Matthew 21

Matthew 21:33

Parallels: Luke 20

arable of the vineyard let out to unfaithful huswhich he takes occasion plainly to admonish the f the danger and ruin they would incur by the re forming against him. Mat. XXI. 33, to XII.—1—12; Luke XX.—9—19.

MAT. XXI. 33.

OUR Lord having thus reproved the priests and elders in the temple who had been questioning his authority, and shewn how inexcusable they were in not believing John, though they could not deny him to be sent of God, continued his discourse, and said to them and to the people, Hear now another parable, in which you are very nearly concerned, as your own consciences must quickly tell you: There was a certain man, a master of a considerable family and estate, who planted a vineyard, and spared no cost to render it fruitful; for he made a strong hedge round it, to preserve it from the incursion of men or beasts, and digged [a place for] a winepress in it, [or] a large cavity which might serve as a fat for the wine, to receive the liquor when pressed from the grapes; and he also built a tower in it for the accommodation and defence of the labourers; and then he let it out to husbandmen, who were to pay him a certain acknowledgment out of the produce of it; and he himself departed thence, and took a journey for a long time into a distant country.

And at the proper season, when the time of gathering in the fruit approached, and a return was to be made him from the profits of it, he sent his servants to the husbandmen who had farmed it, that he might receive from the husbandmen that proportion of the fruit of the vineyard which was due to him for the rent. And the husbandmen wickedly conspiring to keep the vineyard to themselves, instead of

² A fat for the wine.] Matthew uses the word λυγος, and Mark υπελησιο. The former signifies the winepress, the other the cavity under it, in which the vessel was fixed which received the liquor pressed from the grapes. The one of these naturally implies the other; but our Lord might without any impropriety mention both.

key use t servants their master and

receiving them with due respect, and returning the appointed payment, seized his servants, and beat one of the chief of those who arrived first, and sent him empty away; and as the demand grew more pressing, they took up the weapons with which their Lord himself had furnished them for very different purposes, and slew another, and stoned another, till they had driven him away.

And when their lord heard the report of this their injustice, he did not immediately arm himself against them, but sent again other servants to treat with them, more in number, and higher in office than the first: but still persisting in their wickedness, they did the same unto them; and particularly at him [who was the chief] person employed to account with them they threw stones, and wounded him dangerously in the head, and sent him away not only empty, but very dishonourably and shamefully treated.

And again the third [time] he sent another of his principal servants; and him also they wounded, as they had done the former, and even were so outrageous, that they cast him out of the vineyard, [and] killed him: and in like manner they assaulted many others, who came with, or after him, on the same errand, beating some of them, and killing others outright.

Then the lord of the vineyard, being still unwilling to proceed to the last extremity with them, though they had been so very wicked and ungrateful in the treatment of his servants, said to them that were about him, What shall I do farther to reclaim them? I will send my own son to them.ᵇ Having yet therefore one son, who was his well beloved, and the heir of the family, he sent him also last of all to them, as the only gentle expedient that remained, saying, Perhaps they will reverence my son when they see him;ᶜ

ᵇ I will send my son.] The question is not here how prudent it would have been in a human father to venture his son in such a case as this: for the power which God had of raising Christ from the dead, and making all his sufferings redound to his glory and happiness, quite alters the case. The design is to shew the patience of

God, and the wickedness of the Jews, by this emblem, than which nothing could be more expressive.

ᶜ Perhaps they will reverence my son, &c.] Numberless predictions in the Old and New Testament plainly shew, that God foresaw Christ’s death as a certain event. This therefore, like many others, is merely an

.n at last he sent his son they killed him.

for surely they must needs have some respect for him, and will not presume to offer him any injury. But when the husbandmen saw the son come into the vineyard, instead of paying any due regard to him, they grew yet more outrageous in their wickedness, and reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the only heir of the whole estate; come, let us kill him, and seize on his inheritance,ᵈ that [it] may be ours from generation to generation, and no descendants of our master may remain to give any disturbance to us or our children in the possession of it. And with malignant hearts and cruel hands they fell upon their master’s son, and seized him; and, fearing neither God nor man, they cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him,ᵉ exposing his dead body in a most contemptuous and insolent, as well as inhumane manner.

