CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 21:33. A vineyard.—Was regarded as the most valuable plantation, which yielded the largest harvest, but required also the most constant labour and care (Schaff). A winepress.—The winepress was often dug or hewn out of the limestone rock in Palestine. There were two receptacles or vats. The upper one was strictly the press or ληνός (Matthew), the lower one the winefat or ὑπολήνιον (Mark) into which the expressed juice of the grape passed. The two vats are mentioned together only in Joel 3:13, “The press (gath) is full, the fats (yekabim) overflow” (Carr). A tower.—Which would serve partly as a watch-tower, and partly as a storage for the wine, and partly, also, as a residence for the workmen, in the season when their attendance would be required (Morison). Let it out to husbandmen.—This kind of tenancy prevails in many parts of Europe. It is known as the metayer system, the arrangement being that the occupier of the land should pay to the landlord a portion—originally half—of the produce (Carr).
Matthew 21:38. Let us seize on his inheritance.—This would be impossible in real life, but not more impossible than the thought of the Pharisees that by the death of Jesus they would gain the spiritual supremacy (ibid.).
Matthew 21:44. Grind him to powder.—Scatter him as dust (R.V.). Literally, it will winnow him. The Saviour’s idea is compressed and pregnant. If the stone fall on anyone, it will pound him into atoms, and thus dissipate him as effectually as if he were the dust of the threshing-floor that needed to be driven away (Morison).
Matthew 21:46. When they sought to lay hands on Him.—The Sanhedrin aimed at two things:
1. To seize Jesus quickly, for the Passover (during which no hostile measures could be taken) was close at hand; and because Jesus might be expected to quit Jerusalem after the feast.
2. To seize Him apart from the people; for the Galilæans would suffer no one to lay hands on their King and Prophet. Treachery alone enabled the Jews to secure their end (Carr).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 21:33-46
Further answers.—It is one mark of a well-equipped teacher to exhibit variety in his teaching. So this Greatest of teachers had previously taught His disciples (Matthew 13:52). So He exemplifies here. In dealing further with those who had just questioned His authority (Matthew 21:23), He first tells them of that which is “new”—“hear another parable.” In the prophecy which He afterwards quotes as being one with which His hearers ought long ago to have been acquainted (Matthew 21:42), He tells them of that which is “old.” But in both we shall find He refers to the same subject as that of which He had been previously speaking, viz., the character and destiny of that body of teachers and religious leaders of whom His present opponents were representatives and samples.
I. The parable.—This, although here spoken of as “another,” was not fresh in every respect. In its general character, on the contrary, and in some of its leading features, there was much that was “old.” Long before, e.g. the church and people of Israel had been compared, as here, to a “vino” (Matthew 21:33; Psalms 80; Isaiah 5:1; Isaiah 5:7, etc.). Something had been said also before of the measures taken for their separation and protection under the figure of a “hedge” (Matthew 21:33; Isaiah 5:2; Isaiah 5:5). And something also, of an expectation on the owner’s part of finding “fruit” on this vine (Isaiah 5:2; Isaiah 5:4). On the other hand, in this “version” of the similitude, there was much that was new. Such was the idea of “letting out” this vineyard to certain of the owner’s servants and leaving it in their charge. Also, the idea of a certain proportion of its “fruits” being his clearly recognised due (end of Matthew 21:34, R.V.). Also, the refusal of those in charge to pay this, and their subsequent ill-treatment in various ways, and to the extremest lengths and that several times over, of those commissioned to ask it (Matthew 21:35-36). Also, and above all, the introduction of the owner’s son on the scene (Matthew 21:37), of the hopes that that introduction seemed fitted to encourage (ibid.), and of the robber-like conspiracy, with its murderous sequel, which it led to instead. Nor was there less, finally, of the previously unheard of in that which we may speak of as the verdict of this parable. In the quarter, first, from which it was elicited; those who heard the parable and of whom it was speaking, being just those, through the question asked of them, to declare its result. In the tone of certainty, next, with which they speak of it. To the question asked there is but one answer to give (Matthew 21:41). In the manifest equity, lastly, which they recognise in it. In was only right that such “miserable” men should be thus “miserably” destroyed (R.V.). It was only right that there should be others to “render” what had been “withheld” by themselves.
