Parable of the Tenants Luke 20:9-19

I am grateful for all those who are involved in the music, whether making the slides or checking the slides, and also singing and playing the musical instruments. I think they all contribute to the church experiencing the presence of God in the word and the songs.

And I think that's the reason why we gather here this morning. If it weren't for the presence of God, it would be just a religious ritual. Please turn with me to Luke chapter 20, verses nine through 19.

The Parable of the Tenants in Luke 20

Luke chapter 20, verses nine through 19. Then he began to tell the people this parable. A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time. Now at vintage time, he sent a servant to the vinedressers that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.

But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again, he sent another servant, and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And again, he sent a third, and they wounded him and cast him out.

Then the owner of the vineyard said, what shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him. But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, this is the heir.

Come, let us kill him, and that the inheritance may be ours. So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Therefore, what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others.

And when they heard it, they said, certainly not. Then he looked at them and said, what then is this that is written? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Whoever falls on that stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.

And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on him, but they feared the people, for they knew he had spoken this parable against them. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray.

Father, we're grateful that we can gather here to worship you. We're grateful that your son, Jesus, is the only hope and only source of redemption that we have. And Father, we pray that we would respond to him in faith, that we would not reject him, but believe him, trust him, and rely on him and depend on him for everything.

Please continue to protect this country, as it seems there are many things going wrong. We pray that you would continue to protect President Trump, as you did last week, and that you would protect President Biden and even RFK Jr. too.

May there be no political violence in this country. Father, we also pray that you would keep us safe, keep us secure in Christ, help us to always gaze our eyes on Christ no matter what's happening, and find our stability and security ultimately only in Christ, despite the circumstances.

In Jesus' name. This passage, this parable, follows the first challenge that the religious establishment brought upon Jesus. Now, it is Jesus' turn to go on the offensive. Instead of just openly rebuking the scribes and chief priests for rejecting him outright, Jesus tells a parable.

A parable is an allegorical story in which characters and concepts map onto people and things in real life. And when we're reading the parable, we don't get to choose what each portion of the parable maps onto, right?

The vineyard means specifically Israel. It can't mean something else. The owner is God. It can't mean someone else, right? We don't get to choose that. We have to go by what the author intended the parable to be, or else the meaning is just completely lost.

A parable is helpful because it paints the truth more vividly and strikingly. Oftentimes, a parable has some absurdities, and the reason is because it drives the point home really well. And there are parts, absurd parts in this parable because sometimes people need to have that shocking factor for the truth to hit them, right?

This parable shows, despite God's abundant mercy and patience, the religious leaders have absurdly rejected him when they rejected his son. This parable really paints well what God has done for Israel and Israel's leaders all throughout the Old Testament.

How merciful he is, how gracious he is. Yet, the leaders have chosen to reject the ultimate messenger from God, Jesus, his own son. And why this is important is the religious leaders have no excuse. This parable shows how merciful God has been.

It's not just that he's merciful as the moment you turn to the New Testament, right? The moment you turn to Matthew 1, wow, we finally get to see God's mercy. That's not at all true. In fact, God has been merciful to Israel and the leaders of Israel all throughout the Old Testament.

And for anyone to falsely claim that God of the Old Testament is that of wrath and that God of the New Testament is that of love, they haven't opened the Bible. God of the Old Testament is just as merciful and gracious as the same God of the New Testament who came down to die for his people.

That's quite important. And this parable shows that, how patient the owner of the vineyard is in sending his servants over and over and over again. And lastly, to send his son. In hopes that the vinedressers would actually respond in faith.

And for us, without having to be scribes and Pharisees and chief priests, this parable is important because it shows that God's son, Jesus Christ, is the only and final offer of salvation and reconciliation with God.

Just as it was important for the vinedressers to respond to the owner's son, how we respond to Jesus this morning determines our whole lives. It determines our eternity. And that's why this parable, that's how this parable applies to us this morning.

So the main point of this text is, although God has been profusely patient, those who reject his son will be utterly destroyed. Although God has been profusely patient, those who reject his son will be utterly destroyed.

God's Patient Warning Through the Prophets

First, despite God's abundant patience, those who reject his redemption in his son will face his ultimate judgment. Despite God's abundant patience, those who reject his redemption in his son will face his ultimate judgment.

Now, Jesus, after beating the religious leaders in their own game, he begins to tell a parable. Now it is Jesus' turn. A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time.

Verse nine sets the context of this parable. Remember, a parable uses the common items or common concepts to represent what's real. And there are many characters and components that we need to unpack here and to map onto what's real.

