God's Vineyard

In Matthew 21:33-41, Jesus tells the story of a man who decided to build a vineyard and start growing grapes. He planted the grape vines then built a hedge around the whole place to keep out sheep and goats and other animals who might destroy the plants. He also built a tower with a hut on top to be able to watch over the vineyard and he dug out an area for a wine press to collect the juice from the grapes.

Once he had it complete he rented the place out to share croppers and left the country. When the time of the year came to collect his share of the crop the owner sent servants to get his share. The renters instead beat up and killed the owner’s servants. So he sent more servants who got the same reception. Finally the owner reasoned they will respect my son and he sent his son to collect his share. The renters schemed that this was the owner’s son and that if they killed him the owner would finally get the message that they weren’t going to pay.

The story ends with the question, what will the Lord of the vineyard do to these men and the answer is he will kill them and rent out his vineyard to other renters who are more righteous. Nice story, but this story isn’t about growing grapes. The vineyard is God’s people (Jews), God is the builder and owner. The renters are the High Priest, chief priests and Pharisees who ruled the Jewish nation. The servants who were killed are the prophets God sent including John the Baptist. The son of course was Jesus Christ. Because the Jewish leaders killed Jesus, God promised he would kill them which occurred (finally) in AD 70. The vineyard/kingdom would then be turned over to faithful men including Gentiles who would act more righteously.

When we eat of the Lord’s Supper every Sunday we recall that God gave up his only born Son for our sakes. Usually when we remember the death of someone we are sorrowful and sad and those are some of the emotions that we should have when we remember Jesus but paradoxically we should also be happy and glad because without God’s sacrificial gift we could not receive the blessings that we have as being God’s sons and daughters. We would be lost and without hope.

Don’t neglect the assembling with other Christians on Sundays to take of the Lord’s Supper… mourn but also rejoice… after all it memorializes God’s great and unspeakable gift to us. To do less would be shameful and insulting.