The wicked farmers rebel against God and try to steal His vineyard.
“A man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and moved to another country to live for several years. 10 At the time of the grape harvest, he sent one of his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers attacked the servant, beat him up, and sent him back empty-handed."
11 "So the owner sent another servant, but they also insulted him, beat him up, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 A third man was sent, and they wounded him and chased him away."
13 “‘What will I do?’ the owner asked himself. ‘I know! I’ll send my cherished son. Surely they will respect him.’" (The entire story Luke 20:9-19)
There are a lot of places in scripture where God's people are called his vineyard, and he desires to enjoy it's fruit, in this parable God gave the work of farming his vineyard to some laborers that refused to give him any of its fruit.
The wicked farmers are a vivid picture of Israel's persistent rejection of the prophets of God, time after time they were sent to call them to repentance and over and over again the prophets were persecuted and/or killed. They rejected God's commands, his messengers, his compassion and even rejected him as king.
Since the Triumphant Entry he has been in the Temple everyday and the crowds loved his teaching so even though the Pharisees despised Jesus for calling them out in this parable, there wasn't anything that they could do about it yet.
Don't reject Jesus. |
Acts 4:10-12 "Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” |
What a powerful message from Peter, right after he healed the crippled beggar, he made it crystal clear why he was able to perform this miracle. Peter quoted the same scripture from Psalm 118:22-23 that Jesus quoted.
Ever since the Garden of Eden we have been rejecting God, we need to take heed of the warning that Peter gave the crowds, don't reject Jesus for there is salvation in no one else!
I need to share the good news with someone everyday.
Lord Jesus, help me to be aware of opportunities to tell people about your love and your salvation.
