The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen

The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen I. This parable and its application is recorded in MAT 21:33-46; MAR 12:1-12; LUK 20:9-19. II. This parable speaks of the surrender of the kingdom of God from natural Israel to the spiritual gospel church of the N.T. A. It speaks of the longsuffering of God towards the disobedient. B. But it also speaks of the limitations of His forbearance. C. It provided an appropriate parallel for the way that the nation of Israel (especially their elders) had generally treated God's prophets and finally His Son and justifies God in His judgment of them. D. Its treatment of the unproductive failure of Israel should be compared with ISA 5:1-7. III. vs. 33-36. Israel was God's church from the exodus forward (ACT 7:38) and God gave them manifold blessings of supply and protection as well as His word and religion. ROM 9:4. A. God does hedge His people about to protect them. JOB 1:10; ZEC 2:5; PSA 125:2. B. Those who sought to trouble God's church were challenging the church's God Who loved them. ZEC 2:8; JER 2:3. C. The church was/is God's planting, His vineyard, His husbandry. The husbandmen of God's church were meant to labor for Him and with Him, not against Him. ISA 61:3; 1CO 3:9. D. At the appropriate time, God had sent His servants to receive the fruits of His vineyard. v. 34. 1. It is understood that the owner and planter of a vineyard reserves the right to enjoy the benefits of the same. The workers need to remember their place. 1CO 9:7; SON 8:11-12. 2. God expects to find fruit when He comes looking for it, or else. LUK 13:6-9; 14:34-35. 3. The servants were the prophets of God. JER 7:25. 4. The householder sent His servants “...when the time of the fruit drew near” (v. 34). a. The time for God to demand the fruits of His church is anytime. b. However, there was a time of fruition to which all of Israel's prophets pointed: the coming of Messiah and His kingdom of grace. MAT 3:1-2; GAL 4:4-5; ACT 10:42-43. E. The husbandmen grossly misused the servants that had been sent to them (vs. 35-36). So, too, had Israel misused the prophets. 1. If they who LIVE godly in Christ suffer persecution (2TI 3:12), it is guaranteed that they who TELL others to do so will suffer likewise. 2. Consider these examples. 2CH 24:21; JER 37:15; HEB 11:36-37. 3. It is amazing how long God suffered Israel's animosity towards His prophets and Himself, but His forbearance has its limitations. ROM 2:4-5; 2CH 36:16; PRO 29:1. IV. vs. 37-39. The householder finally sent his son to the husbandmen, which obviously parallels with God sending His only begotten Son unto Israel, who “...received Him not” (JOH 1:11). A. The householder had hoped that the husbandmen would honor his son, but God had no such false hope about Christ's reception. In fact, God had fore-ordained a limited course of action against His Son to accomplish His purpose. ACT 4:27-28. B. The husbandmen saw the son as a threat to their ambitions. So, too, did the wicked Jewish The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen Page 1 of 2 leaders look upon Christ. JOH 11:48, 53. 1. This was the same ploy that Satan had used in the garden of Eden against Adam: arrange for the destruction of the rightful heir and seize his inheritance. 2. However, the plan backfired upon Satan with the Last Adam. HEB 2:14-15; 1CO 2:8. 3. Christ is now heir of all things, including the Gentiles, and rules even over Satan and his hosts. PSA 2:8; 1PE 3:22 c/w COL 2:15; HEB 1:2. C. The husbandmen cast the son outside of the vineyard to slay him. He died in the world, like Christ would die outside the gate. HEB 13:11-12. V. vs. 40-45. Christ then turned to the chief priests and Pharisees and asked them what would be a proper judgment in such a situation, which they answered to their own condemnation. A. The most ironic and fitting judgments that men bear are those which they unwittingly pronounce upon themselves. LUK 19:22 c/w 2SAM 12:1-7; ROM 2:1. B. The Jews recognized that a miserable destruction of such husbandmen would be just. v. 41. 1. God had warned Israel for centuries that a miserable destruction and loss of blessings awaited them, for their husbandry was a conditional one. EXO 19:5; DEU 28:52-57. 2. Christ would elsewhere describe the Roman siege of Jerusalem as an unparalleled tribulation. MAT 24:19-22. 3. Josephus' account of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans is a graphic portrayal of the letter-fulfillment of God's word. 4. Killing the prophets was bad enough, but what the Jews did to the Son of God brought the pent-up wrath of God upon them to the uttermost. MAT 23:31-36 c/w 1TH 2:15-16. C. These verses make it plain that God did NOT come to offer the kingdom to national/natural Israel. 1. Rather, because of their wickedness, Christ would give the kingdom to the gospel church made up of believing Jews and Gentiles (the latter eventually becoming the predominant players). LUK 12:32; ACT 11:18; 13:46; 28:28; ROM 10:19; 1PE 2:9. 2. This had been the message of the prophets all along and was one of the main reasons that they suffered at the Jews' hands. ISA 55:5; 65:1, 15; ACT 26:22-23. 3. For those of Israel who would repent at the gospel message, there was a portion in the N.T. kingdom AND escape from wrath. LUK 21:20-21; ACT 2:38-40. D. Believing Gentiles have been graft into the commonwealth that was peculiar to Israel. But with that comes a warning. ROM 11:17-23; REV 2:4-5. The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen Page 2 of 2