When therefore the Lord of the vineyard himself cometh, armed with a power which they will be utterly unable to resist, what will he do, think you, to those treacherous and cruel husbandmen, when he has them entirely at his disposal?

And, as the Jewish rulers did not understand that they themselves were these unfaithful husbandmen, they say unto him, There is no doubt but he will wretchedly destroy those wicked and incorrigible wretches, nor is the most tormenting death too severe for them to expect; and he will then let out the vineyard to other husbandmen, who shall faithfully render him the fruits of it in their proper seasons.

Thus did they, before they were aware, condemn themselves; and [Jesus added], You have

ornamental circumstance, which cannot without absurdity be applied in the interpretation of the parable.

ᵈ Come, let us kill him, &c.] If such a proposal would have been the height of folly as well as wickedness in these husbandmen, it was so much the more proper to represent the part the Jewish rulers acted in the murder of Christ, which they were now projecting, and which they accomplished within three days. The admonition was most graciously given; but served only in an astonishing manner to illustrate that degree of hardness to which a sinful heart is capable of arriving.

ᵉ And cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.] So Matthew and Luke express it;

but Mark has changed the order of the words, and says, They killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard; if we may not render that clause, They both slew him, and cast him out, so as not to determine which was done first. One cannot suppose Christ uttered it both these ways; so that if there be no accidental transposition in Mark, be probably meant thereby to intimate what is hinted in the paraphrase, the exposing his dead body in a most daring defiance of public justice. Those that explain the castin him out of the vineyard, of excommunication, which preceded or attended the executio of a capital sentence, do not observe th proper import of the vineyard. See below note ¹.

VOL. 2.

He will therefore destroy them, and let the vine

answered right: he shall indeed quickly come, and destroy these husbandmen of whom I speak whoever they shall appear to be, with terrible severity, and will give the vineyard to others. Now all this was as if he had said, Consider your own concern in what you have heard. God has planted a church among you, and given you an excellent revelation of his will; abundant provision has been made, both for your protection and your improvement too: but you have ungratefully refused the fruits of obedience, which were so justly his due; and when he has frequently sent his servants the prophets, with one message and demand after another, you the rulers and teachers of Israel, to whom the cultivation of the vineyard has been committed, have treated them in a most ungrateful and barbarous manner: and now at last he has sent his son, and you are going to seize on him, and to add that murder which you are now contriving to the guilt of all your other crimes. I leave it therefore to your own consciences to judge what the event must be. And for this reason now I say unto you plainly, That the kingdom of God, which you have thus vilely and ungratefully abused, shall be taken away from you, and given to a nation which shall bring forth the fruits thereof; that is, his gospel shall be taken from you, and be carried to the Gentiles, who will have more regard to the favour shewn them, and improve it much better than you have done.

And when they heard this sad denunciation with which the parable concluded, and found that [it] was aimed at them, they said, God forbid that this should be the case with regard to us, nor can we ever believe that it will.

And Jesus looked upon them with great seriousness and solemnity in his countenance, and said unto them, What is this then that is written? (Psal. cxviii. 22, 23.) Did you never read, or never reflect upon, this remarkable passage in the scriptures, “The stone which the builders refused, the same is become the head stone of the corner: this

The head stone of the corner.] This stone, as it does not appear exactly to take to be the meaning of the words answer to ἀκρογανία, (Eph. ii. 20, and ἐφανία γωνία, rather than the chief corner 1 Pet. ii. 6) which, as the connection in

lers see to seize him, but are afraid of the peo e.

is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes?” Words which, though they might seem to be accomplished in the exaltation of David to the Jewish throne, are in their highest sense applicable to the Messiah, who, though disdainfully rejected by you scribes and Pharisees and rulers of the people, whose office it is to build up the church, is nevertheless chosen by God to be its great support and ornament. And therefore let me plainly tell you, That whosoever shall fall upon this stone, that is, whosoever shall stumble at me and my doctrine, while I am here on earth in this humble form, he shall be broken and damaged by it; but on whomsoever it shall fall, when raised up to so glorious an eminence, it shall even grind him to powder, like a brittle potsherd crushed by the weight of some huge stone falling upon it from on high. (Compare Dan. ii. 44.) So whoever shall oppose me after my exaltation to glory, and the pouring out of my Spirit for the full revelation of my gospel and proof of my mission, he will bring upon himself aggravated guilt, and dreadful unavoidable destruction.

