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Luke 20:9-19 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2020%3A9-19&version=NLT
Don’t be fooled if there is a little paragraph heading in your Bible that divides the last passage from this one. There is nothing wrong with it being there, but don’t imagine that it indicates some indefinite passage of time. Jesus immediately told a parable, and it was aimed directly at the religious leaders who had just tried to discredit him. In fact it pointed back through centuries of Israel’s history at many religious and political leaders who rejected and mistreated God’s messengers, the prophets. The religious leaders didn’t miss the point of his parable either. Verse 19 tells us they knew the story was against them and they wanted to arrest him on the spot. They also knew the crowds were still in support of Jesus. It wasn’t worth the risk. Not yet. But Jesus is overtly pushing buttons now. His time has almost arrived.
The parable isn’t exactly cryptic. It’s a metaphor for the way God established Israel, the vineyard, and left it in the care of her religious and political leaders, the tenants. God sent prophets to remind them that the vineyard was his and he expected it to produce a nation that honoured and worshipped him, but the prophets were mistreated and his law was used as a means of promoting personal agendas, rather than building a nation that was prepared to live in relationship with God. When the prophets had all been rejected, God sent his son Jesus. The coming chapters will demonstrate that the tenants treated him more shamefully than any of the prophets. In fact, they had him executed on false charges.
Make no mistake, Jesus is trying to push the religious leaders to the point that they are ready to execute him regardless of the crowds. He has a job to do and he is getting it done. But even here he speaks a message of hope. This one is directed especially toward those of us who are Gentiles and is also a promise for Jews who have chosen to follow Jesus. The vineyard will be given to new tenants! In the midst of a dire warning to those who opposed him, Jesus promises that his vineyard will continue to grow and it will be tended by new tenants who honour and respect the owner.
Among the many things we can ascribe to the God of the Bible, we must include tenacity. He just does not give up. And his tenacity is expressed in a relentless desire to build a group of people who will be his beloved children.
In this moment of frustration, as Jesus prepared and even pressed toward the day of his execution, it’s clear that he still clings to the thought of these new tenants being welcomed into his beloved vineyard. That’s kind of wildly beautiful to recognize, no?
Let’s just take one more pause in this passage. There’s that scripture verse that Jesus quotes towards the end. It’s from the book of the Psalms and Jesus recognized it as prophetically referring to himself. He is the stone the builders rejected. The people who were leading worship, the builders, looked at Jesus and thought, “Nah, there’s no place for him in our faith.” Jesus tells his followers, not only is there a place for him, that place is the cornerstone. The cornerstone was the stone against which every other stone was to be measured and leveled. The cornerstone set the standard for everything else that happened in that building. Jesus said, “That’s me. I’m the standard. Without me there is no building.” All the scheming and maneuvering the religious leaders were doing to undermine him was a waste of time and effort. In the end, the vineyard will thrive. The tenants who didn’t honour the vineyard owner will be thrown out and destroyed. Jesus warns that no one who tries to oppose him will prevail. He says they will be crushed. Jesus continued to warn his opponents. He still wanted them to recognise the truth of who he is. In fact, in the coming chapters we will find evidence that some religious leaders did come to be his followers. He was still reaching for them, and he knew they were running out of time.