II. The prophecy quoted.—How this is connected with what has gone before may be seen by considering, first, in what respects the prophecy tallies with the parable and its verdict. It does so, e.g. in the prominence given by it to the same persons as before, the “builders” and “stone” of the one corresponding closely with the “husbandmen” and the “heir” of the other. Also, in the kind of action attributed to the persons so named; the “rejection” of the “stone” in the one case corresponding exactly to the “killing and casting out” of the “heir” in the other. Also, once more, to a certain extent, in regard to the punishment inflicted, and the reason given for it, in the two cases referred to (cf. Matthew 21:41; Matthew 21:43). The connection in question may be seen next, by observing in what respects the teaching of the prophecy follows up that of the parable. How it tells, on the one side, of the wonderful subsequent glorification of that which had been “rejected” by the builders and cast out by the “husbandmen,” the once despised “stone” becoming nothing less, in the end, than “the head of the corner,” and that in so “marvellous” a way, as only to be accounted for by the direct operation of God (Matthew 21:42). How it tells on the other, of a singularly discriminating and so confirmatory fate as being reserved for these rejecters thereof—those who merely “stumble” at that Divine stone being “broken” thereby, but not necessarily (so it appears) in an irrecoverable manner, whilst those who go further and wilfully cause others besides to stumble at it, are broken thereby beyond hope (Matthew 21:44). And how this brings us, therefore, to that final catastrophe which the Lord then had in His mind, even the utter approaching destruction of those persons who were opposing Him then. Something of all this, indeed, with all their blindness, they appear to have understood at this time (Matthew 21:45).
The words thus addressed to them may teach us in our turn:—
1. The true nature of the sin of the world.—It is opposing God’s will. It is doing so, more especially, in regard to His Son. Casting out and killing the appointed “Heir.” Rejecting the “chosen Stone.” (See Psalms 2 passim; John 16:9; John 15:22-23; John 6:29; 1 John 3:23, also Matthew 25:40; Matthew 25:45).
2. The true secret of the life of the church.—Recognising the “Only begotten” as at once the foundation and consummation of all, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last. Had these men “known this they would not have crucified, the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7-8; Acts 3:17; see also John 17:3; John 1:1, etc.; Hebrews 1:1, etc.; Colossians 2:3).
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 21:33-46. The vineyard and its keepers.—This parable was apparently spoken on the Tuesday of the Passion week. It was a day of hand-to-hand conflict with the Jewish authorities and of exhausting toil, as the bare enumeration of its incidents shows. It included all that Matthew records between Matthew 21:20 of this chapter and the end of the twenty-fifth chapter. What a day! What a fountain of wisdom and love which poured out all this! The pungent severity of this parable, with its transparent veil of narrative, is only appreciated by keeping clearly in view the circumstances and the listeners. They had struck at Him with their question of His authority, and He parries the blow. Now it is His turn, and the sharp point goes home.
I. The first stage is the preparation of the vineyard, in which three steps are marked.—
1. It is planted and furnished with all appliances needful for making wine, which is its great end. The direct Divine origin of the religious ideas and observances of “Judaism” is thus asserted by Christ. The only explanation of them is that God enclosed that bit of the wilderness, and, with His own hands, set growing there these exotics. Neither the theology nor the ritual is of man’s establishing.
2. Thus furnished, the vineyard is next handed over to the husbandmen, who, in Matthew, are exclusively the rulers, while in Luke they are the people. No doubt it was “like people, like priest.”
3. Having installed the husbandmen, the owner goes into another country. Centuries of comparative Divine silence followed the planting of the vineyard. Having given us charge, God, as it were, steps aside to leave us room to work as we will, and so to display what we are made of. He is absent in so far as conspicuous oversight and retribution are concerned. He is present to help, love, and bless.
II. Then comes the habitual ill-treatment of the messengers.—
1. These are, of course, the prophets, whose office was not only to foretell, but to plead for obedience and trust, the fruits sought by God. There is no more remarkable historical fact than that of the uniform hostility of the Jews to the prophets. That a nation of such a sort as always to hate, and generally to murder, them should have had them in long succession throughout its history, is surely inexplicable on any naturalistic hypothesis. Such men were not the natural product of the race, nor of its circumstances, as their fate shows. No “philosophy of Jewish history” explains the anomaly except the one stated here, “he sent his servants.”
2. The hostility of the husbandmen grows with indulgence. From beating they go on to killing, and stoning is a specially savage form of killing. The more God pleads with men, the more self-conscious and bitter becomes their hatred; and the more bitter their hatred, the more does He plead, sending other messengers, more, perhaps, in number, or possibly of more weight, with larger commission and clearer light. Thus the antagonistic forces both grow, and the worse men become, the louder and more beseeching the call of God to them. That is always true; and it is also ever true that he who begins with “I go, sir,” and goes not, is in a fair way to end with stoning the prophets.
