Seeds for 12/18/2023 - Matthew 21:33-46
Scripture: “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. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
“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.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
“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.”
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’?
“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. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew He was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest Him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that He was a prophet.
Observation: “[T]hey knew He was talking about them.”
What an indictment.
Jesus’ parable is about as pointed as can be. The landowner is God the Father. The vineyard is Israel—the covenant people of God. The tenants are the leaders of the people. The owner’s servants are the prophets, sent to represent God to the leaders, to speak for Him, and to call them to account. Finally, the son is Jesus, of course, who is the final messenger from the Father. He calls the tenants/leaders to account, not only for their lack of faithfulness in stewarding the land but also their treatment of the owner’s servants.
Conviction is no fun, but it is a vital catalyst. Without conviction, we fail to recognize when we’ve done wrong. Yet there’s still the matter of how we respond. Sometimes we lash out defensively, like an animal cornered. Sometimes we cower, wallowing in shame. Sometimes we ignore, deny, misdirect. Sometimes we shoot the messenger. None of these move us forward however. Only confession in humility (which is different than shame) will do the trick.
The religious leaders in Jesus’ audience recognized they were on the receiving end of Jesus’ fierce critique. At that moment they had a choice. They could consider whether the parable might be true. They could choose a change of heart.
“They knew He was talking about them.” They could choose.
Application:
What ways of responding to conviction have you observed in people?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, keep my heart soft before you. When I need to, may I receive conviction humbly and turn to you. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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