First, the owner of the vineyard is God. It's God the Father. He is the one who establishes and provides for the vineyard. And here, the vineyard represents Israel, the nation of Israel, the Old Covenant people.

And this has a deep connection to Isaiah 5, one through seven, which was read to us this morning by Jim. Isaiah 5 shows God, he's the beloved, and he does everything possible for the vineyard, for Israel.

He digs, he clears out the stones, right? The soil is cleared of any stones that could prevent the grapes from fruiting. And he builds watchtowers, right? Now he builds watchtowers, which would mean that he can protect the vineyard from any other foreign enemies, outsiders.

And he puts hedges around, right, fences. Whether provision or protection, God did not skimp. Rather, he lavished. Whether provision or protection, Israel liked none, right? If there is no fruit, it wouldn't be because, well, God missed that part.

That's not at all. God did everything possible for Israel to bear fruit. And of course, in verse seven of Isaiah 5, the fruit is the right response to God, right? He looked for righteousness but oppression, right?

They were supposed to respond to God. As God's people, they were supposed to bear fruit in their faithful living in response to God. The vinedressers, they are the tenants who work in the vineyard, right?

They take care of the grapes. They do not own the vineyard, but they are tasked to take care of the vineyard. And the vinedressers are the stewards. They represent the religious leaders of Israel. And we can see that at the end of this passage in which the scribes and the chief priests are, they're personally offended upon hearing the parable.

They know it's about them. Now, because the owner has gone far, there's sufficient time for the vineyard to produce fruit. Hence, the owner sends a servant to retrieve some. Verse 10, now at vintage time, he sent a servant to the vinedressers that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.

Vintage time means after a long time, right? After a long time. The fruit in the parable, of course, maps onto the faithful and ethical response of God's people, just like Isaiah 5. God's people, who have been tremendously blessed by the compassionate and holy God, must represent and reflect his character.

Really, that is the whole point of the nation of Israel in the Old Covenant. They are to live in a holy way, obeying the law in faith, to show that there is this type of God in all of the world who is none like others, and he cares for the weak, he cares for the widows, and there's righteousness in the land.

That's what Israel was supposed to be. They were supposed to spotlight the holiness and mercy of Yahweh through their faithful living. Now, the servant here would represent the prophets. When you read the Old Testament, God constantly sent his prophets.

Prophets are basically the mouthpieces of God. They speak on behalf of God. That's why they say, thus says the Lord. They're not sending their own messages. They are, directly speaking, for God. And as his mouthpieces, they are to exhort and warn his people to conform to his will.

A lot of the prophecies, especially in Isaiah, look forward to the future of what God will do. New heaven and new earth, the millennial reign. However, many of the prophets were speaking to the current audience of their time.

As a warning.

You must return to the Lord, repent, or you will face judgment. In fact, I think a Presbyterian theologian, R .C. Sproul, he calls the prophets the covenant prosecutors.

Right?

They bring up charges against God's people for failing to obey the covenant, the law. The owner, who has been gone for a long time, here in the parable, expects the vineyard to produce some fruit. And from the last half of verse 10 to verse 12, we see how the vinedressers treat the owner's servants, the prophets.

And this is what happens to the first servant. But the vinedressers beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed, despite the owner having every right to receive just some of the fruit. He's just asking for the sum of the fruit, not just all of the fruit, just some of it.

The tenants barbarically beat the owner's messengers and send him back without any fruit. It sounds absurd. It would be like if you rent an apartment, you just don't pay any rent, and if the property manager comes to collect your rent, you start beating him.

Right?

That's just felony.

Right?

That's unthinkable. But the absurdity is precisely the point. It shockingly shows the absurdity of how Israel, in the Old Testament, has treated God's messengers. Rather, Israel's leaders, how they have rejected God's messengers.

Rather than listening to the prophets' warning and obeying God's law, they often mocked, beat, and killed God's prophets, and especially the leadership, because they have the authority. Now, this does not just happen once, but it repeats for two more servants.

And each subsequent servant receives harsher treatment than the first. For example, they beat the second servant and shame him before sending him back, as you guessed it, empty-handed.

Right?

They're not bringing any fruits. And shame in this culture is quite important because ancient Israel, and probably even current Israel, is more of a shame-based culture. There's a lot of pressure in being ashamed.

Right?

Now, verse 12. The third servant says that he's beaten to a pulp. It says he's wounded. That's what verse 12 says. This is the similar scenario as the poor man who is attacked by the bandits in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

He's beaten to a pulp, where he can't really help himself.

