Life Ministries

Parable of the Tenants - Matthew 21:33-21:46

    Jesus tells this very interesting and provocative story about a land-owner and some farmers to whom he rented his land. In Jesus’ story, the landowner does all the work in the beginning. The land is his, and he plants a vineyard. He digs a winepress where the grapes can be trampled & the juice extracted. He builds a watchtower so the crop can be guarded from thieves. Everything is in order for a great crop of grapes. The twist in the story is that he then rents the vineyard out to a group of tenant farmers and goes away. The farmers are to tend to the crop and the land, and when it is time, give him his share of the harvest. It is a simple plan and everyone wins. The landowner gets what belongs to him, and the tenants are provided for and get everything they need.
    But a problem arises when there is a rebellion among the farmers against the landowner. There is no mention that he has treated them unfairly or has wronged them in any way. That is not the issue. The problem is that they get greedy. They no longer want to be the tenants of the vineyard, they want to be the owners. They want it all — all the crop and all the land as well. So when the farmer sends his servants to collect his rightful share of the fruit, the farmers mistreat and beat the servants, even killing some of them. This happens several times until the landowner finally sends his son, expecting that they will respect him and give the land-owner what he is owed. But the farmers conspire even against the son. They say to each other, “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance. The land and the crops and everything else will be ours.” Then they took him outside the vineyard and killed him.
    Let’s look at the parable piece by piece. What Jesus is doing is telling the world’s story and predicting his own death due to the rebellion of God’s people. God is the landowner. He has made the world and every-thing in it. He planted all the plants that give us food…all the trees that protect us from the sun and restore oxygen in the atmosphere. He gives the world to us, his tenants. We are renters, not owners. However, we are provided for very well. But the landowner seems to be far away. That is to say, God is out of sight. He is still the owner, even though it seems like he is not visibly present. We have been given a good world. The land is fruitful and we are blessed to have been given the privilege of being tenants here. God has been good to us. But a problem has arisen. A rebellion is fermenting among the tenants. We, first of all, want to claim the Master’s land and everything on it as our own, and we want him to stay out of it. We refuse to recognize God’s ownership of the world. And, secondly, we do not want to give to God what rightfully belongs to him. So when God sent the prophets ( servants ) to call the people of the world to recognize God’s ownership and to give him what he is due, they not only became hostile to God, they killed his messen-gers. As they say, “If you don’t like the message, kill the messenger.” This has happened throughout the history of the world, and is still happening now. In many places of the world today, to preach the good news of Jesus openly is an automatic death sentence.
    But God was serious about having his ownership recognized. In the end, he sent his Son (Note how patient God the householder was. Also, that they knew who the son was.) Why? did God send His Son? To call attention to God; to help them understand the truth of His Word; to acknowledge and show them the kingdom of God and recognize that God is the Ruler of that kingdom. But, they treated the son worse than the prophets who went before him. They took him outside of the gates of Jerusalem and killed him. Do you think this would happen today? There is something about that name and the message He brings. I am not to sure that if he came today the world would kill him all over again. Man does not want to be accountable to anyone but ourselves. We don’t want someone telling us what to do and what kind of people we ought to be, even if that someone is God. As far as we are concerned the world belongs to us. Our lives belong to us. When the world says it wants to be free, they really mean to be free from God and free from rules, free to do whatever I want, whenever I want, wherever I want.
    So we claim the right over life and death. War kills thousands with bombs;  We fight and argue over the freedom of choice;  we are harvest-ing unborn children; because we say we need the stem cells;  We want the freedom to clone human embryos and become like God. What we would do with that technology staggers the mind…We want to rape the earth, regardless of what it does to future generations, as long as I get what I need. We want sex as recreation, and homosexuality as a “lifestyle” removed from the law of creation and marriage. We want to use our money and our blessings as we please without regard for those in need. We don’t want to have to answer to God for any of these things. “It is our world. It is my life. And nobody will tell me what to do.”
More on this Monday.