3. Christ treats the whole long series of violent rejections as the acts of the same set of husbandmen. The class or nation was one, as the stream is one, though all its particles were different; and the Pharisees and scribes, who stood with frowning hatred before Him as He spoke, were the living embodiment of the spirit which had animated all the past.
III. The mission of the Son and its fatal issue (Matthew 21:37-39).—Three things are here prominent.
1. The unique position which Christ claims.
2. The owner’s vain hope in sending his son. Christ knew Himself to be God’s last appeal, as He is to all men, as well as to that generation. He is the last arrow in God’s quiver. When He has shot that bolt, the resources even of Divine love are exhausted, and no more can be done for the vineyard than He has done for it.
3. The vain calculation of the husbandmen. Christ puts hidden motives into plain words, and reveals to these rulers what they scarcely knew of their own hearts. With what sad calmness does Jesus tell the fate of the son, so certain that it is already as good as done! It was done in their counsels, and yet He does not cease to plead, if perchance some hearts may be touched, and withdraw themselves from the confederacy of murder.
IV. The self-condemnation from unwilling lips.—Our Lord turns to the rulers with startling and dramatic suddenness, which may have thrown them off their guard, so that their answer leaped out before they had time to think whom it hit.
V. Then comes the solemn application and naked truth of the parable.—Who can venture to speak of the awful doom set forth in the last words here? It has two stages: one a lesser misery, which is the lot of him who stumbles against the stone, while it lies passive, to be built on; one more dreadful, when it has acquired motion and comes down with irresistible impetus.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Matthew 21:33-41. The efforts of mercy to redeem.—
I. Abundant.—Vineyard planted, fenced, guarded, tilled.
II. Outraged.—Messengers despised, ill-treated, slain.
III. Persevering.—One messenger after another, and last of all the greatest, wisest, best—“His Son.”—J. C. Gray.
Matthew 21:37.Christ the Messenger of His own gospel.—
I. The dignity of the person whom God employed to preach the gospel. “His Son.”—
1. A superior person to Moses, the prophets, and infinitely superior to every other messenger of God.
2. The sublimest titles are bestowed on this person both in the Old and New Testaments.
II. That this is the final interposition of God in our favour.—“Last of all.”
1. As He is infinitely superior to all that were before Him, so it may well be presumed that none will come after Him; and that the message He brings seals and finishes God’s revelation to the children of men.
2. This is the reason why the predictions relating to the Messiah, refer His coming to the last days (Isaiah 2:2).
III. Our duty in relation to this sacred Messenger of heaven.—To reverence Him.
1. By attending to the proofs of His Divine mission. This He requires (John 5:31-38).
2. By receiving Him in that capacity with gratitude, love, hope, joy.
3. By embracing the holy errand on which He was sent, and complying with the practical purposes of His mission: “God raised up His Son to bless us.” How? “In turning us from our iniquities,” and teaching us “to deny ungodliness,” etc. (Titus 2:12).
4. By forming ourselves according to that sacred model He exhibited to mankind.
5. By receiving pardon and sanctification through that awful method which God has appointed, the blood of His Son (Colossians 1:14; 1 John 1:7).
6. By daily acts of worship and adoration; honouring the Son as we honour the Father (John 5:23; Romans 14:11).—Anon.
Matthew 21:42. Christ, rejected of men, exalted of God.—Biblical scholars and critics are of opinion that the words in Psalms 118:22 refer to an historical event, a literal transaction. “There is every presumption,” says one of them, “that the Psalmist here refers to a stone that was rejected by the builders of the temple, and which was afterwards made the chief stone of the corner. The presumption is supported by what is stated in the fifth and sixth Chapter s of the first Book of Kings.” All the stones of the temple were prepared at a distance from the temple, and so prepared that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the building on Mount Moriah. Before the builders could say that their work was done they had to lift the stone which they had rejected and place it in the corner for which it had been designed. They then admitted that it was indeed the chief stone of the corner and the glory of their seven years’ labour. The truths suggested by the words of the text may be considered in at least four aspects:—
I. The metaphorical aspect.—A stone has a unity of substance, a solidity and durability of character, which give it incomparable renown as a foundation, or as a thing of strength and resistance. There are rocks and stones of which it may be said, Who hath declared their generation? Whatever mystery there may be connected with the stone which the builders rejected, it is most certain that Jesus Christ is the all-sufficient foundation of the church, the supreme reason of her continued existence and power in the world. He is to the church, past and present, visible and invisible, what the keystone is to the bridge, and the corner-stone to a building.