Right?

Ironically, the servant is not beaten by bandits, but the very tenants who are supposed to give back to the owner.

Right?

The servants are not beaten by outsiders who want to take something from the servants. They're beaten by the insiders on the same side. And the increasingly degrading treatments that these servants receive show the degeneration of Israel's response to God's prophets in the Old Testament.

Israel's treatment toward God's servants worsened over time. And really, one of the last prophets before Jesus, John the Baptist, the scribes and Pharisees didn't bat an eye. He speaks against the wicked King Herod for marrying his sister-in-law.

That's against the law. And the very people who are supposed to be devoted and driven to protect the law, the chief priests and the Pharisees, they don't speak up for John the Baptist. And ultimately, when John the Baptist is beheaded because of Herod's foolish, really, vow, no one complains, no protests.

Right?

God's people's leaders have degenerated so much that they don't really care for what God has to say. On the other hand, the series of these servants also shows God's abundant patience. God did not just send one servant.

He sent many. He consistently and compassionately urged them to respond in faith.

Right?

The part of the Old Testament that most people don't really look to really are the prophets. But when you do turn to them, you'd be shocked how patient and merciful God is to his idolatrous people. And I intend to preach from one of the minor prophets after Luke so that we get a different flavor of the Bible.

The Beloved Son, the Messiah, and the Rejected Heir

Now, verse 13 shows the owner's final response. Then the owner of the vineyard said, what shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him. The owner hopes that the tenants would properly respond if he sends his own son.

Perhaps they will treat the son with the proper respect that is due when the owner sends someone higher than a servant. Maybe the delegate needed to be of a higher rank. And maybe that's when the vinedressers would listen.

The owner's beloved son is, of course, Jesus Christ. Remember, this phrase beloved son is what God the Father said to Jesus during his baptism. And also on the mountain of transfiguration. Jesus is the beloved son.

He is the son, the one and only unique son who represents his father completely. And here, Jesus is the final opportunity and offer from God for his people to respond. Because there are no servants greater than the son.

And at one level, this parable answers the questions that the religious leaders posed last week, or two weeks ago, rather. By what authority are you doing these? Who gave you this authority? The parable makes it clear.

The beloved son is sent by the owner. The beloved son is sent by God. The son is the owner's final offer of reconciliation. How they respond to the son is the last chance they're gonna get. Now, verses 14 through 15 reveal the most ridiculous response of all.

But when the vinedressers saw him, the son, they reasoned among themselves, saying,.

This is the heir.

Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. Their perverse logic is that if the owner loses his son, he will have to let the tenants continue living in the vineyard. Because there's no heir to the vineyard anymore if the son's gone.

If there's no heir to the vineyard, then the status quo will do. Just keep the vinedressers there, why not? I mean, it's gonna go wild. You'll get weeds and thorns and briars if you leave it alone. Let's just keep the vinedressers there.

Now the son can inherit it. That's their mindset. The absurdity of their thought is precisely the point of the parable. These tenants are so morally crooked that their minds are so warped to believe that this would be the case.

That if you kill the beloved son of the owner, that the owner would just outright give them the vineyard. And this is not about intellectual deficiency, but it's about moral perversity. It's a moral issue rather than an IQ issue.

They're so wicked deep inside that they see the owner's show of mercy as something to presume upon and defile. Now the tenant's absurdity to murder the son maps onto the religious ruler's desire to kill the Messiah.

God sends his one and only son to Israel, the promised Messiah, the promised Davidic King, so that they may respond in faith if the religious leaders want to kill him. The promised Davidic King has come to restore Israel.

Remember, the Pharisees, they didn't really like Herod. They didn't like Rome. They were devoted to Scripture, the whole of the Old Testament. They looked forward to the coming of the king, and now the king is here, yet the people in power want to reject him.

The Pharisees and the chief priests and the elders, they didn't reject Christ because they didn't know that it was Christ. Let me tell you, even as early as Matthew 2, the scribes and the chief priests knew where the Christ was to be born.

When the wise men came, they knew that it was supposed to be Bethlehem, yet it's the foreign wise men who go worship the king, while the scribes and the Pharisees and chief priests, they stay in the comfort of Jerusalem.

Verse 15 shows that the wicked tenants followed through on their evil plan, so they cast the son out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? Casting the son out of the vineyard would be, to ironically, to keep the vineyard ritualistically clean.

Remember, shedding blood inside the vineyard would make the vineyard unclean. Death makes things unclean, according to the law. They have no problem morally defiling themselves by murdering an innocent man, but the vineyard has to stay ceremonially clean during that process.

