The Essential Law of the Vineyard

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.

The Sovereign’s Edict

Christ expressed the standard by which vine-growers are measured in the words of the landowner himself: “They will respect my son” (Matt. 21:37).

This is no mere conjecture. This is not a hypothesis that the landowner proposes along the lines of, “they did not respect my other slaves – they even killed some of them – but they will respect my son.” Rather, this is a sovereign edict of what the vine-growers ought to do. We might render the saying, “They shall respect my son.” This is the essential law of the vineyard, a weighty governing norm for all conduct in the landowner’s domain.

Respect for the sovereign landowner’s son is what was required of the vine-growers in the vineyard, and respect for the Sovereign Son is required of all who inhabit God’s Kingdom. Respect for God’s Son is the global decree found at the end of the second Psalm: “Worship the Lord with reverence, rejoice with trembling, do homage to the Son, respect Him, honor Him, kiss the Son that He not become angry and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled, how blessed are all who take refuge in Him” (Ps. 2:11-12). The command of Psalm 2 is a Messianic application of the essential law of God’s vineyard as it appears in Deuteronomy 6:5 – “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” That is the essential law of God’s Kingdom.

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.

Wretched Tenants & the Wisdom of Christ

Rather than receiving the son of the landowner as the rightful claimant to the vineyard, the wicked vine-growers regarded him as competition. They saw the son as a threat to their advancement and everything for which they had been working in the vineyard. So, they killed him: they seized him, took him out of the vineyard, and put him to death (Matt. 21:38-39).

Does that sound familiar? This is clearly an anticipation in parable-form of what Christ will suffer, what he will submit Himself to as payment for Israel’s debt of sin. The essential law of the vineyard sets in stark relief the sinful selfishness of the vine-growers.

Insofar as God’s Law is known, sin is defined. But Christ accomplished much more by this dramatic turn in the parable: accomplishments that should move rebel sinners to repent from the heart with awe and respect for the infinitely wise Son of God. His teaching accomplished two things by way of anticipating various responses to His death.

In the first place, Christ preempted naysayers who would point to His crucifixion as proof that He was not the rightful heir of David’s throne. His supporters could respond to critics, “He told us this would happen!”

In the second place, His followers could say to one another, “He prepared us for this.” With perfect wisdom and sovereignty, Christ the Son reflected the Father by preparing His disciples for His death, thereby making perfect provision for their fruitfulness in vineyard-kingdom ministry. Just as the Father supplied the vineyard, Christ prepared the remnant He had called to take the place of the hypocritical leaders who put Him to death. By their own words, the chief priests and elders of the people predicted their demise and the disciples’ vocation, “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” (Matt. 21:41).

Respecting God’s Son

Such a marvelously wise master is worthy of highest honor. How can we respect God’s Son? We certainly should yield to God His due in time, talents, and treasure – like so many grapes out of the vineyard – as payment. But these outward deeds are of value only insofar as they express heart-devotion.

It is your heart that God claims.

For any duty performed to be considered good, your heart must belong to Him. Hearts of stony selfishness must become hearts of sanctified selflessness. In other words, you must be born again! You must be born again to give a proper reception to Christ-come-down.

All glory be to God – He is faithful! He gives fresh hope and life to His people. By the power of the Spirit of God, the born-again Christian prefers Christ’s interests above all else, and he does so without anxiety or worry, knowing that God is faithful to provide for him just as He cares for the vineyard. This is the way of vineyard living and of Kingdom living: “Respect My Son.” All those who repent from wretched self-interest and believe on Christ will be saved. The essential law of the vineyard is the norm that defines spiritual productivity in God’s heavenly society.

Zachary Groff (MDiv, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary) is Pastor of Antioch Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Woodruff, SC, and he serves as Managing Editor of The Confessional Journal and as Editor-in-Chief of the Presbyterian Polity website.