It was within a few days of his crucifixion that Jesus spoke this parable. There is not much doubt that He intended it to be prophetic ‑ prophetic of his own death and prophetic of the Divine condemnation soon to fall upon those responsible for His death. But behind that there was a deeper purpose. Not many days hence a good many would be saying, sadly, to themselves what in fact two disciples did say aloud to the supposed stranger on the road to Emmaus "We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel". Jesus meant to leave, in this parable, an explanation of the event soon to be consummated. This would take the discouraged believers back to their own Scriptures, the books of the prophets, and to their own national history. It would reveal to them that all this had been known and foreseen beforehand; that no other outcome was possible; that so far from being an irretrievable disaster, this crushing anti-climax to all their hopes was in fact the only manner in which those hopes would ever be fulfilled. So Jesus gave them the parable of the wicked husbandmen.

A familiar picture, this. A vineyard, leased by its owner to a group of men who would render him an agreed proportion of the fruits by way of rent. This was a common practice in Israel and usually worked very satisfactorily. In this instance the results were not so satisfactory. When the owner's servants came to collect the expected harvest they met with a hostile reception, were beaten, stoned and killed. The owner might have been justifiably incensed but it seems he was a man of long patience, not easily moved to anger. He sent more servants, giving the husbandmen another chance. Those servants were treated in similar manner to the first. So he sent his son saying, so the story goes, "they will reverence my son". But when the son appeared at the entrance to the vineyard and announced his mission, the husbandmen conspired together and killed him, so that they could seize the vineyard for themselves.

So far the little company around Jesus had listened with close attention, as every Eastern crowd will do when a story is being told. Swiftly Jesus threw out the question among them "When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?" Some of them at least must have had a glimmering of what lay behind this everyday story, but even so, common honesty demanded the obvious and only reply. "He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons." In so saying they condemned themselves out of their own mouths and gave opportunity for one of the most scathing denunciations ever to fall from the Master's lips.

Rightly to understand the force of that denunciation it is necessary to go back to the beginning of the story and look at it through Jewish eyes ‑ and eyes of the Jews of the First Advent at that. Then national feeling was at its zenith and national pride had not been crushed by centuries of Gentile oppression. "There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen. " As the simple yet vivid description fell from the lips of Jesus the minds of his hearers must inevitably have gone back to God's words to their fathers through the prophet Isaiah (5.1-7) "My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein . ... he looked that it brought forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes .... for the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant, and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry." Right at the beginning of the story Jesus' listeners realised that He was talking about them. They knew full well that their nation was symbolised by a vine or a vineyard in prophetic lore, and they must have listened with an added intensity to discern what the story was to unfold of good or ill for Israel.

Now the time of the vintage was come. The vineyard had been well planted with good vines, it was furnished with a winepress; there should be a good return for the owner. He had made rich provision for his tenants and could reasonably expect his due. He met instead with disloyalty, ingratitude and rebellion. That is how it was with Israel, not only in the days of Jesus but almost all through their history. They were brought out of Egypt by the mighty power of God and constituted a nation at Sinai under the terms of a Covenant. This made them not only the chosen people of God but also custodians of a destiny which was to make them a light to the nations to declare God's salvation to the ends of the earth. They nevertheless miserably failed to live up to their calling. When God sent his servants the prophets to recall them to a sense of their duty and their destiny, they ignored and persecuted and slew them. "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?" demanded Stephen of the Sanhedrin before which he was on trial for his own life "and they have slain them which showed before, of the coming of the Just One" (Acts 7. 52). "The Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear" declared Jeremiah (Jer.25.4). "They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tried, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; they wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth ". So runs the damning indictment of the writer to the Hebrews (Heb.11.37-38). Surely the wicked husbandmen did indeed beat, and stone, and kill the servants sent to them to collect the fruits of the vineyard.

But, said the householder, they will reverence my son ‑ my beloved son, Luke's account of this parable has it (Luke 20. 13). So the Son of God came to earth. God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life. He came to his own ‑ but his own received him not. (John 1.11). They looked upon Him and they said "This is the heir; let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours". There is a terrible truth underlying those words. The Messiah had come to claim His right, the kingship of the nation, to lead them into the light and life of the Kingdom of Heaven. The entrenched forces of priestly and aristocratic power were determined to preserve the traditional framework of Rabbinical theology which held the nation in bondage. Like the citizens in another parable they said "We will not have this man to reign over us", and so they resolved on the most desperate act of their desperate course ‑ they resolved to get Him out of the way by putting Him to death. None of the prophets of old, not even Moses whom they professed to obey had ever come back from the dead to denounce their apostasy. No reason existed to think that this one, even though the most influential of all the prophets, would survive where Moses had failed. "Let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours'." So it came about then, in Peter's biting words, "him you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain".

