The Beloved Son, Sent and Killed
Luke 20:9-19
TT- God is extremely patient when people oppose Him but rejecting His Son, brings about swift vengeance.
Introduction
Our Need Addressed in this Text
Our Lord loves His followers. His concern, even with His death hours away, is that His followers not become overwhelmed with grief or overwhelmed with fear once He is gone. With this concern in mind, He tells a parable showing the vital need for everyone to rejoice over the Son not reject the Son. To reject the Son of God is to count yourself among those unworthy of eternal life.
Our need today is to be reminded that our eternal destiny hinges on Jesus Christ.
Jesus has just cleared the Temple of its sinful practices and now has begun to teach and preach the Good News to all the people. As usual, the people listened very closely while the leaders schemed and planed Jesus’ death.
As part of the teaching of Christ in the temple all three synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke have this parable recorded.
To understand this parable correctly we must discern Jesus’ meaning. Here, He is warning the people not to follow the religious leaders of Jerusalem and He’s also warning the leaders that unless they repent, they will perish.
In this parable, Jesus is using slightly veiled allegory.
Allegory- A story which reveals a hidden meaning.
We know that…
The Vineyard is Israel
The Planter is God
The tenants are the Religious Leaders
The Servants are the OT Prophets
The Others are the Apostles
The Son the tenants rejected and the Stone the Builders Rejected is Jesus
The Point of this parable: God is extremely patient when people oppose Him but rejecting His Son, brings about swift vengeance.
What to Look For:
Notice the patience of God and how He repeatedly sends servants or prophets to His enemies and they are all rejected. The climax is at hand. The Jewish leaders are not about to reject another prophet, but they are about to reject God’s Son. This will prove to be the absolute worst choice they will ever make.
Please hear God’s Word:
Luke 20:9 And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while.
10 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
11 And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed.
12 And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out.
13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’
14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’
15 And 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 destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!”
17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.
1. The Parable (Luke 20:9-15)
9 And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while.
10 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
11 And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed.
12 And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out.
13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’
14 But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’
15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?
After the owner has planted the choice vines in very fertile soil and after he has built a wall and a tower around the vineyard, he leases it out. The owner leases out his vineyard to tenant farmers. Most times a new vineyard would not produce a crop for at least four years. So, the owner would care for the needs of the farmers and the vineyard while they worked and waited. If everything went well, year number five, the first year of the crop, most expenses would be paid off and sometimes even a profit made. The harder the farmers worked the more they could make. Their percentage would yield a higher pay and so would the owner’s.
The ancient farm tenants would lease a farm or in this case a vineyard not with money up front but with the promise to share the crops or the money from the crops with the landowner. This is the arrangement seen in the story.
2. The Interpretation
In worship at the synagogue, the people would sing Isaiah 5 (The Song of the Vineyard) from time to time. Everyone there knew these verses from Isaiah. They knew that the vineyard was the House of Israel.
Isaiah 5:1 Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
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? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!
God had planted a beloved vineyard. It was supposed to produce an abundant crop because of the fertile soil chosen; however, it only produced weeds and wild grapes. There is a difference between this OT parable and Jesus’ parable. Our Lord is not here, condemning the people, like the text in Isaiah, but the leaders. It’s that slight difference that catches the attention of these leaders. They know Jesus is speaking about them.
God has a beautiful lush fortified vineyard. Israel was entrusted to tenants or the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and Elders. They were given the task of caring for God’s beloved vineyard. They were to fertilize, cultivate, prune and tend to the needs of the vineyard. They were to teach God’s Word clearly and truly. They were to teach others to keep the commands. They were to evangelize and share God’s Word with everyone. They were the tenants the vineyard belonged to God. However, in time the tenants began to believe it was their vineyard and they were to receive all the profits and all the glory.
The Leaders knew this parable was about them. They realized that Jesus referred to the prophets God had sent to Israel. They knew that some of the prophets were killed because of the message they brought; one of them, Zechariah, was murdered between the temple and the altar…
2 Chron. 24:20 Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above the people, and said to them, “Thus says God, ‘Why do you break the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.'”
21 But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the LORD.
In the course of the seven woes in Matthew 23, Jesus specifically mentions that these rulers will be responsible for all the blood they had shed…from Abel to Zechariah…
Matt. 23:31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,
35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
In today’s parable, the point is made that God sent prophet after prophet, many more than three as depicted in Jesus’ parable, and the people refused to listen. Most of the time the prophet was treated poorly and sometimes beaten and killed.
We continue to see the longsuffering and mercy of God as He has sent prophet after prophet after prophet to the vineyard. Next, God sends His Son. The beloved Son enters the vineyard or the House of Israel and the tenants or the religious leaders beat and kill Him, thinking that the vineyard will be theirs after all.
