Matthew
21:33-46
Jesus
Tells the Parable of the Wicked
Tenants
33
"Listen to another parable: There
was a landowner who planted a
vineyard. He put a wall around
it, dug a winepress in it and
built a watchtower. Then he
rented the vineyard to some
farmers and went away on a
journey. 34When the harvest time
approached, he sent his servants
to the tenants to collect his
fruit.
35 "The
tenants seized his servants; they
beat one, killed another, and
stoned a third. 36Then he sent
other servants to them, more than
the first time, and the tenants
treated them the same way. 37Last
of all, he sent his son to them.
'They will respect my son,' he
said.
38 "But
when the tenants saw the son,
they said to each other, 'This is
the heir. Come, let's kill him
and take his inheritance.' 39So
they took him and threw him out
of the vineyard and killed him.
40
"Therefore, when the owner of the
vineyard comes, what will he do
to those tenants?"
41 "He
will bring those wretches to a
wretched end," they replied, "and
he will rent the vineyard to
other tenants, who will give him
his share of the crop at harvest
time."
42 Jesus
said to them, "Have you never
read in the Scriptures:
" 'The
stone the builders rejected
has
become the capstone;
the Lord
has done this,
and it
is marvelous in our eyes'?
43
"Therefore I tell you that the
kingdom of God will be taken away
from you and given to a people
who will produce its fruit. 44He
who falls on this stone will be
broken to pieces, but he on whom
it falls will be crushed."
45 When
the chief priests and the
Pharisees heard Jesus' parables,
they knew he was talking about
them. 46They looked for a way to
arrest him, but they were afraid
of the crowd because the people
held that he was a
prophet.
This
is the Word of the Lord ... It is
meant to change the way that we
think, and the way that we live.
Commentary
by Bob
Pardue
The
Tenants
- The
parable above has many
different elements. So many
that you might want to get out
your study Bible which lists
them all.
-
- I am
going to focus on why we
should choose to follow Christ
now instead of
procrastinating.
-
- God has
done everything to show His
love for us, including sending
His only son to die on the
cross that we may be forgiven
of our sins.
-
- He
gives this love and mercy
freely. We don't earn it, we
can't be "good enough" to get
into heaven on our own. It's
only through Jesus Christ that
we can enter.
-
- There
is no greater gift we can
receive than the mercy of God
through Christ.
-
- But,
there will come a time of
judgment so we have to be
prepared when that day comes.
At that time, Christ will
become the "crushing stone" as
foretold in chapter
44.
-
- God
freely offers mercy and
forgiveness now and guarantees
our salvation. He also
promises judgment later and
then it will be too
late.
-
- With
that said, now is the time to
choose Jesus.
-
-
- Love in
Christ
-
Bob
If you have
never made the commitment to
receive the love and
life-changing experience of Jesus
Christ, please take a moment to
go
here
and take the first
steps
to salvation.
Bob
Pardue
is a member of First
Baptist
Church
in Lancaster, SC. He is ordained
from Rich Hill Baptist in
Lancaster.
Want
to place this passage and
commentary on your website or
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content?
This
article about Jesus and the
parable of the wicked tenants may
be freely reprinted or
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website. The author's name, bio,
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included with every
reproduction.
Bob
Verses are from Life
Application Study Bible: New
International Version
Comments are welcome.
Please email
me with any questions
or comments you may have.
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