Thoughts on the End Tmes [12]: The Kingdom Taken Away and Given Away
A second parable Jesus told in the last week of His earthly life elaborates the significance of the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 21.33-46).
Jesus begins with a parable borrowed from Isaiah 5. A man builds a vineyard and a wine-vat protected by a hedge (fence) and a tower. In Isaiah 5 the vineyard owner thought with all his care he would get good grapes, but it only yielded wild (and unusable) grapes. Isaiah asks “What should the vineyard owner do?” He answers his own question: That vineyard (Israel and Judah) who produced bad fruit, will go unprotected and their lands will become a waste.
Jesus’ parable goes in a completely different direction. HIS vineyard owner leases the vineyard to tenants while he vineyard owner goes off on a trip to another country. When it is time to harvest the grapes, the owner sends servants to get the fruit. But the tenants beat, stone, or kill every last servant. The vineyard owner finally sends his own son to get the fruit, saying “They will respect my son” (Matthew 21.37).
But they don’t respect his son. Instead the tenants plot to kill the son and take the inheritance for themselves (Matthew 21.38)!
And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him (Matthew 21.39). (They threw him out of his own vineyard!)
Jesus asks his audience, the chief priests and Pharisees, “When the owner of the vineyard comes back, what do you think he will do to those tenants?” (Matthew 21.40).
They respond indignantly: “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him fruit in the seasons!” (Matthew 21.41)
The problem in Isaiah’s parable was that the vineyard produced bad fruit. In Jesus’ parable the problem isn’t the vineyard, but the tenants (the leaders of the nation) who kill the owner’s servants (the prophets) and finally plot to kill the son (Jesus). Thinking they are serving the owner, they are ironically opposing Him and bringing judgment upon themselves.
Jesus confirms and then interprets thecommon-sense conclusion of the chief priests and Pharisees and pronounces their judgment: The kingdom of God will be taken from YOU and given to A PEOPLE producing its fruits (Matthew 21.43).
Who is the “YOU” from whom the kingdom is taken? The chief priests and Pharisees perceive correctly that it is them (Matthew 21.45). Jesus says the kingdom will be taken from THEM.
But they are the representatives of the nation, i.e. the PEOPLE, and Jesus says the kingdom will be taken from THEM and given to A(NOTHER) PEOPLE, one characterized by the fruits of the kingdom. The kingdom is taken from one people and given to another people. But who is THAT PEOPLE that now inherits the kingdom that national Israel has forfeited?
I find it difficult to resist the conclusion that the political entity – the Jewish NATION – has lost its place as God’s nation. But Jewish unfaithfulness doesn’t destroy God’s faithfulness to His promises (Romans 3.3-4). God can raise up children to Abraham “from these stones”, John the Baptist said, and keep His promises.
And that is what God did.
The next parable told by Jesus we discussed in the last blog. It depicts the judgment of “those murderers” who killed the servants and the Son. It depicts God sending His troops and the burning of their city. Then God invites all, Jew or Gentile, to believe in Jesus and become a part of the Church of Jesus Christ, the Son and Heir of the kingdom promised through the covenants of the Old Testament. And it is in Him that we become joint-heirs of those promises and that kingdom (Romans 8.16-17).
Jesus begins with a parable borrowed from Isaiah 5. A man builds a vineyard and a wine-vat protected by a hedge (fence) and a tower. In Isaiah 5 the vineyard owner thought with all his care he would get good grapes, but it only yielded wild (and unusable) grapes. Isaiah asks “What should the vineyard owner do?” He answers his own question: That vineyard (Israel and Judah) who produced bad fruit, will go unprotected and their lands will become a waste.
Jesus’ parable goes in a completely different direction. HIS vineyard owner leases the vineyard to tenants while he vineyard owner goes off on a trip to another country. When it is time to harvest the grapes, the owner sends servants to get the fruit. But the tenants beat, stone, or kill every last servant. The vineyard owner finally sends his own son to get the fruit, saying “They will respect my son” (Matthew 21.37).
But they don’t respect his son. Instead the tenants plot to kill the son and take the inheritance for themselves (Matthew 21.38)!
And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him (Matthew 21.39). (They threw him out of his own vineyard!)
Jesus asks his audience, the chief priests and Pharisees, “When the owner of the vineyard comes back, what do you think he will do to those tenants?” (Matthew 21.40).
They respond indignantly: “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him fruit in the seasons!” (Matthew 21.41)
The problem in Isaiah’s parable was that the vineyard produced bad fruit. In Jesus’ parable the problem isn’t the vineyard, but the tenants (the leaders of the nation) who kill the owner’s servants (the prophets) and finally plot to kill the son (Jesus). Thinking they are serving the owner, they are ironically opposing Him and bringing judgment upon themselves.
Jesus confirms and then interprets thecommon-sense conclusion of the chief priests and Pharisees and pronounces their judgment: The kingdom of God will be taken from YOU and given to A PEOPLE producing its fruits (Matthew 21.43).
Who is the “YOU” from whom the kingdom is taken? The chief priests and Pharisees perceive correctly that it is them (Matthew 21.45). Jesus says the kingdom will be taken from THEM.
But they are the representatives of the nation, i.e. the PEOPLE, and Jesus says the kingdom will be taken from THEM and given to A(NOTHER) PEOPLE, one characterized by the fruits of the kingdom. The kingdom is taken from one people and given to another people. But who is THAT PEOPLE that now inherits the kingdom that national Israel has forfeited?
I find it difficult to resist the conclusion that the political entity – the Jewish NATION – has lost its place as God’s nation. But Jewish unfaithfulness doesn’t destroy God’s faithfulness to His promises (Romans 3.3-4). God can raise up children to Abraham “from these stones”, John the Baptist said, and keep His promises.
And that is what God did.
The next parable told by Jesus we discussed in the last blog. It depicts the judgment of “those murderers” who killed the servants and the Son. It depicts God sending His troops and the burning of their city. Then God invites all, Jew or Gentile, to believe in Jesus and become a part of the Church of Jesus Christ, the Son and Heir of the kingdom promised through the covenants of the Old Testament. And it is in Him that we become joint-heirs of those promises and that kingdom (Romans 8.16-17).