46 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
46 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Luke 20:9–18"
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date = "2023-01-23"
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### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Lk20.9-18)
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Having met the challenge to His authority, Jesus teaches a parable about a
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landowner and wicked tenants. The landowner sends slaves to get his portion of
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the harvest of the land from the tenants, but the tenants refuse to hand it
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over. Instead they beat the slaves and send them back to their master. Three
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times they are sent and three times they are beaten and turned away.
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In real life, after the first time the tenants refused to pay, a landowner
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would likely send soldiers to enforce the agreement he had with the tenants. In
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this story, though, the landowner sends his son whom he loves, thinking the
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tenants may respect him. However, the tenants see an opportunity to muddy up
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the legal waters. If the heir to the land is dead, then who might it pass to
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when the owner dies if not themselves? So they take the heir outside of the
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vineyard and kill him.
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At this point, Jesus tells the people that the landowner no longer has mercy on
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his wicked tenants, comes back to his vineyard, kills the tenants, and hands
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over the vineyard to others to manage. The reaction of the crowd is
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interesting, I think. "Surely not!" they cry (_v. 16_); a vehement rejection of
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what Jesus said. They understood that the parable was about God's relationship
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with Israel, where He sends the prophets to the people, who reject them.
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Eventually He sends His own Son, and He is killed, so they are thinking that
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Jesus says God will replace Israel as His chosen people.
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They have forgotten that God had already done that before, way back when they
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were about to enter the Promised Land for the first time. A whole generation of
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Israelites died in the wilderness except for Joshua and Caleb because of their
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unbelief. God's promise to Israel can't be broken, even by Himself, but the
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individuals within the group can be changed.
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Jesus is then very direct when He quotes Psalm 118 to them. The verse He
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mentions comes in the section celebrating God's victory over evil in the last
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days. Altogether He is linking the landowner's son with the rejected stone that
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brings about final victory, crushing those who stumble over it.
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* * *
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Let us rejoice and be glad in the Day of the Lord, when You prove Yourself the
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ruler of all the earth.
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