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THE PARABLE OF THE TENANTS

Question

THE PARABLE OF THE TENANTS

 

Matthew 21:33-46

Key Verse: 21:33

 

    "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 went away on a journey."

 

STUDY QUESTIONS

 

1. Read verses 33-34. How did the landowner prepare his vineyard?  Why

   did he prepare so thoroughly? Who are the tenants? (45,46) If the

   landowner represents God, what does this teach about him? (See also

   Ge 1:1; Jn 1:1-4; Isa 40:11-13.)

 

2. What does the landowner expect of the tenants? What shows that they

   are not the owners, but stewards of the vineyard? What does it mean

   to be stewards of God's world? (Eph 2:10; Ge 1:28)

 

3. Read verses 34-40. When harvest time came and the owner sent his

   servants to get fruit, what happened? (35,36) What does it mean to

   "collect his fruit"? Who do the servants represent? Why did the

   tenants behave in this way?

 

4. Read verses 37-39 again. Why did the owner send his son? What did

   the tenants think and do when they saw the son? Who is the son?

   What does this reveal about sinful mankind? About God?

 

5. Read verses 40-46. What will the owner do? Look at verse 42.  What

   did Jesus teach about the rejected stone? Who is the rejected stone?

   What do these things tell us about God's purpose and work in

   history?

 

 

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Message

THE PARABLE OF THE TENANTS

 

Matthew 21:33-46

Key Verse: 21:33

 

    "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 went away on a journey."

 

     In the last passage we studied the parable of the two sons. The

second son was compared to the chosen people who said "yes" but did not

carry out their mission. As a result, they could not enter the kingdom

of God. Verse 31b says, "Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, the

tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God

ahead of you.'" The first son was compared to the tax collectors and

the prostitutes. They were sinners.  But after hearing the good news of

great joy from Jesus, they repented, beating their chests, and they

were, only by the grace of God, accepted into the kingdom of God. We

learned that when we repent all our sins, our Lord Jesus Christ

forgives our sins and gives us the privilege of inheriting the kingdom

of God. Today's passage, with the title, "The Parable of the Tenants,"

is precisely the extension of the parable of the two sons. Here we

learn who God is and who man is. In short, we learn man's relationship

with God.

 

First, a landowner (33). Look at verse 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 went away on a journey." The phrase at the

beginning of this verse, "Listen to another parable," delineates this

parable as a succession of the parable of the two sons. Jesus was eager

to teach man's relationship with God once more. When we ponder verse 33

carefully we learn that the landowner who planted the vineyard was God.

Here the phrase, "who planted a vineyard," has a deep meaning. Genesis

1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Again, John 1:1-4 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word

was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has

been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men." Isaiah

40:11 says, "He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs

in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those

that have young." This verse describes God's character. He is like a

shepherd. We have seen many pictures of Jesus who takes young sheep in

his arms and carries them close to his heart. I believe everybody has

seen this kind of picture. Maybe many of you have hung this picture of

Jesus on your wall. Isaiah 40:12-13 says, "Who has measured the waters

in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off

the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed

the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who has

understood the mind of the Lord, or instructed him as his counselor?"

In these verses we learn that our God is the Almighty Creator God who

can measure the waters in the hollow of his hand, and who has held the

dust of the earth in a bucket and weighed the mountains on his scales.

Therefore, to acknowledge God's existence is most important for all

humankind. Otherwise, we are nothing but the dust of the ground. We

want to maintain this dust of the ground forever.  But it crumbles, and

the wind blows it away. If we do not believe that God is the Creator of

the heavens and the earth, we become worshipers of a monkey. By

worshiping a monkey, we get nothing except several pieces of bananas.

As long as we believe that God is the Creator of man and the world, we

thank God that he has provided all the necessary things for us and even

gave us a glorious mission to join in his world salvation plan.

