Luke 20:9-19
The Parable of the Tenants
9He went on to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. 10At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. 12He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.
13"Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.'
14"But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. 'This is the heir,' they said. 'Let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 15So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
"What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others." When the people heard this, they said, "May this never be!"
17Jesus looked directly at them and asked, "Then what is the meaning of that which is written:
" 'The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone'? 18Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."
19The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.
Jesus teaches us in this parable about God who planted and owns our vineyard..The vineyard is His creation...The servants represents the Prophets, Moses, John the Baptist, and His faithful followers...The farmers and tenants are the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, chief priests, and those who reject Him...The Son is Jesus...
The story starts as an Owner planted, grew, and thus created a vineyard...Then He rented it to some farmer tenants...Then He went away for a long time, a very long time...Years later, the Owner sends His servant to the vineyard so the tenants would give Him some of the fruit of the vineyard...But the tenants beat Him and sent him away empty handed...He sent another servant to get fruit, but he too was beaten shamefully and left empty handed... He sent one more servant and they wounded him and threw him out of the vineyard...The Owner thought what shall I do?...I know I will send My Only Son, whom I love and perhaps the tenants and farmers will respect Him...But the tenants saw Him, and said He is an Heir, Let's kill Him, and the vineyard will be ours...So they killed Him and threw Him out of the vineyard...The rest of His servants said may this never be...
Like the tenants there are groups and people who reject the Father...Some people just reject the Son...There are some who reject both the Father and Son...Jesus tells us the two greatest commandments are to love God with all your heart, all your mind, and with all your strength, and with all your soul...Then we are to love our neighbors as ourselves...God gave us earth to treat others fairly and to follow Him...Jesus tells us, we are not always doing that...We must be better and get better...
The tenants were ask to give an account of the fruit of the vine...They were to tell about the glory of God...Instead they were busy with their hectic lives, tending the vineyard, that wasn't even theirs...They thought it was theirs, because they couldn't seem to remember when the True Owner had been around...It had been many years since they heard about Him...They failed to keep up with His ways, and would not pay and were not paying attention to the original Scripture of deed (our Bible)...The Owner deserves a payment of rent, a part of the fruit, that He originally planted...
Just because something happened many, many years ago, does not make it any less true...Just because a fact happened two thousand years ago do, does not mean today, it is still not a fact...If something was true two thousand years ago and did in fact happen, it is still true today...Old facts are just harder for us to grasp and realize...We must remember this...The tenant farmers forgot about this...
Jesus ask the people if they know what the Scripture means that is written in Psalms 118:22, the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone, the cornerstone of the building...This cornerstone is the most important stone in the foundation...
Jesus, the Son was sent last after the Prophets...God hoped all would follow Him...The Chief Priest had built a Temple and following...Now the most important church leader ever had arrived, and He was rejected by the Temple and church leaders...
It is not a new story that the ones who are supposed to be closest to the Father, are not as close as they should be...They reject Him, abandon the most important part of their lives...The very foundation and purpose of life is rejected for a short time for things on earth that were here long before we were and will be here after we leave...What is important is the cornerstone, the Son...We must not reject Him, or His Father...
In the end the stones will fall, time will pass...Even heaven and earth will pass away, but His word will never pass (Matthew 24:35)...God will bring judgement, at the end of days..