1. Carefully terrace a hillside

2. Choose and plant seeds from the best vine stock

3. Construct a fence to protect the vines from predators

4. Build a watchtower to look out for thieves

5. Dig out and provide a wine press for the harvest

 

In the same way, God, who owns everything, carefully prepared the promised land, chose the descendants of Jacob to inhabit it, constructed a hedge of protection to protect them from their enemies and provided the means for them to build the first temple.

 

God allowed his vineyard to be regrown. The vineyard is the land of Judea. He allowed the people to return from exile and to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the walls surrounding it. They constructed a new temple and re-established the priestly order and the sacrificial system. This was different than the first time the nation was established. Having learned their lesson, many of the people were quite devout. They faithfully celebrated the Biblical feasts, offered sacrifices and taught the Scriptures to their children. The nation should have been a bright shining light to the world showing forth God’s goodness.

 

The Mistreated and Murdered Servants

 

The servants who were beaten, stoned and killed bring to mind the Old Testament prophets who were horribly mistreated and often killed. Acts 7:52 asked:

 

Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One…

 

God’s servants are often abused. This portion of the parable makes me think of Stephen who was stoned, Paul and Silas who were beaten and the many disciples and early Christians who would be martyred. But the real question is, Who were the ones doing the mistreating?

 

The Evil Tenant Farmers

The religious leaders are the tenant farmers in this parable. They wanted to enjoy the fruits of God’s vineyard, the blessings that had been bestowed upon Israel, all for themselves. They were in cahoots with Herod who had monetized religion, charging a temple tax. People were selling sacrificial animals and exchanging currency for profit in the temple. The religious elite were raking in the dough from the temple commerce, living the big life with extravagant clothes and fancy feasts. They were sort of religious celebrities. The corruption was widespread, much like it is with millionaire celebrity Christians today. This makes me consider the vast and overwhelming amounts of money (hundreds of millions of dollars yearly) that is being hoarded and misspent by corrupt church officials in our day.

 

As trained priests and Pharisees, these religious leaders were aware of the signs that had been foretold by the prophets that would identify the Messiah. They knew that a chosen deliverer had been prophesied but they did not want to give up their power, control and position. Some, like the chief priests, the family of Caiaphas and Annas, were absolutely drunken with power. Many, if not most, of the Pharisees, Sadducees, priests, experts in the law, and members of the Sanhedrin had seen the evidence that Jesus was God’s chosen one, the Messiah. They even witnessed our Lord performing miracles and they deliberately rejected his rule. They may not have realized he was the Son of God at first, but Jesus told them. They refused to believe and accused him of blasphemy. The Jewish leaders became angry that Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath—claiming that healing was “work,” though Jesus did not break any of God’s actual laws.

 

Jesus responded to them, “My Father is still working, and I am working also.” This is why the Jews began trying to kill him: Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.

 

On another occasion:

 

The Jews picked up rocks to stone him. Jesus replied. “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you stoning me?” “We aren’t stoning you for good work,” the Jews answered, “but for blasphemy, because you—being a man—claim to be God.”

They refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God. They knew Jesus was the chosen Messiah but they rejected him anyway and worse…

 

They Killed the Heir

 

Jesus is the heir from the parable. He is the Son of God and rightful heir of the vineyard. Mark tells us that this was the Father's beloved son. Luke reveals that he was sent in hopes that they would show reverence for him. In the ancient near East a son was equal to his father. All that the father had belonged to him. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. It wasn’t just the land of Judea, but in fact all of the world that belonged to Christ. This world rejected him and the religious leaders intentionally put him to death. They held a sham trial, beat, mocked and scorned him and then brutally murdered this innocent man on the cross. They refused the rule of God’s chosen one. They rejected King Jesus.

 

In the ancient world, if there was no heir, a tenant farmer could have claimed the land. The religious elite thought their stranglehold over the people would be secured with the death of the bothersome Messiah. But Jesus wasn’t just a man, he was also God. He rose from the dead. Jesus is still the heir. All things have been given to him. Matthew 28:18 records the words of Christ:

 

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

 

Jesus is indeed the heir and he is very much alive.

 

The New Tenants In The Vineyard

 

Jesus asked the religious leaders what should happen to the wicked vinedressers who murdered the owner’s son. They replied that he would doubly destroy those horrible men and give the vineyard to new servants, not realizing that they were pronouncing judgement on themselves and naming their own punishment. In 70 A.D. Jerusalem was sacked and the temple torn down and burned, ending the system of sacrifice and removing all authority and means of financial gain for the wicked religious leaders of 2^nd temple Judaism.

 

The Kingdom of God, a spiritual kingdom, was taken away from the pretentious, self-serving religious leaders of the nation of Israel and given to all Christians, both Jews and Gentiles including all people from any nation who would believe. The vineyard represents, not only Israel, but the whole world. The vineyard represents the Kingdom of God. Now that the vineyard has been taken away from the religious leaders of Israel, it has been given to the church.

 

I would like to unpack the symbolism of the vineyard that I presented earlier in the article as it applies post-resurrection. God has:

 

1. Carefully prepared this world as his vineyard

          -the whole world is now our mission field to cultivate

 

2. Chosen His people to be the tenant farmers

-In contrast to those who rejected the Messiah, God has chosen those who accept Jesus as Savior to be the new vinedressers in his garden

 

3. Constructed a Fence, a hedge of protection around our souls

          -Once we are in Christ, our salvation is secure & sealed. We can’t lose it by just making a mistake and sinning. Just like a fence protects the fruit inside of it, the Holy Spirit inside of us keeps us in Christ and keeps our souls safe from being stolen or lost

 

4. Built a Temple—His Church

-There is an insert in the parable that initially seems out of place. Jesus quotes from Psalm 118:22 to describe the way that the religious leaders rejected him: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The watchtower in the vineyard represented the temple. Now, God has constructed his temple on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus as the chief cornerstone upon which the whole structure rests

 

5. Made preparations for the Harvest.

-The winepress is the sobering part of the metaphor because it represents God’s judgement. Revelation 14 describes God’s judgement on evildoers as them being crushed in a winepress.

 

The compelling realities of this symbolism bring us back to the fact that God has now appointed the followers of Jesus to tend his vineyard.

 

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. -1 Peter 2:9

It is now our job to produce fruit for his kingdom and prepare for the harvest. We know the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness and self-control. But the fruit we are discussing here goes beyond the change in our hearts to call us into action and productivity in the Christian life. John the Baptist told people to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Paul preached that people should repent, turn to God and do works worthy of repentance. We are to proclaim the goodness and praises of God. The fruit God wants us to produce is inviting others into a saving relationship with Jesus. He said:

 

Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest. The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. –John 4:35b-36

 

We are the new tenant farmers, the new vinedressers. The primary fruit of the harvest is souls won to Christ. Be fruitful. 

 

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise. –Proverbs 11:30