The Essential Law of the Vineyard

 By Zachary Groff - Posted at Place for Truth:

"Christ sets the essential law of the vineyard before His hearers in Matthew 21:37 as a mirror by which they must examine themselves. We too must examine ourselves – our hearts, speech, and behavior – by this perfect standard of divine law. Do not examine yourself by your interests, ideas, or imagination. Judge yourself by the standard of God’s sovereign edict and eternal Word: 'They will respect my son.' Consider the cautionary tale of the vine-growers in Christ’s parable. How did they respond? Not well."

The metaphor of God’s kingdom as a vineyard is one that has Old Testament vintage, which is appropriate when talking about a vineyard. Long before Christ’s first advent, the prophet Isaiah described the Kingdom of Judah as a vineyard well-supplied to do what it is supposed to do: produce grapes for wine (Isa. 5:1-2). As the owner of the vineyard, God sumptuously provides a setting in which His people can be productive. In turn, a healthy vineyard is a productive garden. What Isaiah first presented, and Christ subsequently quoted, is a description of God’s Kingdom as a new Edenic paradise. But there is trouble in paradise.

Trouble in Paradise

In Isaiah’s day, the trouble in the vineyard was one of fruitlessness due to injustice, unrighteousness, and distress under wicked leaders (Isa. 5:7). Christ drew on Isaiah’s prophecy as He identified the trouble in Judea and Samaria during His own earthly ministry: self-serving hypocrisy among the leaders of the people.

In Christ’s parable, the tenant-farmers or vine-growers represent the hypocritical “chief priests and the elders of the people” who had challenged the Lord when He entered the Temple complex in Jerusalem (Matt. 21:23). Though God had entrusted His vineyard-kingdom to them, their selfishness was hindering its productivity.

Christ viscerally addressed the problem of hypocritical rulers throughout the history of Israel: wicked kings, power-tripping priests, and false prophets. By citing Isaiah 5, Jesus made clear that the historical situation Isaiah faced in Judah had persisted to His day. Such a grim evaluation of the spiritual life of Israel was nothing short of shocking. Everything around them in the Temple seemed to bustle with activity and life, and yet there was a deeply ingrained rot of hypocrisy among the leaders of the people.

The temptation to self-advancing hypocrisy is always present in the church. It is especially alluring to men who exercise leadership in the church. To resist this temptation, we must see the call to lead not first as something that sets men over others, but as a station that sets men under and accountable to Christ as servants in His vineyard.

Continue here.