Now, some believe that this may foreshadow Jesus dying outside of Jerusalem. I do agree that this foreshadows Jesus dying at the hands of the religious leaders. However, it is hard to confirm that it is supposed to be outside of Jerusalem, since a vineyard does not represent just Jerusalem, but Israel as a whole.

And we can't code switch here, right? We can't just say vineyard's Israel, but now it's Jerusalem. That's hermeneutically unsound, right? Call that hermeneutic gymnastics. The parable ends with a rhetorical question.

What will the owner do to them? And Jesus answers, he will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others. The tenants will be removed and the vineyard will be given to others. The blessing of the vineyard, the blessing and the divine status, really, of being God's people will no longer be under the leadership of Israel, the chief priests and the Pharisees.

Here, the others means anyone who responds to the son faithfully, the disciples, the apostles, and ultimately, even to the Gentiles. By responding to the son faithfully, the Gentiles, for the first time, can, in droves, be under the rightful king, Yahweh.

Now, remember Israel's history. Over and over again, God graciously sent his prophets faithfully, prophets to faithfully respond to him. Yet, the hard-hearted people rejected them. The fact that God continued to pursue these rebels despite so many rejections, it shows us how patient God is.

In the Old Testament, that's how God reveals himself. He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger. Or long-suffering, abounding in steadfast love and truth. I like the phrase long-suffering because he suffers much.

Whenever we offend him, whenever we sin, he's the offended party. And he's not short-suffering so that he gets up from his throne and then strikes us dead. But there's long-suffering. He suffers a long time.

And I like this phrase because it does illustrate his patience well. Oftentimes, people say God is the God of second chances, and I think that's a huge understatement. He has given his people countless chances to repent and believe.

If God is only the God of the second chances, we're all doomed. I've blown my second chance a long time ago. In fact, the bulk of the Old Testament are written by or written about the prophets whom God has sent to warn his covenant people over millennia.

That's grace. That's patience. However, God's patience is not something we can presume upon. This parable foreshadowed Jesus' death. After millennia of rejections, God sent his ultimate representative, not just another servant, but his very son, not just another redeemer, but the ultimate redeemer, not just another way of living, but the only path to life, the author of life himself.

And when he came to his people to save, they rejected him. When he came to reconcile his people to God, they crucified him just as the tenants killed the owner's only son. The plot twist, of course, is that the son's death, unlike the parable, was the very means by which God brought life to his people, to those who receive him.

It is through the son's rejection that anyone who responds to the son will be received none other than God himself. The son's death provided forgiveness and restoration for many more. Now, what does rejecting God's redemptive plan entail?

Those who reject the son will experience a devastating judgment. Those who reject the son will experience a devastating judgment. To Jesus' punchline of the parable, the crowd replies, and when they heard it, they said, certainly not.

Some of you might have, your translation might have, by no means. It's one of the strongest way of saying that is impossible, right? By no means, certainly not. May it never be, you know, those are all great way of saying, that parable's unthinkable.

How could, how could the religious establishment be removed by God? They're the cream of the crop of God's people. By no means. Why would the owner drive them out? Now, how does Jesus respond to their incredulity?

Verse 17, then he looked at them and said, what then is this that is written? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is from Psalm 118, 22. Psalm 118, verse 22. Remember how Jesus was tied to Psalm 118 before.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he is the king who came in the name of the Lord. Right, Psalm 118 there again, and that was right before this, Luke 19, 38. And in the context of Psalm 118, the Davidic king comes to restore Israel.

The Messiah comes to restore Israel. However, before he comes, he is rejected. He's called the rejected stone. The builders who reject the stone, of course, are the religious leaders. Yet despite their rejection, God makes him the chief cornerstone.

The chief cornerstone would bear, it's the special stone in a building, and it bears the weight of the two intersecting walls. And you can see that if you remove the chief cornerstone, the building cannot stand without it.

The whole building would collapse. So despite being rejected by the leaders, God will exalt the messianic king as the most foundational stone of God's building. This means anyone who rejects the king in the end is rejecting God.

Now what awaits for those who reject the stone? Verse 18, whoever falls on that stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. There is no way to escape the stone's judgment after rejecting him.

Whether you fall on it or the stone falls on you, the end is the same, a total destruction. Any encounter with Christ after rejecting him will be devastating for all. Now how do the intended audience respond?

And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on him, but they feared the people, for they knew he had spoken this parable against them. The parable stung the religious leaders.