II. The doctrinal aspect.—The doctrine of the text is that of might against right in a stern and continuous struggle. We see the tiny beginnings of might against right in the histories of Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and we see evidences of it all through the ages. But what are all these but the faint glimmerings of the more awful conflict referred to in the text? That conflict was not the result of mere ignorance or mental inertia. It was the outcome of direct repugnance to the Holy One of Israel.
III. The historical aspect.—There is nothing, perhaps, so remarkable in the history of nations as the difference made by the presence or the absence of Christianity. “Where is that place,” says a distinguished statesman (Russell Lowell), “where age is revered, infancy respected, womanhood honoured, and human life held in due regard; where is that place, ten miles square in this globe, where the gospel of Christ has not gone and cleared the way and laid the foundation?” We challenge the sceptical world to show us such a place. From the day that the Jews rejected Christ, Christianity has been to us Gentiles as life from the dead.
IV. The practical aspect of the text suggests the doctrine of man’s responsibility to Christ. All men are builders. Every building must rest on some foundation, or have some reason, good or bad, for its existence. That Jesus Christ is the only and all-sufficient foundation of the church is beyond dispute. The rulers of a nation are also builders, and are equally responsible to Him by whom all things consist. Of church and state He is emphatically the chief corner-stone.—Dr. J. Kerr Campbell.
Matthew 21:43. Privileges forfeited.—
1. The gospel, or the means of grace in a visible face of a church, is God’s kingdom on earth, and the greatest benefit that can be bestowed on a land.
2. The nation which doth not bring forth the fruits of the gospel may justly be deprived of that privilege, as here is threatened, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you.”
3. The church may be flitted from one nation to another, but shall not cease to be among some people; for, “It shall be given to another,” saith Christ. Thus, He foretelleth them of the rejection of the Jews and the in bringing of the Gentiles.—David Dickson.
Matthew 21:44. Neglecting and opposing Christ.—I. The first case is that in which Christ is a stone of stumbling to those to whom He is presented. God lays this stone everywhere in our way that we may build upon it or set it high in the place of honour, and we cannot simply walk on as if God had done no such thing. Whatever else Christ is, He is substantial, a reality as solid as the stone against which your foot is jarred. The gospel once heard is “henceforward a perpetual element in the whole condition, character, and destiny of the hearer.” No man who has heard can be as if he had not. Though he may wish to pass on as if he had not seen Christ at all, he is not the same man as he was before, his spiritual condition is altered, possibilities have dawned upon his mind, openings into regions which are new and otherwise inaccessible; he is haunted by unsettled perplexities, doubts, anxieties, thoughts. This attitude of mind must have been very common in Christ’s own time, many persons must have shrunk from the responsibility of determining for themselves what they ought to think of Him. Many now do the same. They wish to overlook Him and pass on into life as if He were not in their path. But how foolish if He be the one foundation on whom a life can safely be built. Those who thus overlook Christ and try to pass on into life as if He were not, damage their own character because they know He is there, and until they make up their minds about Him, life a mere make-believe. It is thus they are bruised on this stone of stumbling. This bruised condition, however, is remediable.
II. The second action of the stone on the builder is described as final.—At once slain and buried, those who determinedly opposed Christ lie oppressed by that which might have been their joy. Their dwelling and refuge becomes their tomb. Every excellence of Christ they have leagued against themselves. It is their everlasting shame that they were ashamed of Him. The faithfulness, truth, and love of Christ, that is to say, the qualities whose existence is all that any saved man ever had to depend upon, the qualities in the knowledge and faith of which the weakest and most heartless sinner sets out boldly and hopefully to eternity, these all now torment with crushing remorse those who have despised them. Do not suppose this is an extravagant figure used by our Lord to awe His enemies, and that no man will ever suffer a doom which can be fairly represented in these terms. It is a statement of fact. Things are to move on eternally in fulfilment of the will of Christ. He is identified with all that is righteous, all that is wise, all that is ultimately successful. To oppose His course, to endeavour to defeat His object, to attempt to work out an eternal success apart from Him is as idle as to seek to stop the earth in its course, or to stand in the path of a stone avalanche in order to stem it.—M. Dods, D.D.
Matthew 21:45-46. Understanding but not profiting.—
1. Threatenings profit not, but rather do irritate desperately wicked men, as here they desire to lay hands on Him.
2. Christ’s most malicious adversaries, though they be set for blood, yet can do no more than God will suffer them to do.
3. As long as the body of the people do favour Christ’s cause, persecutors will not vent all their designs against Christ and His followers.
4. The least good opinion of Christ will serve for some use; albeit not to the parties’ salvation, yet to the advantage of Christ’s cause, as here it served for some use, that they took Him for a prophet.—David Dickson.