They must rid themselves of Jesus if their religious system, which has proven to be a moneymaking venture, is to continue. They want the glory all for themselves. By the way, there were thousands of people who worked in and around the Temple. They were employed because of wicked Jewish leadership. Jesus must be stopped if their way of life is to continue. Jesus, quite simply, was bad for business.
3. Rejecting the Son has Dire Consequences (Luke 20:16-18)
16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!”
17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
Then Jesus asks a question in the story… What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?
Jesus answers His own rhetorical question by saying, 16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
They could not believe their ears and replied, “Surely not!”
These enemies of God could not imagine for a second that God would take away the House of Israel and give it to others. However, the history of the Apostles recorded in Acts and other places proves that this is exactly what happened.
Acts 13:46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.
47 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'”
48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
A generation later the Temple is gone. God had removed these wicked tenants and replaced them with the Apostles. Because the Jews had rejected the Son, they would heap judgment upon themselves.
In this parable, Jesus is the rejected Son. The leaders not only understood that the story was directed against them but Jesus was also telling them that He is the Landowner’s beloved Son. This had huge implications in proving that He is also the Messiah.
Jesus wants to make it very clear at this point. He is the rejected Son and they are just about to carry out their role in the parable and in redemptive history…they are about to kill Jesus, the Beloved Son, outside of the vineyard.
Hebrews 13:11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.
12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
As we continue to work our way through this text, our Lord shifts now to another picture that they should understand. He shows them that not only is He the Son the tenants reject but He’s the stone the builder’s reject…
17 But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
What does our Lord mean here?
He’s quoting three OT passages to show (and here’s the thrust for the people) while He is about to be rejected and killed by the leaders of Judaism, the people must not reject Him but embrace Him as the chief cornerstone. We must make sure we understand this clearly. Jesus is about to be rejected and killed by the leaders. Salvation for them will not be offered because as in the parable, the Owner of the vineyard will come and destroy them and give the vineyard to others. Jesus warns the people that while He is to be rejected by the leaders they must not reject Him or they too will experience the same fate. This truth echoes down through the ages even to our day. We must not reject Jesus Christ but embrace Him as Lord and Messiah and Savior.
The imagery goes like this…
Builders are working on a stone structure. As they go to the pile of stones they keep running across this very unusually shaped stone. This stone will not fit into their structure. They need stones with four sides that will fit together. So they keep rejecting this stone. Now some translations call this stone the cornerstone, foundation stone, or capstone. At any rate, it is a stone that will not fit into man’s structure. However, they come to the place in the structure where they need a stone, which will tie everything together. They remember the odd shaped stone they had rejected and even stumbled over time and again. They go and get it and it fits perfectly and they rejoice.
Psalm 118:22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 23 This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
Isaiah 8:14 And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”
Daniel 2:34 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.
Daniel 2:35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth…
44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and [c]it shall stand forever,
45 just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
I wanted to make this point abundantly clear by referring to these passages. This is the connection they would have made with what Jesus said. He is the stone and to reject Him means you are on the side of God’s enemies. To reject Christ, the stone cut not with human hands, the stone that will crush all other kingdoms, and the stone that will be a mountain and fill the entire earth is to sign your death sentence. This is exactly what the Jewish leaders did in Jesus’ day. This is what prideful sinners still do today. People are busy building their own kingdom and Jesus doesn’t fit so they reject Him.
God is extremely patient when people oppose Him but rejecting His Son, brings about swift vengeance.
Now as we think about this text, I want you to consider how merciful God is even in this amazingly wicked story. These tenants were proven to be very wicked and the Jewish leaders down through the centuries had also proven to be very wicked. They had rejected God’s messengers and even killed them. God was sending them a warning that judgment was coming unless they changed and repented and the people were so wicked that they killed the messengers. They even went further, they killed God’s beloved Son who was sent with the same message, repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Still, God shows mercy and His redemptive plan widens.
The blessings are not removed but simply removed from the Jews as a nation and given to the church universal consisting of both Jew and Gentile. In other words God substitutes a greater blessing for the one that is withdrawn. The riverbed of God’s grace is widened![1]
Do you see now the great responsibility we have to embrace the Son of God. Jesus was about to be murdered outside the gate and still He was pleading with the people…don’t follow these Jewish leaders in rejecting Me. Trust Me and be saved.
TT- God is extremely patient when people oppose Him but rejecting His Son, brings about swift vengeance.
This morning we must consider whether we have biblically embraced the Son or are we simply adding Jesus to our long list of things that bring us security?
What will you say if God should ask, what did you do when I sent My beloved Son to save you from your sin?
We must all embrace the eternal and beloved Son of God.
[1] Hendriksen on Luke pg. 896