And when the chief priests and the scribes and Pharisees had heard his parables which he had now delivered, they were so provoked at what he had said, that even in that very hour they sought to lay their hands on him, that they might prosecute him even to death; for they plainly perceived that he had spoken this parable of the wicked husbandmen that should be destroyed

those places shews (as well as the use of it in other authors), signifies that great corner stone which lay at the bottom of the building as its support. What is mentioned afterwards of this head stone falling on a person, seems not to suit with the supposition of its being laid on or under the ground. Compare Zech. iv. 7.

Though they might seem to be accomplished in the exaltation of David, Mr. Jeffery has justly observed (in his Review, p. 119) that on the principles of Analogy this passage will be much to the present purpose, though it should be confessed that Psal. exviii. was immediately meant of David: as it would prove that the

great builders of Israel might refuse one whom God intended for the Head stone of the corner.

On whomsoever it shall fall, &c.] Dr. Whitby supposes that here is an allusion to the two different ways of stoning among the Jews; the former, by throwing a person down upon a great stone; and the other, by letting a stone fall upon him. But as I cannot see that the latter was all more dreadful than the former, since in such a case a quick dispatch might seem most desirable, it seems to me that the force and beauty of this pathetic passage would be in a great measure lost by such an interpretation.

Reflections on the parable of the unfaithful hus

against them,¹ and had in effect set them all at defiance by the application of so signal a prophecy to himself. But they feared the people who were then present in the temple, because they esteemed him as a Prophet sent from God, and would not have borne that immediate assault upon him which the rage of these rulers would otherwise have engaged them to make. And therefore, not daring for the present to attempt to seize him with an open violence, they left him, and went away to take counsel in private against him, and to lay a plot for his life, which they might execute with less hazard to themselves.

IMPROVEMENT.

WHEN we read this parable, and consider it Jews, we applaud the righteous judgment of God so severely upon them the quarrel of his covenant of his Son; but let us take heed to ourselves after the same example of unbelief. (Heb. iv. 1)

God has given to every man some part of his private and improve, or some advantages to knock. And as for us who enjoy the Christian dispels particular reason to say, the lines are fallen to us (Psal. xvi. 6.) What could he have done more vineyard? How ungrateful therefore shall we erable too, if we withhold the fruits he so re if we slight the messengers by whom he so pathetically demands them; yea, if by wilful unbelief we in effect renew the slaughter of him that amazing favour he has done us, in character embassy of peace to us, whose aggravated crime deserved that he should have sent among us his vengeance. Oh that we may never be crown mouths in the censures we pass on the guile. We cannot surely think of the awful threat without some secret terror for ourselves, when shamefully we of this nation have abused our kingdom of God, said he, shall be taken from

¹ They perceived that he had spoken this parable against them.] One would think they could be at no loss for the interpretation of it, considering how nearly it resembles that in Isa. v. 1—7, with which they were, no doubt, well acquainted. Only it is to be observed that there Israel is the vineyard, here the true religion is represented under that figure; accordingly there it is threatened that the vineyard should be destroyed, but here that it should be let out to other husbandmen: each event suiting its connection.

Jesus delivers the parable of the marriage feast.

nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. God had been just had he long since executed such a judgment upon us : may he be merciful to us all in suspending and averting it ! May his compassion particularly extend to those amongst us who reject Christianity ; for the passage before us has a dreadful aspect upon such ! Whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear ; whether they will submit, or whether they will oppose ; Christ is made the Head of the corner, and God will for ever establish him as such. Wo to them who, instead of joining with him, and fixing the stress of their souls upon him, deliberately set themselves to oppose his cause and interest ! On such undoubtedly will he fall like a mighty rock of adamant, and miserably crush them in pieces, and grind them to powder.

Thus did our Lord warn his enemies most wisely and most graciously ; but they despised the admonition, and hated him for what was so kindly intended. They sought to lay hands on him because he had spoken this parable against them. High provocation indeed, to set their danger faithfully before them, that if by any means it were possible they might be awakened to escape it ! But, alas, what can save those whose spiritual distempers are exasperated by the most proper remedies prescribed for their cure !