They knew they were the wicked vinedressers who kept back the fruit to the rightful owner and in the end killed the owner's son. Ultimately, just as the parable said, they have rejected the son. And just as the parable said, they will kill the son because they foolishly, perversely believe that God's blessing can come to them without the son.

They wanted that status of being the leaders of God's people hold that authority and power by rejecting the son. That's just as foolish as the tenants. And those who reject Christ will not just get a slap on the wrist or a fine.

For some reason, a lot of people feel sorry for the scribes and Pharisees and the chief priests as if they rejected Jesus out of ignorance, as if they rejected Jesus just because they couldn't quite understand.

They're just a little dull. That's not true. They were the intellectual prowess of that time. They were the Ivy League graduates. They knew scripture better than anybody else. Not only that, they witnessed the powerful works of Jesus Christ and his teaching.

And Jesus spells out for us what to expect for those who reject the son. A crushing defeat and total destruction. Hell is not just for the worst of the worst. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, just name them. Hell is a place of eternal torment for anyone who rejects God's only son, Jesus Christ.

And the most important question that we all need to ask this morning is how will you respond to God's only son? Everyone, whether rich or poor, powerful or weak, president or homeless, Christian or Satanist will one day stand before Christ.

That's a guaranteed interview date. And the first question you will be asked when you die is how did you respond to God's only son? That's it. That's the first question. And that's guaranteed. And on that day, if you have rejected Jesus on earth, you will have the scariest meeting with the judge himself, whom you have rejected all your life.

In the end, how you respond to Jesus now determines your eternal state. Because Jesus is the judge. This means no one will escape the chief cornerstone. And that's why it makes sense. Whether it falls on you or you fall on it, if you have rejected him, the end is the same.

You're pulverized. You can't bribe him, you can't flatter him. He will judge you based upon how you responded to him on earth. The judge determines the fate of the defendant and everyone stands guilty before the judge.

Now what's our hope? The hope is the judge is also the savior. The judge determines how the guilty is justified. What does the judge require of you? Well, the judge requires you to respond in faith. You must trust that Jesus died for your sin, all of your sin, suffered the wrath, the punishment that you deserved, and he rose from the dead.

And at that moment, you will be justified. Justified means that God will declare you innocent, not guilty, the moment you receive Jesus' gracious offer of salvation. Because all of your sin and its record have been placed on Christ on the cross.

Justification is by faith alone. For God to account any other sin after you have believed in Jesus would make him an unjust judge because that's been paid for. The judge came down from heaven and took on the punishment for the defendants on the cross.

And on the day you see Jesus, whether you die or he comes back, if you reject Christ now, all your guilt and sin will still rest on your shoulders and you will be crushed. You will have to bear the full force of God's holy wrath and justice for all eternity.

I can't fathom what that would be like. And ultimately, it's not a specific sin that you have to avoid. Ultimately, it is a specific person you need to receive. Oftentimes, people justify themselves. Well, I didn't murder anyone.

Well, I don't steal. In the end, that's their way of justifying themselves. You mean you get to set the standard of righteousness and God has to follow that? However, if you trust Jesus, then your sin has been all paid for by the judge himself.

He was crushed on your behalf so that you wouldn't be crushed by his judgment. He faced death for your sin so that you would have life in him. The only way to avoid being crushed by the cornerstone is to respond in faith to this cornerstone, the son of God, Jesus Christ, who died for your sin so that you may live.

The religious leaders, many of them did not respond in faith. Some of them did. Let's not just group all of them as all wicked. Some of them were faithful. But this morning, we have a clearer picture.

We actually get to see that the religious leaders of Israel are no longer serving. There are no chief priests. There's no temple. When's the last time you ran into the Pharisees? Not metaphorically, but literal Pharisees.

They've been removed because they rejected Christ. Whether you're a Jew, right, part of God's people, or a Gentile, the most important response is how are you going to respond to the owner's son. That's the only way of receiving his divine blessing.

That's the only way of avoiding his divine wrath. Let us pray. Father, we're grateful that you do provide a way out of the judgment that we all deserved, that you've given so many chances, and yet you still gave the ultimate source of redemption, your son, Jesus Christ.

Help us to not presume on his grace and patience. Help us to respond urgently. Help us to respond clearly. Help us to respond faithfully. Help us to delight in him this morning. Help us to see the weight of sin that he bore for us and the suffering he suffered for our sake, and help us to celebrate that he's risen.

May Jesus Christ's sacrifice not be a mere concept to intellectually think about, but may Jesus be a person whom we faithfully receive and enjoy. Help us to experience his presence this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.