The Tenants
Matthew 21:33-46
Jesus tells this very interesting and provocative story about a landowner and some farmers to whom he rented his land. In Jesus’ story, the landowner does all the work in the beginning. The land is his, and he plants a vineyard. He digs a winepress where the grapes can be trampled and the juice extracted. He builds a wall and a watchtower so the crop will be protected and guarded. Everything is in order for a great crop of grapes. The twist in the story is that the landowner then leases the vineyard out to a group of tenant farmers and goes away. The landowner does not leave because of lack of interest, for the tenants understand that he will return. However, he gives them a great deal of freedom and will not be there to watch over their every move. The farmers are simply to tend to the crop and the land, and when it is time, give him his share of the harvest. It is a simple plan and everyone wins. The landowner gets what belongs to him, and the tenants are provided for and get what they have earned.
But a problem arises when there is a rebellion among the farmers against the landowner. There is no mention that he has treated them unfairly or has wronged them in any way. That is not the issue. The problem is that they get greedy. They no longer want to be the tenants of the vineyard, they want to own it. They want it all — all the crop and all the land as well. So when the landowner sends his servants to collect his rightful share of the fruit, the tenants mistreat and beat the servants, even killing some of them. This happens several times until the landowner finally sends his son, expecting that they will respect him and give the landowner what is his due. But the farmers conspire even against the son. They say to each other, “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance. The land and the crops and everything else will be ours.” Then they took him outside the vineyard and killed him.
Let’s look at the parable piece by piece. What Jesus is doing is telling the world’s story and predicting his own death due to the rebellion of God’s creation. God is the landowner. He has made the world and everything in it. He planted all the trees and plants that give us food. He gives the world to us, and makes us his tenants. We are renters, not owners. However, we are provided for very well. But the landowner seems to be away on a journey somewhere. That is to say, God is out of sight. He is still the owner, even though it seems like he is not visibly present. We have been given a good world and a great deal of freedom. The land is fruitful and we are blessed to have been given the privilege of being tenants here. God has been good to us. But a problem has arisen. A rebellion is fomenting among the tenants. We, first of all, want to claim the Master’s land and everything on it as our own, and we want him to stay out of it. We abuse those who come and remind us that this world is not our own. We refuse to recognize God’s ownership of the world. Since the time that he appears to have gone on a journey, we have forgotten him and gotten used to the idea that all of this is ours. And, secondly, we do not want to give to God what rightfully belongs to him. So when God sent the prophets to call the people of the world to recognize God’s ownership and to give him what he is due, we not only became hostile to God, we killed his messengers. As they say, “If you don’t like the message, kill the messenger.” This has happened throughout the history of the world, and is still happening now. In many places of the world today, to preach the good news of Jesus openly is to face the possibility of imprisonment or a death sentence. It you think that is not the case, check the news today about the Iranian pastor Joucef Narkhani who has been condemned to death for converting to Christianity and preaching the Gospel.
But God was serious about having his ownership recognized and acknowledged. In the end, he sent his Son to call the world to acknowledge the kingdom of God and recognize that God is the King of that kingdom. But we hated God, and we hated God’s Son. We treated him worse than the prophets who went before him. We took him outside of the gates of Jerusalem and killed him. If he came today it would be outside the city limits of New York or Columbus. We would kill him all over again if he tried to come and remind us of God’s claim on our lives. We do not want to be accountable to anyone but ourselves. We don’t want someone telling us what to do, or what kind of people we ought to be, even if that Someone is God. As far as we are concerned the world belongs to us, and we convince ourselves that he may not exist after all. Our lives belong to us. We want to be free. In our thinking, to be free means to be free from God and free from rules.
So we claim the right over life and death. We can kill thousands with bombs and find ourselves cheering. We say, “It is my body and my choice. It doesn’t matter if the baby within me wants to live. I want it dead.” We say, “It doesn’t matter if we are harvesting unborn children; we need the stem cells.” We want the freedom to clone human embryos and become like God. What we would do with that technology staggers the mind. We want to rape the earth, regardless of what it does to future generations, as long as I get what I need. Even though we are married, we have found someone new who excites us and discard the person with whom we have made a marriage covenant. We want sex as recreation, removed from the act of creation and commitment. We want to run up our credit cards to the max and use our money as we please without regard for those in need. We don’t want to have to answer to God for any of these things. “It is our world. It is my life. And I will do as I please.” But the Bible says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1).
I began to wonder, as I studied this parable of Jesus, what would have happened if the tenants would have been allowed to get by with their rebellion. I think I know, because I live in the world that the parable is about. The farmers would have first rebelled against the landowner and then begin to fight among themselves. A fractured relationship with God always leads to fractured relationships with others. There would have been war among the tenants over who owned which part of the land, and as a result the vineyard would have been destroyed. There would have been great loss of life and suffering, but whoever the victor happened to be would think it was worth it all — even if all that was left was ashes.
