The Vineyard

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

THE VINEYARD

Luke 20:9-19

9 He went on to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. 10 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. 12 He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out. 13 "Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.' 14 "But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. 'This is the heir,' they said. 'Let's kill him, and the inheritance 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 them? 16 He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others." When the people heard this, they said, "May this never be!" 17 Jesus looked directly at them and asked, "Then what is the meaning of that which is written: "'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone'? 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."  19 The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.

NIV

Certainly this is a parable spoken directly to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. It has its meaning in the history of the people of Israel and the prophets they rejected or killed. The people are the vineyard or at least in this case, Jerusalem or the people of Israel. They were supposed to produce fruit for God, but they wanted their own lives, so they could not accept the truth. This is about God sending Jesus to collect his people, the fruit, but they killed him, wanting again their own religion. Without spending hours and paragraphs explaining the parable in it fullness, we should see if we can apply this truth to our lives today. It would seem somewhat easy to apply it to the church in general, or Christianity in general, but what about in a personal way? Let us say we are that vineyard. Let’s say God planted the truth in us and then left us alone for a while. But he never leaves us alone, he said he would never forsake us. So it is difficult to see a lesson here. Yet God does expect to yield that which he has planted in the vineyard. Perhaps that is our lesson. God has indeed planted the truth into us and expects that truth to bear fruit. He is the vine and we are the branches, as we live and breathe in Jesus we should be bearing the fruit for him. We cannot have our own ways, our own lives. God is the owner of the vineyard, of us, of our lives. Those chief priests and teachers of the law did exactly that, they rejected the truth and created their own religion, which did not serve God, but their own lives. We cannot be guilty of that type of religion, we need to be consistently connected to Jesus in order the bear the fruit the owner of the vineyard desires. When people who have rejected the truth, reject Jesus and thus cannot bear any fruit that is pleasing to God, he will come some day and kill them. That is a fact. But we need to be careful not to reject the truth by turning the truth into our own form of religion. Jesus finished his parable with the truth about the capstone, who he is, and if we fall upon the mercy of Jesus we will be broken, which is our sinful lives will be broken and we will be received, redeemed by God. But if we do not fall upon Jesus, then he will fall upon us and we will be crushed. This is that truth. It is about our relationship with Jesus, with God and how we produce the fruit for the benefit of the owner.