Copyright © S P Townsend
Parables were stories set in a familiar context; they served to teach and illustrate spiritual truths. Jesus used them frequently. Indeed he did not teach the general public without using parables. Matthew said
Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world." Matt 13:34,35
Jesus was not the first to use parables, and God continues to reveal His will using such means. The prophet Nathan challenged David over his sin against Uriah using a parable about a man with a pet lamb (2 Sam 12:1-4). God revealed his will to Pharaoh through a parable given in a dream – the seven thin ears of corn that consumed seven fat ears but nevertheless grew no bigger, and the seven thin cows that consumed seven fat cows but remained just as thin. And God has written many parables on the pages of human history as recorded in the Bible. The tearing in two of the inner curtain of the temple when Jesus died is one such parable – a wonderful and dynamic depiction of the way into His presence being opened up through Christ’s death upon the cross.
Parables can be expressed using fact or fiction, actual or imagined events. We have no reason to believe that the Good Samaritan was a real person, even though some bright entrepreneur set up an Inn of the Good Samaritan halfway down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho! The seven thin ears of corn swallowing up the seven fat ears was clearly pure fantasy, but nevertheless it was indeed the revealed word of God, and being rightly understood it served to save both Egypt and Israel from starvation.
God may speak to us in parables today. When the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost Peter informed the people that this was a fulfilment of God’s ancient promise to pour out His Spirit, and speak to his people using visions, dreams, prophesies, wonders and signs.
We always need God’s Holy Spirit to reveal to us the meaning of parables. The meaning is not always obvious, and sometimes our initial assumptions can be quite off the mark. Some of Jesus’ parables have confused His followers ever since the time He spoke them. The parable of the Lost Son, or Prodigal Son, for example: what truth was Jesus teaching in his account of the disgruntled older brother?
One principle should be clear. A parable was not given in order to inform people about the context in which the story was set. Jesus did not tell the parable of the sower in order to educate people about agriculture, nor did he tell the story of the lost coin to inform about housework. His purpose was to teach spiritual truth. The context was often familiar and understandable to his hearers; the spiritual lessons were not usually so obvious. Consequently if we focus on the context we risk missing the main point of a parable. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to teach us the meaning. In this case the context is a vineyard rented out to tenant farmers. But what is the main point Jesus is making? It has nothing to do with farms, grapevines, wine, agricultural rental agreements or any such thing.
Sometimes the meaning seems to be really obvious; some parables seem more like examples than allegories, but even in these cases we are well advised to seek wisdom from the Holy Spirit. Take the parable of the Good Samaritan for instance. It seems very clear that Jesus was illustrating a lesson he had already explained – that we should love our neighbour as ourselves. But there are some aspects of the story that give us pause for thought. Why the specific inclusion of the priest and the Levite? Was this just to add colour, or was there a point being made. And what did the inn have to do with the lesson? Why didn’t the Good Samaritan just take the man home or to his original destination? And what about the curious reference to the Good Samaritan coming back to re-imburse the innkeeper? The more we examine the parable the more we ask, “What did Jesus mean?”
But put these questions about the Good Samaritan on the back burner for now, and let’s turn to another question, one that Jesus’ disciples themselves asked him.
Contrary to popular opinion, the intention of the parable was not to make spiritual truth easy to understand. The reason Jesus spoke to the general people in parables is given in Matt 13:10-17.
The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?" He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.”
Jesus spoke to the people in parables so that they would not understand the secrets of the Kingdom unless God himself revealed these to them. The parables required spiritual insight to understand their meaning. Jesus himself gave this insight to his disciples. Sometimes he also revealed part of the meaning to his hearers in general, as indeed he did with this particular parable. The Holy Spirit provides the same function for His followers today. This means that a simplistic human interpretation of a parable is not going to grasp the truth intended by God. Only His revelation can enable us to understand the true meaning.
Now this purpose is difficult for us to receive; indeed it is one of the most difficult teachings in the Bible. Jesus said that he deliberately veiled his words, otherwise the people might have repented and been saved. It was as if he had said, “These people are almost deaf through their unbelief, and so I speak really softly so that they do not hear what I’m saying.” Lord, I don’t understand this. You came to seek and to save the lost. You mourned over Jerusalem because they would not turn to you for salvation. So why did you veil your words? Now we need to appreciate that it was not just Jesus’ teaching that he veiled. In much the same way he veiled his own glory, as the carol says, “Veiled in flesh the godhead see.” If he had revealed himself in all of his divine glory then all would have acknowledged him as Lord and King, but he chose instead to veil his glory in human flesh, and consequently most did not believe in him. Oh, God had spoken often enough in the past, but the people had refused to listen. By the time Jesus came their ears had become almost deaf, their eyes almost blind, and their hearts almost as hard as stone. And so God decreed that the time had come for judgement. As Isaiah said, “Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand by the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overwhelming and righteous. The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.” (Isaiah 10:22,23). But although much of Jesus’ teaching was hidden, this did not lessen the people’s guilt. Jesus himself said,
"Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.” At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.” Matt 11:21-26.
The time was ripe for Israel’s judgement, and they did indeed deserve it. But it is still the case that God could have turned their hearts to repentance if He had chosen to do so. The fact that He did not is entirely in accordance with His divine will and purpose. He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion. His ways are beyond our ways, and it is not for us to question his purposes. Nevertheless He will grant us a deeper understanding if we seek Him in childlike humility and faith.