Now comes judgment. In Matthew's account Jesus makes his listeners pass judgment upon themselves. "He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons" (Matt. 21. 41). There could not be any doubt as to the outcome, either in the story or in the application. The fearful words of Moses in Leviticus 26 detailing their fate if they apostatised from their covenant with God, is enough for that. No man of Israel was ignorant of the prediction, but most men of Israel trusted that by payment of formal lip service to the name of Moses they could escape the threatened retribution. But now they are brought face to face with reality. There was to be no escape. Sin merited judgment, and judgment must inevitably come. When they realised that, some must have cried out, as Luke says they did, "God forbid".

Jesus was talking still, talking with an earnest vehemence that compelled attention. "Did ye never read in the Scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the headstone of the corner; this is the Lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes?" They knew that quotation well enough. So often had they heard Psalm 118 sung and chanted in the Temple service and their teachers expounding it as a song of rejected Israel's eventual triumph over the Gentiles. This was a new slant on an old theme. They were the builders and the stone was one that they had rejected. Uneasily, they remembered the burning words of Isaiah, denouncing the arrogant men who ruled Jerusalem in certainty that the refuge of lies and falsehood they had erected would always protect them. God had laid in Zion a tried and choice corner stone on which he who believed could rely (Isa.28.15-16). They thought of Zechariah's vision of the unfaithful shepherds who were to be cut off and replaced by governors of Judah ruling in Jerusalem in the strength of the Lord their God (Zech.11.12), and they shivered and once again they muttered "God forbid".

The compelling voice went on, and now it was inexorable in its cadences of judgment. "Therefore I say unto you, the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." That nation is the Church of Christ, called out from among all nations to be a people for God's purpose. There can be no doubt whatever that there was an opportunity extended to Israel at the First Advent which, had it been accepted, would have changed the whole course of human history. Whether God, in his incomprehensible omnipotence, foreknew that they would reject and had planned accordingly, is quite beside the point. The opportunity was theirs, but they rejected the Prince of Life and desired a murderer to be granted to them, and the opportunity passed them by for ever. Within a very few weeks the faithful few who did accept Christ were being given their commission to be his witnesses not only in Jerusalem and all Judea, but to the uttermost parts of the earth. That work of witness has progressed ever since and resulted in the development of a nation which has brought and is bringing forth the fruits thereof.

Paul puts all this into theological language in Romans 11 when he likens Israel to the unfruitful olive branches which "because of unbelief were "broken off and Gentile Christians, being wild olive branches, grafted on in their place. But he goes on to show that the original branches, "if they abide not still in unbelief shall be grafted in again, "and so all Israel shall be saved". That can only mean that in a then, far future day, after God's work with the Christian Church is complete, He will turn again to the once apostate people of Israel and find them in chastened and repentant mood and so receive them again, that they might, at the last, find their place in the administration of the Divine purpose. "For," says Paul in Romans 11 "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance". That then far future day can only be the day of the Second Advent, when the eyes of Israel are opened, and they look upon Him whom they have pierced, and mourn for Him as for an only son (Zech. 12.10). So we are presented, at the last, with the picture of the glorified Church of this Age, "changed" to be with Christ, resplendent in the heavens. Also purified Israel, waiting before God and both being agents in God's hand for the extension of the knowledge of His glory over the earth just as the waters cover the sea. James saw this vividly when at the memorable conference at Jerusalem which is recorded in Acts 15 he declared that God was first visiting the nations to take out of them a people for His name ‑ the Christian Church. After that He would rebuild the dwelling place of Jacob ‑ Israel ‑ and re-establish it; all this in order that the residue of men ‑ all mankind, as yet, not reconciled to God, might seek after the Lord. Here is world conversion in very truth, to be done after, and not before, the salvation of the Church has been achieved and the purified nation of Israel has been made ready.

But the priests and Pharisees listening to Jesus knew nothing of all this. They heard only the solemn words of doom, "Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, and on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder", and they were coldly furious. Arrogant in their fancied security and determined to maintain their privileged position, they sought means to lay hold on Him, plotting to get rid of Him and the annoyance and inconvenience of His words. They scorned His warnings and predictions, little knowing that within forty years more their own folly would have brought the armed might of Rome against them, sweeping away their city and their polity, and driving them captive among all nations until the Times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. The words of the parable came terribly true. "He shall miserably destroy those wicked men, and shall let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons."

AOH