The scene takes place in the courtyard of the temple, where Jesus is confronted by religious leaders regarding his authority.
Jesus used parables to help his opponents reflect on their attitudes and actions. A parable tells a story in which the speaker attempts to get the audience on his side. Just as they begin to agree with him, he delivers the “punch line” that challenges their viewpoint.
In the first parable, Jesus told a story about two sons. The father wanted them to go to work in a vineyard. One said he’d go, but didn’t, and the other said he wouldn’t go but did.
Then he asked them, which of the sons did the will of the father? Of course, they answered the one who said he wouldn’t go but ended up going.
Then Jesus delivered the “punch line.”
He said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.
“For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him, and even after you saw it you did not change your minds and believe him” (Matthew 21.31-32).
The Pharisees viewed tax collectors and prostitutes as the scum of the earth. However, these undesirables responded to the message that John proclaimed and repented, while the religious authorities opposed John because he wasn’t doing things their way.
The truth of the first Beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5.3), is never more evident in the way the broken respond to Jesus while the religiously proper resist him.
One man said, “Religion is what you do when you want to avoid God.” How true!
The Parable of the Vineyard
The religious authorities would have immediately recognized Jesus’s parable similar to Isaiah 5 when he began to tell the second one.
A landowner planted a vineyard and arranged with tenants to work the farm. When the harvest came, he sent his servants to collect his portion of the income.
Instead of paying him, the tenants beat up and harmed the servants of the landowner. After several unsuccessful attempts to get his share of the profits, he said, “I’ll send my son.”
When they saw that, they said, “This is the heir. Let’s kill him and get the inheritance.”
Jesus posed the question: “What would the owner of the vineyard do?”
They all responded with the expected reply, “He’ll just put those miserable wretches to death and get other tenants to work his farm” (See Matthew 21.33-41).
Jesus quoted from Psalm 118 to confront those who were opposing him.
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?
“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits.
“The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls” (Matthew 21.42-44).
Jesus is like the cornerstone. As the religious authorities reject him, he points out that his life and ministry are the very stone from God that will tie God’s entire project of redeeming the world together.
If we fall on the rock, our willfulness will be broken, and we will become willing to follow the Lord. The alternative is for Him to fall on us in judgment.
Their response could be expected. Those with vested interests in retaining control of their lives rejected Jesus.
The crowd of pilgrims, who had seen Jesus in Galilee and had come with Him to Jerusalem, received Him because they saw Him as God’s long-awaited prophet.
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them.
They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet (Matthew 21.45-46).
The question for us is one of willingness and willfulness. Am I willing to let the Lord guide my life and be the rightful King of my life, or am I willful and resist Him in His attempts to guide me?
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross and I discussed this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 