The climax of the story and its application: V. 13. Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; it may be they will reverence him when they see him.
V. 14. But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. V. 15. So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them? V. 16. He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others.
And when they heard it, they said, God forbid!
V. 17. And He beheld them and said, What is this, then, that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? V. 18. Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
The patience of the master of the vineyard is brought out with remarkable power. He deliberates upon the situation with himself, finally concluding to send his only, his beloved son. Surely the vine-dressers would not be so lacking in all qualities of decency and honorable dealing as to show disrespect and reverence for the son of the owner, whose authority stood second to that of his father: I should think that without doubt they will reverence him.
But his kindness had not reckoned with the utter depravity of the wicked husbandmen. For, seeing the son coming, the renters immediately held a consultation, with the result that they determined to kill the heir and to put themselves into possession of the property. And, acting upon this heinous plan, they took the son, cast him out of the vineyard, and put him to death.
The explanation of the parable must have been evident to the leaders of the Jews at once. The owner of the vineyard is God. The vineyard, as Isaiah says in his song, is the kingdom of God, which He had planted in the midst of His people, the children of Israel. God had made Israel His people by the covenant of Mount Sinai. And His people had lacked nothing under His fatherly care. He had planted the hedge of His Law around them, He had given them the tower of the kingdom of David, and the wine of the Word of God flowed in streams of unchanging richness.
But the great benefits which God showered upon His people were not repaid by them in kind. The vinedressers are the individual members of the Jewish congregation, especially the leaders of the nation. When God sent them His servants, the prophets, expecting from them the fruit, the obedience they owed Him, these servants were treated with contempt and every form of hatred. They were despised, derided, mistreated, and even put to death, 2 Kings 17, 13. 14; 2 Chron. 36, 15. 16. Isaiah, Amos, Micah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, the son of Jehoiadah, and others were obliged to feel the murderous hatred of the Jews, Heb. 11, 36; Acts 7, 52.
When all other means had failed, God sent His only-begotten Son. But against Him their enmity rose to heights hitherto untouched. They held councils against Him to kill Him. They did not want Him to rule over their nation as the King of grace and mercy. The Jewish leaders wanted to rule the people in their own selfish way, for their own sinful gain. And so the murder of Christ was the climax of their wickedness.
Instead of ending the parable in the usual narrative style, Jesus, for the sake of emphasis, put the direct question to His hearers as to what the owner of the vineyard would do to those wicked vine-dressers. And He answered Himself, saying that he would come and destroy those husbandmen, and give the vineyard to others.
This answer was echoed by some of the bystanders, though the chief priests and scribes felt that the parable was spoken for them. Some of them, therefore, called out in apparent horror: Let it not be done! Since the Jews rejected Christ and His Gospel, the Lord carried out His judgment against them by taking from them the proclamation of His love and giving it to the heathen, many of whom heeded His call and brought forth fruits meet for the kingdom of God. Undisturbed by their shocked objection, therefore, Jesus fixed His eyes upon the Jews and reminded them of the words of the prophet, in the very Hallel Psalm which they sang with so much show of sincerity on their great festivals, Ps. 118, 22. The chosen people rejected the Chosen Stone, and were. therefore rejected by God. Christ is the Corner-stone of His Church, Eph. 2, 20. By faith in His atonement there is salvation for both Jew and Gentile.
But everyone that rejects the salvation through His blood must take the bitter consequences which he thus brings upon himself. It is a peculiar, a paradox judgment that falls upon the opponents of the Gospel. Foolish, mentally deranged, and spiritually blind people they are that want to run their heads, with the product of man's wisdom, against the rock of the eternal Wisdom of God. Instead of making so much as a dent in the Rock of Ages, they find themselves staggering back with badly battered heads. And their rejection, in turn, reacts upon them, for the Stone falls on them with crushing judicial effect. They have their sentence of condemnation even here in time. And they will find out, in a dreadful eternity, what it means to reject the mercy of God.
These solemn words of warning may well be brought to the attention of many people in our days that think the world has outgrown the old Gospel of salvation through the redemption of the blood of Jesus.