Meditations in Matthew Twenty-one: Two Vineyard Parables

A previous post (here) showed Jesus’s first-last parable (Matt 20:1–15) was about kingdom transfer. The exchange happened at the end of the Mosaic age and the beginning of the messianic age.

In Matthew 21, Jesus reinforced that message in five ways—by three symbolic actions (Matt 21:1–22) and two parables (Matt 21:23–46). Our last post (here) discussed Jesus’s symbolic actions. He contemplated the city (Matt 21:1–11), cleansed the Temple (Matt 21:12–17), and cursed the nation (Matt 21:18–22).

We will now consider the Lord’s two parables. One involved a man and his two sons (Matt 21:23–32).¹ The other described a householder and his vineyard-servants (Matt 21:33–46).

Jesus did all this (and more) on Tuesday following the original Palm Sunday—almost exactly 1,989 years ago.² “The Synoptic Gospels give more details of the teaching of Jesus on this Tuesday in the Temple and on the Mount of Olives than for any other single day.”³ The activities of that day reinforced the message Jesus announced when he began his ministry—“the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 4:17). Jesus preached the same kingdom-message from the beginning of his ministry to the last week of his life.

Jesus’s two parables make this point. One shows who would enter that kingdom and who would not (Matt 21:31). The other shows God taking the kingdom from one group and giving it to another (Matt 21:43).

Later that day, Jesus made it clear the parables were speaking of things in his immediate future. “Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation” (Matt 23:36). “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (Matt 24:34).

We should keep this time perspective in mind as we consider these two parables. Both pertain to the transition from the Mosaic-age kingdom to the messianic-age kingdom.

The Parable of Two Sons

Jesus gave the parable of two sons (Matt 21:23–32) in response to a challenge. After he performed the three symbolic actions, the Jewish leaders asked a question. “By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?” (Matt 21:23).

Jesus silenced them with a question of his own. “The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?” (Matt 21:25). They could not answer without negative consequences to themselves.

This exchange set the stage for the parable. Jesus said, 

But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him. (Matt 21:28–32; emphasis added)

John the Baptist had preached this kingdom. He had said, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 3:2; emphasis added). The Jews had, for the most part, refused to heed this message. They were not entering the kingdom. Now, it was time for others to enter.

Jesus explained the central message of his parable in unmistakable terms. We want to show how that explanation fits within inmillennialism.

To do so, we need to review our definition of some terms. Israel after the flesh comes from Paul’s statement in 1 Cor 10:18. It refers to those in covenant relationship with God during the Mosaic age. That age lasted from the Exodus from Egypt to the Temple’s fall in AD 70. The law defined and determined this Israel. It set the boundaries for who belonged to the people of God.

The New Testament provides another definition of Israel. It says during the Mosaic age there was a spiritual Israel within Israel after the flesh. We can paraphrase Paul: “They are not all Israel [after the Spirit], which are of Israel [after the flesh]” (Rom 9:6). Paul called this spiritual Israel the “Israel of God” (Gal 6:16). It comprises all those in Christ.

God referred to Israel after the flesh as his “son.” He said to Pharaoh: “Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me” (Exod 4:22–23; emphasis added). He reaffirmed this relationship through Hosea. “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt” (Hos 11:1; emphasis added).

In Jesus’s parable, the second son mentioned⁴ is Israel after the flesh. This son said he would go to work in the father’s vineyard (Matt 21:30). This corresponds to what Israel after the flesh had said after the Exodus. At Mt. Sinai they had said, “All that the LORD hath spoken we will do” (Exod 19:8). God’s son promised to work in his vineyard.

This son was unfaithful. He (Israel after the flesh) did not obey the covenant God made with him during the Exodus. God made a prediction about him. “This people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them” (Deut 31:16). This was the son failing to go into the vineyard.

But God had another Son, our Lord Jesus Christ (e.g., Matt 3:17; 17:5; 2 Pet 1:17). This Son represents sinners. He acts on behalf of “the publicans and the harlots” who believe on him. They are Israel after the Spirit, the “Israel of God” (Gal 6:16). These (mostly) did not enter God’s vineyard during the Mosaic age. 

They would do so at God’s appointed time. “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal 4:4–5). This Son performed the vineyard-work God gave him (cp. John 17:4). And, through the Holy Spirit, the Israel of God now works in the vineyard (cp. Eph 2:10). 

This parable shows the faithfulness of one Son (Jesus) and those represented by him. It also shows the unfaithfulness of another son (Israel after the flesh). Those represented by him refused to work in God’s vineyard.

The Parable of the Tenants

The parable of the tenants (Matt 21:33–46) continued Jesus’s teaching about the kingdom. A passage in Isaiah helps us understand his meaning. The prophet said,

Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. (Isa 5:1–7; emphasis added)

In Jesus’s parable, the householder represents God. Israel is the vineyard. “The time of the fruit” (Matt 21:34) had drawn near. God had sent his servants (the prophets) to the tenants (or husbandmen) of the vineyard during the Mosaic age. During the “last days” of that age, God sent his Son (Jesus) to them. They were about to cast him out of the vineyard and kill him (Matt 21:39).

The “chief priests and the elders” (Matt 21:23) knew what the householder in the parable would do. They said, “He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons” (Matt 21:41).

Jesus pressed the lesson against them. Introducing another metaphor, he identified himself as the Stone which they were rejecting (Matt 42; cp. Ps 118:22–23). He concluded by saying, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” (Matt 21:43–44).

Israel after the flesh had proven to be an unfruitful nation during the Mosaic age. She had failed to be “an holy nation” to the Lord (Exod 19:6). The Israel of God comprised those in Christ. She was “an holy nation … that … should shew forth the praises” of God (1 Pet 2:9).

Within a generation, God would transfer the kingdom from the old to the new Israel. He would grind to powder the husbandmen of the Mosaic-age vineyard.

Conclusion

Inmillennialism accounts for these two parables with ease. In both, the Lord compared his kingdom to a vineyard. He was speaking of his “church kingdom,” not his “creation kingdom.”⁵ 

One of God’s sons—Israel after the flesh—said he would work in the vineyard (i.e., Mosaic-age church kingdom). He did not do so. Later, another Son (Jesus)—the Israel of God—entered into it. This Son represents “the publicans and the harlots” who believe in him. They work in the vineyard (i.e., the messianic-age church kingdom).

The first husbandmen in God’s vineyard (i.e., in the Mosaic-age church kingdom) did wicked things. They killed the servants (i.e., the prophets) God sent to them. At last, they killed his Son (i.e., the Lord Jesus). God then took the church kingdom from them and gave it to the Israel of God (Gal 6:16). That “holy nation” now lives in the vineyard (i.e., in the messianic-age church kingdom).

The next four chapters (Matt 22–25) will show other events that happened on this Tuesday. They will reinforce the message of these two parables.

1. The image in this post is The Parable of the Two Sons (2012) by A. N. Mironov. This file (here) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
2. We plan to publish this post on April 3, 2019, less than two weeks before Palm Sunday.
3. A. T. Robertson, A Harmony of the Gospels for Students of the Life of Christ (New York: Harper, 1922), 159.
4. This “first” and “second” do not indicate chronological order.
5. Our reasons for this terminology are here, here, and here.