 

Second, man is the steward of God's world (33b-34). Verse 33b says,

"Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a

journey." Here, "the vineyard" refers to the world, and "some farmers"

refers to all mankind.  God created the heavens and the earth and all

the good environmentseven paradiseand rented them to mankind so they

might take care of God's world.  Here we learn that God made us for the

purpose of using us as his tenants. The word "tenants" has a bad

connotation these days. But in the Bible, "tenants" is synonymous with

"stewards." God made the world for his own glory and for the utmost

happiness of man when he stewards God's world. The first man, Adam,

gave names to all the fish in the sea and all the trees on the Rocky

Mountains in Colorado. When we review the story of Abraham, the

ancestor of faith, we learn that God made man to be great and to be a

blessing to himself and to others and finally to all peoples of all

nations. If we refuse to be God's stewards, we become godless people

who can do all kinds of evils and become inventors of evils. Praise God

that he made us the stewards of God's world! The phrase, "and went away

on a journey," tells us that God completely entrusted us with the care

of God's world. Actually, men are nothing but clumps of the dust of the

ground and, in them is the life of God. Without stewardship from God we

are indeed miserable. So Psalm 19:1-4a describes the glory of man's

stewardship. It says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies

proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or

language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all

the earth, their words to the ends of the world." When we meditate on

this psalm, we learn that God is God, and that we are stewards of God's

marvelous world. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance

for us to do." Paul is more philosophical. So he clearly told us that

we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,

which God prepared in advance for us to do.

 

     There are many people who want to do God's work. But they are

badly injured and broken by the evil of the world. So whenever they

want to do God's work and whenever they want to carry out God's

mission, their injuries and scars make them feel unbearably painful, so

painful that they forget about doing the work of God. They become

useless. But at the end of Ephesians 2:10 there is the phrase,

"prepared in advance." For example, Moses received palace training and

next, painful wilderness seminary training for 80 years all together.

Finally, he lost the vocabulary to express himself. His mind was

occupied with the words "a political criminal." But God called him to

liberate his 600,000 slave people in Egypt from the hand of Pharaoh.

Moses suffered much through training. But the training itself became

the strength to deliver his people to the promised land. There was a

girl whose mother divorced her father. So in her young age, her heart

was broken. She became sorrowful, so she cried with her older sister

when the day was sunny. She cried with her older sister when the day

was rainy. She cried when she saw a man who looked like her father. But

through one-to-one Bible study her heart was healed. Soon after, she

married a gentle and generous young man. Now she does not cry. Instead,

she is a mother-like shepherd to many children from broken families.

When we accept the Creator God, our misfortune changes into God's

compassion in our hearts.  When we help the same kind of people who

have had the same kind of misfortune, our souls rejoice in the Lord.

Here we learn that God disciplines us in order to use us to bear much

fruit, and that through much training he heals our wounded souls. When

our wounded souls are healed, there is happiness for each of us.

 

     Look at verse 34. "When the harvest time approached, he sent his

     servants to the tenants to collect his fruit." This verse doesn't

mean that God wants to collect rent from his tenants like apartment

owners do. Rather, God wants to see if we are stewarding God's world

and living in a way that can bear fruit. Then, what is fruit? "Fruit"

has deep spiritual meaning. Again, we think about Abraham. When God

came to him and gave him promises, God first said, "You will be great

and you will be a blessing." Through this, we learn that fruit is to

become great in the sight of God and to be a blessing.  To be great in

the sight of God means to mature in God. To be a blessing means we are

great and wealthy enough, both materially and spiritually, to be a

blessing to others. If we do not bear fruit we are totally useless to

Godlike firewood.

 

Third, the illusion of the tenants (34-40). Look at verse 34 again.

"When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants

to collect his fruit." Spiritually speaking, "to collect his fruit"

means God wanted to see that they were doing well. Look at verse 35.

"The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and

stoned a third." It is totally unbelievable that the tenants treated

God's servants in this way. At first, the tenants recognized that they

were God's tenants. But the vineyard grew larger and larger, and the

fruits were more than abundant. Then they forgot the owner, God. They

had the illusion that the vineyard was their own. Their illusion made

them beat one of God's servants and stone another and kill a third.