I could cite many pieces of literature that address this penchant in the human heart to bolt from God and have its own way, even if it means ruin for them, but perhaps, the greatest piece is Fyodor Dostoevski’s book The Brothers Karamazov. The book is possibly the finest literature ever written by human hand. In it is found a chapter entitled “The Grand Inquisitor.” Ivan Karamazov is telling his brother a story that he has just written. The setting is Spain, during the terrible Spanish Inquisition where many people were put to death by the church for almost any heretical belief — real or imagined. In the story, Christ decides to reappear on earth during the time of the Inquisition. He comes quietly and inconspicuously, but everyone recognizes him and many are excited about his appearance. He says almost nothing, but people are drawn to him by an irresistible force. He stretches his hand out to bless the people and they are healed as he touches them. Christ is walking by the great Cathedral of Seville just as a child’s little coffin is brought in, with weeping parents who follow it into the church. Inside the casket is a lifeless little girl of seven. The child’s mother implores Christ to bring her back. Without a word he touches the young girl and raises her from the dead. Meanwhile, the bishop is looking on disapprovingly. His face darkens and he orders the arrest of the Stranger. But during the night, the Bishop descends the stairs into the cavern of the Sacred Court building where the Stranger is being held in a dark, vaulted prison. The Bishop, who is the Grand Inquisitor, i.e. the head inquisitor who inquires in order to discover heretics, looks at Christ in the squalid cell and says, “Is it you? You? Do not answer, be silent... Why did you come to meddle with us? Tomorrow I shall condemn you and burn you at the stake as the vilest of heretics, and the same people who today kissed your feet, will at the first sign from me rush to rake up the coals at your stake tomorrow.” But the Grand Inquisitor somehow changes his mind, and the story ends with these words: “When the Inquisitor finished speaking, he waited for some time for the Prisoner’s reply. His silence distressed him. He saw that the Prisoner had been listening intently to him all the time, looking gently into his face and evidently not wishing to say anything in reply. The old man would have liked him to say something, however bitter and terrible. But [the Prisoner] suddenly approached the old man and kissed him gently on his bloodless, aged lips. That was all his answer. The old man gave a start. There was an imperceptible movement at the corners of his mouth; he went to the door, opened it and said to him: ‘Go, and come no more—don’t come at all—never, never!’ And he let him out into ‘the dark streets and lanes of the city.’ The Prisoner went away.”
That is the story of our Christ-rejecting world. It is how we treat the Landowner. And the interesting thing is that both in Dostoevski’s story and Jesus’ parable, it is the religious folk who reject Jesus. The Bible says that the Pharisees knew that he was talking about them. They were the religious leaders. Even in the arena of religion God is not welcome. He is too radical. He is too awesome. His person and power are overwhelming. We prefer a god we can understand, control and even manipulate.
This is the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. The parable of Jesus begins here where they are the tenants of the world God has made. They live in a wonderful garden paradise. But he goes away for awhile and they are easily convinced that it is not enough to be a tenant. It is not good enough to be the friend of God, they want to be God. Like them, we begin to question the goodness of God, and we want to taste our independence. In our ear we hear the tempter’s words: “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). What an exhilarating thought! We begin to look around us and we decide we want to be in control. We throw off the control of God and cast aside restraint. We stop worshiping the Creator and begin worshiping creation. We kill the Giver and take his gifts. The vineyard will become our own.
The book of Acts describes many times when the messengers of God were beaten and mistreated by a God-hating world. They were often in danger of death, and it was often through those immersed in religion who were the greatest threat. At one point, Peter and the other apostles were about to be killed by the religious leaders of the land. They had been handed religious power and they were not about to let go of their control. But Gamaliel, one of the honorable men among them said, “I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God” (Acts 5:38-39). “Fighting against God.” That is what it is all about. We are still resisting and fighting God himself. We don’t want the Ten Commandments or any commandments, especially since they begin with the words: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). We will worship anything: the sun, moon and stars; trees, rocks and water; money, sex and power — anything but the Landowner.
One of the interesting things about the parable is that the landowner does not demand everything, he only asks his share. He would have treated the tenants fairly, more than fairly, but they did not want equity, they wanted it all. God has been rejected and his Son has been killed. They have been thrown out. But Jesus quoted the scripture that said: “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:22-23; Matthew 21:42). So Jesus gives us the real end of the story. It does not end in defeat, but victory. The very stone, this One who has been rejected and killed outside the city, will return and become the foundation of a new kingdom. The end of the story is found in the book of Revelation: “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever’” (Revelation 11:15).
And this cornerstone, this Rock of Ages, there are only two ways of approaching it — falling on it, or having it fall on you. Jesus said, “He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed” (Matthew 21:44). Fall on it and you will be broken to pieces. Have it fall on you and you will be crushed. Fall on it and your pride, your stubbornness, your self-will shall be broken to pieces. You will have to come in humility and submission, recognizing that the world and everything in it, including your personal life, are the property of God. You will have to acknowledge his ownership and give him what he is due. That is one approach. The only other approach is to resist and ultimately have the rock fall on you and crush you — that is what it will be like at the judgment.
The Pharisees told Jesus what they thought the landowner in the parable would do to those who refused to recognize his leadership and kill his son: “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end” (Matthew 21:41). They felt he would kill them as they had killed his son. But God, the real Landowner, would do the exact opposite. He would use the death of his son as an atoning sacrifice so that he might forgive the rebels and ultimately give them a land that was beyond anything they had ever known. The Bible says, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).
This is the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Rodney J. Buchanan
Amity United Methodist Church
October 2, 2011
rodbuchanan2000@yahoo.com
