Reflective Bible Study

As we continue looking at connections between the Old Testament and Jesus’ ministry, and before moving forward to prophecies focused on the resurrection and beyond, I thought it would be worthwhile to step back and look at a fascinating parable Jesus shared that is connected with a prophecy found in the Old Testament.

However, while pausing our journey through Jesus’ death and resurrection to focus on this parable mght seem a little strange, hinted at in the conclusion of this parable are connections and foreshadowing of the resurrection. Also tucked within this parable was foreshadowing of Jesus’ death.

With this as our foundation, let’s read this Old Testament prophecy-illustration and discover what we can learn from how Jesus takes this idea and incorporates it into His teaching. Our passage and prophecy is found in the book of Isaiah, chapter 5, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 1, Isaiah writes:

¹ Let me sing now for my well-beloved
A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
² He dug it all around, removed its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
And He built a tower in the middle of it
And also hewed out a wine vat in it;
Then He expected it to produce good grapes,
But it produced only worthless ones.

³ “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge between Me and My vineyard.
⁴ “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?
⁵ “So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed;
I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.
⁶ “I will lay it waste;
It will not be pruned or hoed,
But briars and thorns will come up.
I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.”

⁷ For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel
And the men of Judah His delightful plant.
Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.

In this ominous illustration found in Isaiah’s writing, we see God giving His nation every possible advantage, hoping that all the attention and blessings given to them would result in a positive outcome. However, what happened instead was the opposite.

Through what would easily be a very unpopular message, God predicts the rejection of a people who He gave every advantage and blessing.

Moving forward to the New Testament, nearing the weekend He would be crucified, Jesus had the opportunity to share an illustration that also touches on the theme of a vineyard. In Matthew’s gospel, chapter 21, starting in verse 33, Matthew records Jesus teaching those present by saying:

³³ “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. ³⁴ When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. ³⁵ The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. ³⁶ Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. ³⁷ But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ ³⁹ 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 vine-growers?” ⁴¹ They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”

Let’s stop reading here and save the rest of this event for our next episode.

I suspect that some of you, when reading Jesus’ parable about the vineyard, will easily see the connection between it and the illustration that Isaiah shared. While there are clear differences, such as the focus of Isaiah’s parable being on the grapes the vineyard produced while Jesus’ parable focused on the evil hired tenants, the gist of both these parables is on how every opportunity and advantage was provided to those involved in this vineyard. Even with everything blessing and advantage being given to the grapes and the tenants, the ultimate result was not positive.

One thing I find amazing about this parable is that with the way Jesus frames the question He ends with, it implicates those who are listening to Him. While we will focus more on this point in our next episode, it is worth pointing out that Jesus asks the question about what the vineyard owner would do, and according to Matthew’s gospel, it is those listening to Jesus who respond that the vineyard owner would deal harshly with them.

It is also amazing to point out the interesting irony that in this illustration, Jesus clearly predicts His own death at the hands of the religious leaders. While this detail is often only briefly touched on, it is amazing in my mind that if the religious leaders wanted to avoid playing into Jesus’ prophetic hand, they would have taken Jesus’ words in this parable to heart, and simply rejected Him rather than plotted for His death.

I suspect that these leaders simply did not care if something Jesus predicted would ultimately come to pass, at least at that time, because they had already written Him off as not fitting their understanding of Messianic prophecies. One could make the case that one reason Jesus died was because the religious leaders were too focused on only one way of understanding the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. An equally valid similar idea is that Jesus died because the religious leaders focused more heavily on prophecies that sounded good, while discounting prophecies that pointed towards a suffering and crucified Messiah.

However, if we take a step back and learn the lessons that the past teaches us, we can avoid making the same mistakes that those in the past made. In the case of the vineyard, we can be better than the bitter grapes that were produced by valuing the blessings God has given to us. While sometimes God’s blessings come through trials, we can know and trust that everything God allows into our lives has a purpose, and that God’s ultimate purpose is saving us for eternity.

Also, in the case of the evil tenants, we can learn from their mistake by returning to God His portion of the things He has blessed us with. While the parable ends before the actual judgment has taken place, if we are left to conclude the parable the way the crowd’s suggestion goes, then the tenants who were given every opportunity ultimately lose everything. These tenants owned nothing to begin with while they thought they could claim everything as their own, and because of this attitude, they ultimately lose more than they had to begin with.

It is the same way with each of us. We have been blessed with more than we deserve through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. We began with nothing, and were given everything. While we have the temptation to discount Jesus’ gift to us, and claim we can earn 100% of salvation on our own, if we go down this road, we will ultimately lose out on everything.

The way out of this trap is to continually acknowledge God’s blessings in our hearts, minds, and lives, and to live with an open hand towards God, allowing Him to loan things to us and being willing to return the things He has loaned when He asks. Living with a gracious, generous, open hand towards God is the way to avoid falling in the trap of the evil tenants, and it is also the way to produce a great harvest of fruit in our lives – a harvest of spiritual fruit that reflects God’s character and love.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open these challenges by saying in one way or another, intentionally seek God first, in your life and choose to live in a gracious, generous way towards God for all the ways He has blessed you with.

Continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God, and purposefully orient your life towards growing closer to Him.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue our journey through Luke’s gospel, we come to Jesus’ final week leading up to the cross. For our time together, we will fast-forward past Jesus’ triumphal entry and jump into an event Luke tells us happened during this week, probably early on in this week. While Luke doesn’t give us any hint regarding what day this happened, I suspect it may have been the Monday or Tuesday of that week.

Also worth mentioning before reading the passage we will focus in on is that earlier, most likely the day before, Jesus had thrown out the money changers and upset the commerce that was happening in the temple courtyard.