Actually God will bring Israel to repentance in His time (Is 45:17; Rom 11:25,26). But it will not be their doing. He will intervene to melt their hearts, He will reveal his glory to them and take away the scales from their eyes, just as He did for Saul of Tarsus. Regarding when this will happen, Jesus said that it is not for us to know the times or dates that the Father has set by His authority (Acts 1:7). The prophet Hosea gives us only a very broad perspective: “After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence” (Hos 6:2). God’s word is clear: He will bring them to repentance, but it will be in His perfect timing. Some of us have long been praying for loved ones, for their salvation, for their healing. God has His perfect timing, and the reasons for His particular and perfect choice of time may never be revealed to us, but we can rest assured that His timing is the best timing. Do not think of it as delay, for God does not delay one second beyond His chosen time. Think of it rather as perfect timing.
A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for a winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent many other servants in succession to them; some of them they beat, others they killed. He sent his son last of all, expecting them to respect him. But they discussed the matter between themselves, then threw him out of the vineyard and killed him, planning to assume full ownership of the vineyard themselves. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others who will give him what is due.
Matthew tells us that Jesus added an explanation to the people, and particularly the chief priests and Pharisees. "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.” (Matt 21:43) The record says that they knew he was referring to them, and consequently they started looking for ways to kill him.
Actually Jesus’ hearers would have recognised this story, or at least the start of it. It starts off like another story, in fact a song, recorded in the prophesy of Isaiah (Isaiah 5: 1-7).
Jesus’ story has the same constituent parts: a vineyard, the planted vines, a wall or hedge, a watchtower, a winepress, and the expectation of harvest. Jesus hearers, particularly the priests and the Pharisees, will have recognised this, and it would have made them very uncomfortable. For Isaiah was quite explicit in his application of this song. The vineyard stood for the people of Israel themselves, and because of the lack of fruit in their lives they would experience God’s judgement.
But Jesus’ parable does not finish as Isaiah’s song did. Jesus introduces the idea of tenant farmers looking after the vineyard, and in his parable it is not the vineyard that is destroyed but the tenants, and the vineyard is handed over to other tenants who will supply fruit to the owner.
So whereas in Isaiah’s song the vineyard represented the house of Israel, in Jesus’ parable the vineyard represents the kingdom of God. The priests and the Pharisees assumed that the kingdom belonged to them, failing to understand that it actually belonged to the one whom God would send, His beloved Son, the Christ. So they conspired together to crucify Jesus, in a desperate attempt to secure the kingdom for themselves. How ironic that having recognised that Jesus had spoken this parable against them they then proceeded to do just what his parable said they would do.
So as a consequence of their actions, and of those of the majority of the people who shouted, “Crucify him!” those tenants were seized and punished. Israel was destroyed as a nation, and they were dispersed amongst the nations of the earth for the best part of 2 millenia. And the vineyard – the kingdom of God – has been handed over to other tenants to care for. We, who belong to Jesus, are part of that new group of farmers. We are the ones to whom the owner of the vineyard now comes seeking fruit.
God is no longer expecting the fruit of His kingdom from the people of Israel. His kingdom is not in their hands at this time. It is in our hands, and it is to us that the Lord comes expecting fruit.
And thus Jesus’ warning comes to us with increased force. At times parts of the worldwide church have fallen into complacency, filled with pride that they were the new tenants of the vineyard, viewing the old tenants with contempt, taking no notice of Jesus’ warning that the Lord comes expecting to find fruit.
What kid of fruit is the Lord expecting? The fruit of lives that are lived for his glory and that reflect his likeness. The fruit of lives that demonstrate his love. The fruit of lives that hear his word and obey it. The fruit of new life born into the family of God. The fruit of maturity in the faith for those who have been in the family for a long time. The fruit of those who seize hold of God’s promises and strive in prayer until his will is done on earth as in heaven.
What can prevent the fruit being there for the Lord? We can be careless in maintaining the wall around the vineyard, so that the foxes get in and eat the grapes. We can be careless in manning the watchtower, so that the enemy comes unseen and unnoticed to steal and destroy. We can allow the weeds to grow up and smother the vines. We can refuse to submit to the winepress, for the juice will not flow without pressure, and no more will others receive God’s grace through us without sacrifice and pain. We can plant vines that bear no fruit and expend all our energy on them. We can ignore the broken and diseased branches until they eventually fail. We can work so hard without rest that we end up exhausted. And we can forget the Lord altogether, and put in all the effort for our own benefit and glory.
Why don’t you ask the Lord just now, “Lord is there anything you need to show me that hinders the fruitfulness of the part of your vineyard where you have placed me?”
Some of you have worked so hard in recent weeks for events such as Imagine, and the Holiday Bible Clubs. I have no doubt that there has been much fruit for the Lord’s pleasure and glory. But maybe if I asked some of you how you feel after all the hard work you would say, “drained.” I guess that’s how grapes in the winepress feel after the wine has been extracted. And for you the Lord may not be saying, “work harder” or “man the watchtower” or “repair the fence” but “come unto me and I will give you rest.” Above all else for fruitfulness he tells us, “remain in me and I in you” (John 15:4). And just now what you may need more than anything is to spend time in his presence, to relax in the warmth of his sunlight, to soak in the gentle rain of his Spirit, and to have your strength renewed as you wait upon him. So as we move into this extended time of worship, open up yourself to him just now, and receive his grace.
Copyright © S P Townsend