The Parable of the Landowner is a teaching of Christ from the book of Matthew which addresses a very common problem among Christians today. In this parable, we learn to submit fully to Christ and to obey his word as it is written.

Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?”
They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures,

’THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED,
THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER STONE;
THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD,
AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES?’

“Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”
(Matthew 21:33-46)

In direct context, Jesus is talking about the Pharisees, however it is applicable to all people. First consider the landowner. He is God. He created the world with everything necessary to produce good works for Himself. The landowner entrusted this to men of a sinful nature.

The Pharisees are these men who were trusted to produce fruit with God’s vineyards for God. Instead, they used it to produce for themselves and reject those who are sent by God. The Israelites repeatedly rejected and persecuted the prophets who were sent by God to bring them to repentance.

Christ is a direct parallel to the landowner’s son. He was sent to retrieve the produce, but he was killed and thrown out of the garden. The Pharisees did the same thing with Jesus. The rejected him because they wanted to continue with their ways and the teaching of Christ did not accommodate their lifestyle. So often, we do the same thing. We withhold Christ from acting in certain parts of our lives because we know that it means major change and we just are not willing to submit to his authority. For the Pharisees, the rejection of Christ meant that salvation would be given freely to the gentiles since they so openly rejected the gift for so long. In the end, those who have thrown Christ out of their vineyard, out of their hearts and did not submit fully to him will not receive the gift which he offers, forgiveness and eternity with him. The gift of salvation is only for those who will use it to produce fruit for the Father.

An additional application can be made for the church. The church which is set up in God’s vineyard must adhere to the laws of God, the landowner. It’s so easy to change the text to accommodate social expectations of religion however that is not how God designed it. The church must be true to the Word which is God and was with God before the creation of the world or it will bring destruction upon itself and its people.

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