Last night at the Living Room Daniel preached on Jesus’ parable of the Wicked Tenants…
Matthew 21:33-45
(NIV)
The Parable of the Tenants
33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’[a]?
43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”[b]
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them.
A lot was covered, if you weren’t there, and if you were, I just want to expand on one thing; what we have in common with the Pharisees. However, feel free to start a discussion on any of the other facets of last night’s worship and discussion. I’d be happy to facilitate that too.
So how are we like the Pharisees? Daniel, I think, is right in noting that the Pharisees have often been made out to be these very “2 dimensional villains” in the Gospels, when really there’s a lot more to them. Yes, they are antagonists of Jesus, but they were staunch defenders of the Jewish faith.
Just so we’re all on the same page here, the vineyard represents the land of Israel, the owner is God, and the tenants are the religious leaders of the people of Israel – the Pharisees.
So these staunch defenders of the faith were extremely wary of any sort of liberal thinking that challenged their status quo. But to stereotype them all as villains might be a little much.
They took God’s word extremely seriously. The Scriptures were reverent and holy. The Law was strictly adhered to a taught. And to see that the Law was help up, they made up certain laws to help keep people focused on God and God’s Law instead of giving in to outside influences.
I like the analogy (to a point) that Daniel made last night, drawing the comparison of the Pharisees to conservative evangelical Christians today.
For good or bad the Pharisees were faithfully guarding what they held to be sacred and true. It’s no wonder that when Jesus came preaching things that blatantly challenged their way, calling it Gospel and fulfillment of the Law, it was controversial!
I’d like for us all to consider the similarities we might share with the Pharisees. You see, Jesus’ biggest problem with the Pharisees wasn’t their faithfulness to serving God’s Law, but it was that in their faithfulness, their hearts became hardened to outsiders, and to those who did not know the Law or were unable to uphold it completely.
Perhaps there are some religious “rule” either we’ve made or perhaps unnecessarily adhere to that we are convinced honour God, but may really be causing us to ignore or reject part of God’s mission.
I would appreciate you to deeply consider this and NOT be like the Pharisees in thinking “But this (whatever it is) is a must! This is non-negotiable! These people (or whatever) are not part of God’s Kingdom.”
Maybe God will speak to you and a open you to a real change of heart for the betterment of your service to him. Remember, you are a servant, and a suffering servant at that. And sometimes admitting a wrong or accepting something new can hurt and cause a bit of suffering through understanding. And I think that’s all part of the journey.
God bless you!
Shalom.
-Jonathan