While it is not any stretch to imagine the first part of our passage to be a direct response to Jesus throwing the money changers out of the temple, when we read what happened together, let’s look past what might have happened earlier and focus on what we can discover from the passage itself.

Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 20, and we will read from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us:

¹ One day when Jesus was in the Temple teaching the people and preaching the Good News, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law, together with the elders, came ² and said to him, “Tell us, what right do you have to do these things? Who gave you such right?”

³ Jesus answered them, “Now let me ask you a question. Tell me, ⁴ did John’s right to baptize come from God or from human beings?”

⁵ They started to argue among themselves, “What shall we say? If we say, ‘From God,’ he will say, ‘Why, then, did you not believe John?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘From human beings,’ this whole crowd here will stone us, because they are convinced that John was a prophet.” ⁷ So they answered, “We don’t know where it came from.”

⁸ And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you, then, by what right I do these things.”

Let’s pause reading for a moment, because I want to draw our attention onto a powerful idea present in this brief exchange. When the religious leaders ask Jesus what right He has to do what He is doing, while it is tempting to think they are referencing what Jesus had done in the temple when He kicked out the money changers a day earlier, part of me wonders if they are challenging Him on what He was doing at that present moment.

At that moment, Luke has set the stage by telling us Jesus was teaching and preaching the crowds and sharing the good news with them. With this context, I can see the challenge directed at Jesus as who gave Him the right or authority to preach God’s Word or to share God’s message with the world.

I suspect they were fishing for a way to discredit Jesus’ ministry. If Jesus said a specific human, or a specific Rabbi, they could discredit Him because of something in that rabbi or teacher’s life. If Jesus told them that God had given Him the authority, then they could accuse Him of presuming too much, and Jesus would have subtly directed focus onto Himself. Jesus wanted to keep the focus on God the Father and Jesus wanted to direct all the glory to Him.

In Jesus’ simple counter question, we discover that Jesus preferred this question remaining unanswered.

Answering this question would not help Jesus’ mission and ministry in any way, and it wouldn’t have brought God glory, so Jesus counters it with a question that the religious leaders were unwilling to conclusively decide.

However, Jesus isn’t finished pushing these religious leaders. Continuing in verse 9, Luke tells us:

⁹ Then Jesus told the people this parable: “There was once a man who planted a vineyard, rented it out to tenants, and then left home for a long time. ¹⁰ When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest. But the tenants beat the slave and sent him back without a thing. ¹¹ So he sent another slave; but the tenants beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him back without a thing. ¹² Then he sent a third slave; the tenants wounded him, too, and threw him out. ¹³ Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my own dear son; surely they will respect him!’ ¹⁴ But when the tenants saw him, they said to one another, ‘This is the owner’s son. Let’s kill him, and his property will be ours!’ ¹⁵ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to the tenants?” Jesus asked. ¹⁶ “He will come and kill those men, and turn the vineyard over to other tenants.”

When the people heard this, they said, “Surely not!”

¹⁷ Jesus looked at them and asked, “What, then, does this scripture mean?

‘The stone which the builders rejected as worthless
    turned out to be the most important of all.’

¹⁸ Everyone who falls on that stone will be cut to pieces; and if that stone falls on someone, that person will be crushed to dust.”

¹⁹ The teachers of the Law and the chief priests tried to arrest Jesus on the spot, because they knew that he had told this parable against them; but they were afraid of the people.

In this parable, I find it fascinating that everyone present understood what this parable meant. Luke tells us that the religious leaders knew who they represented, and they even understood Jesus to be subtly placing Himself in this parable as well.

However, because Jesus used a third-person parable, they could not directly challenge Him on the claim of blasphemy, because Jesus never directly says that He is represented by the vineyard owner’s son. Jesus subtly and strongly challenges these leaders while avoiding directly saying something that would incriminate Himself.

Also, I find it fascinating that Jesus’ parable’s conclusion is met with shock from the people present. When Jesus asks the people the rhetorical question about what the vineyard owner will do to the rebellious, evil tenants, He tells them that the owner will throw them out, kill them, and find other tenants who will hopefully be better.

While everyone knows Jesus was speaking against the religious leaders who had mistreated and abused the prophets God sent Israel and Judah in the many centuries of the nation’s history, Jesus again subtly predicts His death. If the religious leaders wanted to avoid playing into prophecy’s hand, they could have simply ignored Jesus. Jesus tells these leaders that they would ultimately kill the vineyard owner’s son, and by pressing for Jesus’ death, these leaders push Jesus into a role they likely never wanted Him to be in.

By pressing for Jesus’ death, these leaders incriminate themselves because they understand themselves to be the tenants, and they reject Jesus and kill Him. In the parable, the last messenger they receive is the vineyard owner’s son, and because the vineyard owner represents God, by pressing for Jesus’ death, without realizing what it fully means, these leaders acknowledge that Jesus is God’s Son!

The people are shocked not that the vineyard owner would reject these evil tenants, but that their rejection of God’s messengers would ultimately lead to their destruction. While it isn’t a popular message, there will be a point when God stops sending warnings and messengers to the world. There will be a point when the door to salvation closes.

I wholeheartedly believe that this point in time has not come yet, and that we all still have a choice to believe in Jesus. Because of this, let’s choose today to repent and turn away from our past sins, and to intentionally invite Jesus into our lives to change our hearts and minds. With Jesus in our hearts, we will succeed where the evil tenants failed, and we will accept those God sends into our lives with His truth!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, intentionally seek God first in your life and chose to accept Jesus into your heart, life, and mind. Choose to live your life in a way that gives God the glory and in a way that doesn’t take any glory for ourselves.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Open your heart and mind in prayer and study to discover a God willing to give anything and everything to redeem the people He loves, and what God ultimately chooses to do when He is continually rejected.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!