They made terrible mistakes. This hallucinative illusion can happen to

anybody or any nation. Many Korean missionaries came to America. They

worked hard for God's vineyard. Soon they were blessed. They became

rich and honorable. Then several of them ran away from God's vineyard

to use their wealth all by themselves. When they ran away from God's

mission, God did not bless them. He loved them and wanted them to

repent. One of the medical doctor missionaries was an

anaesthesiologist. He gave too much anaesthesia to a patient. As a

result, the patient died. So he lost his physician's license. Now he is

running a small grocery store. He has to wake up at 4:30 a.m. and

gather merchandise to sell during the daytime. His work finishes at

10:00 p.m. Another was a very proud medical doctor. When he was blessed

by God, he ran away. Then God gave him two retarded sons.  Later he had

a severe car accident and is now totally crippled. He lives on

government aid. A third one was blessed by God while carrying out God's

mission. But he ran away. Now he has insomnia and a stomach ulcer. He

is existing. But his daily work is not medical work but a boxing match

with his wife. Another of them finished his architecture study with

much subsidy from God's institution. As soon as he graduated he ran

away. Then he got kidney cancer and died after two months. Two medical

missionaries are as proud as Herod the Great. They were dismissed from

their hospitals and are intensively looking for jobs. But they have had

no success. One lady was greatly blessed by God when she was doing

God's work. But when she ran away with hallelujah Christians she had a

car accident, and only her head has been alive for the last seven

years.

 

     The illusion of the tenants was indeed stupid and suicidal.

     Nevertheless God sent his own Son, believing that they would

respect his Son.  When the tenants saw the son, they said to each

other, "Aha! He is coming!  This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and

take his inheritance" (38). So they took him and threw him out of the

vineyard and killed him. This is an allegorical illustration of Jesus'

crucifixion on the cross. We must be alert not to fall into the

illusion that we made ourselves or that we made the vineyard with our

own ability, and that the vineyard is our own. This is the generation

in which many people say: "This is my life. My children are mine." But

that's sheer illusion. No one is his own self. He is made by God to

work for the glory of God and to be happy in the course of fulfilling

God's mission. His children are not his own. His children are God's

children, entrusted to him for an appointed time. We must tremble

before our children, realizing that they are God's children entrusted

to us, and so we must be a good example to them and a good influence on

them. Anybody who is recognized as a servant of God by his family

members is a great man in the world. Abraham Lincoln was recognized by

his wife as a man of God, so he became a great man in the United States

of America. There are many irresponsible people who do not care for the

children entrusted to them by God. Newsweek magazine concluded about

the Colorado gun-shooting event, "That happened because their parents

did not care for them." These days many parents enjoy worldly pleasure

after work. They are too tired after enjoying worldly pleasure. So they

cannot take care of their children, even though they really want to. It

is tragic. How can we ignore God's children entrusted to us? How can we

break up our families, abandoning our children like oinking piglets?

We should not repeat this kind of sin anymore in this country.

 

     God's fruits are holiness and gentleness. But during the last

several years, we have had enough headaches because of young kids'

unholiness.  These days we are terrified because of young kids'

violence. Our kids are not studying hard because they are crazy for

dating and gang activities. According to the chemistry of the Bible,

immorality and violence are the beginning point of destruction. We must

pray for our kids to be holy and to be gentle.

 

Fourth, the rejected stone (41-46). Look at verse 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.'" His disciples understood humanly and said, "If he rents

the vineyard to other tenants they will give him his share of the crops

at harvest time. Then it will be okay; it will be no problem." Look at

verse 42. "Jesus said to them, Have you never read in the Scriptures:

"The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has

done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes"?'" This verse describes how

Jesus lamented over those who abandoned God and became godless and

self-centered. Not only so, they made Jesus the rejected stone. They

thought Jesus was not fitting in their blueprint. So they rejected him.

In other words, they crucified Jesus on the cross. But God made the

rejected stone become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is

marvelous in our eyes. Those who live in illusion may reject Jesus and

put him far away. But it doesn't work that way. Look at verse 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." Those who

abandon God cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This is really a crucial

matter to anyone who abandons God. In addition, those who fall on the

rejected stone will be broken to pieces. But he on whom it falls will

be crushed. These days relativistic humanists do not honor God as God.

They will not inherit the kingdom of God. It is not a light matter. If

they are not accepted into the kingdom of God, they go to another

place, where Satan lives.

 

     The chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables and they

ground their teeth until they had to go to the dentist. But they were

afraid of the crowd, so they could not arrest Jesus (45-46).

 

     In today's passage we learn that God created us. God also gave us

the mission to bear much fruit. God also expects us to be great and to

be a blessing.

 

 

 

 

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