Against Human Religion

Jesus is in a conversation with the chief priests and elders who challenged his authority. He tells his second parable against them.

Matthew 21:33-46

“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.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet.

The parable (v. 33-40)

“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.”

Still talking to the chief priests and elders in the presence of those at the Temple, Jesus tells a parable in which He alludes to the vineyard in Isaiah 5 that produced only worthless grapes. In his parable, there are four positions described: (1) the landowner, (2) the renters, (3) the slaves, and (4) the son. In a parable, each type of character represents someone.

The landowner most likely represents God the Father. In verse 43, we see Jesus ascribing the work of the landowner to God the father. The vineyard in this parable, then, is the kingdom of God. God owns His kingdom.

The renters represent the chief priests and elders, who will later recognize that Jesus is speaking about them (v. 45). They are the ones who killed the slaves and desire to kill the son in order to take the son’s inheritance for themselves.

The slaves most likely represent the prophets up to and including John the Baptist (cf. v. 32; 23:37). The prophets were sent to Israel throughout Israel’s history, and many died because they were killed by Israelites who did not like their message:

Reference	Description
1 Kings 18:4	Jezebel killed the prophets of Yahweh.
1 Kings 19:10	The sons of Israel killed the prophets.
Nehemiah 9:26	Israel killed the prophets.
2 Kings 9:7	God avenges His prophets.
Tradition	Isaiah was sawed in half by Manasseh of Judah.
Tradition	Jeremiah was stoned to death by his people.
Tradition	Ezekiel was killed by a leader of Israelite exiles in Babylon.
Tradition	Micah was killed by Joram of Israel.
Tradition	Amos was tortured by Amaziah, a priest of Bethel, and bludgeoned by Amaziah’s son—dying later form complications of the blunt force trauma.
Tradition	Zechariah son of Jehoiada was stoned to death in the Temple courtyard, supposedly bringing bad omens on the Temple.
Matthew 14:10	John the Baptist was beheaded by Herod the Tetrarch.

The son, then, is Jesus. The chief priests and elders will try to kill him, also (cf. v. 46). According to this parable, it will be to try to take Jesus’s inheritance—the fruit of the kingdom.

There are many today who hold to a form of godliness; they are interested in building their own kingdoms on Christ’s back—pursuing sordid gain through means of religion or religious language. They presume that if they do and confess the correct things they will prosper in this life and/or the next. They are renters who try to use God’s vineyard to produce their own fruit. Because they love what they can gain rather than the Father, they persecute the Father’s slaves and His Son.

“Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?”

The chief priests and elders do not yet know Jesus is talking about them. Jesus has simply told a parable and not asks what the landowner will do.

The application (v. 41-44)

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.”

Once again, the chief priests and elders answer Jesus correctly. Confessionally, they know that God is interested in His own glory and that He will repay injustice done to His servants and children. Practically, there is no root, and they are blind to their own infractions against the heavenly kingdom. They have mistaken their ritual for relationship.

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.”

Jesus quotes from Psalm 118, a psalm of deliverance, and asks if the chief priests and elders have read it. The psalmist confesses monergism, and Jesus’s use of the psalm indicates that the son could only receive His inheritance from the Father; the cornerstone, Christ, is with God and is God. The stone which the builders rejected is the son in Jesus’s parable—a reference to Jesus Himself. These chief priests and elders will reject Jesus because they are interested in building their own kingdoms on His back. They will be unable because Jesus, whom they reject, is the cornerstone of the kingdom. There will be no kingdom but His. So, like the renters in the parable, God will bring them to a wretched end and give the vineyard to others who will produce kingdom fruit rather than sordid fruit. 

Those who fall on the stone, trip over Jesus because of their own religiosity or self-interest, will be broken to pieces, or brought to a wretched end. “But” or “and” Jesus will scatter whoever he falls upon like dust. Jesus is not interested in propping up the self-righteous but destroying human-centered religion and humbling people. The vineyard is His inheritance, not ours. Our work is for His gain, not ours. The vineyard workers are stewards of their produce for a time and give their produce to the son who has inherited the vineyard from his father at the harvest. The son, Jesus Christ, has inherited His kingdom from the Father. Lest we think Christ does not care for His people, we remember that He will pay the workers in His vineyard according to their faithfulness in the labor He has called them to (cf. v. 41; 20:1-16). The chief priests and elders have not been faithful. They are serving themselves rather than the royal son.

The reaction (v. 45-46)

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet.

The chief priests and elders, who are here identified as Pharisees, hear and understand what Jesus is doing. They don’t like being accused or condemned. Because the crowd, at this point, holds Jesus in such high regard, they cannot seize Him. The fact that they seek to seize Jesus proves Jesus’s parabolic evaluation of them.

The text has been exposed, and it exposes us. There are some who confess Christ or go to church not because they love Christ but because they believe they can gain something for themselves. People of every religious or “irreligious” persuasion often make a certain confession, adopt a certain set of practices, or begin attending a regular meeting or evaluation of some kind because they see that they might gain from doing so. Some have made a confession that Christ is Lord because they do not want to go to Hell, want to go to heaven, or want to see loved ones again someday. In basically Christian cultures, people become Christians because they see that they can be part of the tribe, promote their businesses, or gain friends by doing so. Some begin practicing Christianity because they don’t want to be exiled from their families or see some benefit to the Christian ethic that may enable them to live happy or fulfilled lives. People have made religious confessions or adopted religious practices because they desire security in the midst of a society that comprises certain religious traditions (e.g. Islam). Some confess ideologies because it will earn them a successful place in the world and secure their places in academia (e.g. educationalism, workaholism, darwinism). By nature, we make confessions and adopt certain practices because we believe them to be advantageous to us. The chief priests and elders were no different. False conversion and false religion is marked by such sordid confession. If I came to Christ so I can get to heaven, I probably am not part of His kingdom.

Why do we confess Christ and seek to honor Him with our lives? Why do we prioritize our participation with the local church? Why do we do anything that we do? Do we love Christ, or do we only love what we think we can gain from Christ? Christ is calling workers to His vineyard to produce fruit for Himself, not so people can build their own kingdoms on His back. Majority religion encourages people to be self-absorbed and concerned about sordid gain—such is the “get outta Hell” sort of invitation. If we are genuinely called by Christ, we produce His fruit. Otherwise, the kingdom is taken from us and given to those who will bear proper kingdom fruit. We can trust Christ to pay proceeds at the proper seasons. We cannot serve both God and mammon, even if our mammon looks religious. We will love one and hate the other (cf. 6:24).