Wisdom Wednesday : Wisdom of the Parables Part 4
Submitted by Debbie’s Dad
The Rejected, Disabled and Killed
And He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to vine-growers, and went on a journey for a long time. 10 At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would give him some of the produce of the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send another slave; and they beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send a third; and this one also they wounded and cast out. The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others.” When they heard it, they said, “May it never be!” But Jesus looked at them and said, “What then is this that is written: ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone’? “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”
(Luke 20:9–18) NASB 95
This week we look at another parable where Jesus included disabled people in His illustrative story to convey a spiritual truth. This parable is recounted by Luke, Matthew (Matt. 21:33-46) and Mark (Mark 12:1-12). We again view this parable as recorded by Luke from the perspective of the disabled person.
The context of this parable is the exciting period when Jesus was teaching at the temple in Jerusalem after His entry to Jerusalem on “Palm Sunday” (Luke 19:28-39) and then the excitement when he drove the merchants out of the temple (19:45-46). That week, He taught in the temple, while the religious leaders sought to find a way to destroy Him (19:48-49). On these days of heightened tensions, as the Leaders tried to trap Him verbally, Jesus gave the parable that represented the religious leaders as stewards or vine-growers of God’s vineyard – the Hebrew spiritual responsibility to represent the true Creator God to the people of the Earth.
In the parable above, the owner of the vineyard (God) gave responsibility to the vine-growers (the religious leaders) to maintain true worship – tending the vineyard (God’s kingdom). But they failed, and the owner sent a series of representatives, and they injured (disabled temporarily at least) each representative, sending them away. In Matthew’s recounting of the parable, the vine-growers beat one, killed one, and stoned another representative. In Mark’s telling of the parable, they beat one, wounded one in the head, and killed the other. And in this account by Luke, the first they beat (a “scourging” – hitting with a rod), the second they beat and then treated shamefully, and the third they wounded.
All three were rejected, harmed and disabled in the story. They were treated shamefully.
Who were these representatives? They were the Old Testament prophets that were sent by God to the leaders of Israel to chastise and warn them of their deviation from God’s Way. Consider the treatment given to just a few:
- Jeremiah was beaten (Jeremiah 20:1,2) and church tradition suggests that he was stoned to death in Egypt by religious opposition.
- Isaiah was murdered by King Manasseh according to church tradition.
- Zechariah was stoned to death (2 Chron. 24:20-22)
The book of Hebrews summarizes the awful treatment of the faithful prophets (Heb. 11: 32-37).
Jesus later told the religious leaders that He would send more prophets, wise men and scribes to tell them the truth, but they would likewise persecute them (Matt. 23:34-36), And the Book of Acts describes Stephen’s proclamation of the Gospel (Acts 7:1-54) and the stoning that killed him (7: 55-60).
In the parable, the final messenger sent to the vine-growers by the owner was his son- the heir to the vineyard. Realizing this was the heir to the vineyard, they plotted and killed him. The parable, of course, was illustrating the way the religious leaders plotted and killed Jesus, Son of God, the heir and king of the kingdom of God. Indeed, Jesus was wounded and scorned and killed like the son in the parable. Jesus experienced physical disabilities in the hours of his torture and death.
Jesus concluded his message by quoting Psalm 118:22, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone.” The rejected Son of God has become the king of the Kingdom of God. In the earlier parable of the Big Dinner, the disabled and rejected became the honored guests at the feast; in this parable, the disabled and rejected Son became the King of kingdom!
Once again, in another parable, Jesus’ illustration applied the injured, wounded, and rejected to refer to His representatives, and even to Himself. He was wounded and understood the pain of suffering. (Isaiah 53a; “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities…”) He understood physical pain and disability.
