The parable of the Wicked Tenants is a fitting text for the season of Lent. It is a story that works as a stark warning to the people of God. It calls for repentance and the renewal of your faith. We are told about a man who planted a vineyard and then let it out to tenants as he was going away to another country. The tenets were to care for the vineyard, work it, and produce the fruit. Their payment would be, quite literally, the fruit of their labor. But the vineyard was not theirs. A portion of what they produced would go to the Lord of the vineyard. It was and to this day remains a fairly common agreement in agricultural production. There are those who own the land and provide the resources for its improvement and those who work it and ultimately bring forth the fruit of the harvest.
We are told the time has come for the harvest. So, the owner of the vineyard sends his servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit. However, the tenants are not so keen to give what they owe. Instead, they beat the servant and send him away empty-handed, clearly sending a message to the vineyard owner. But the Lord of the vineyard will have his fruit, so he sends another servant, but the result is the same. Then, he sends another, and the cycle continues. The culmination of the sequence, the place to which this all leads, is the sending of the son. The owner of the vineyard says, “What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him.” This is it. Here is the line drawn in the sand. He sends his son, the final emissary, but the tenants double-down on their wickedness. They say, “This is the heir. Let us kill him, so the inheritance may be ours.” They proceed to throw him out of the vineyard and kill him.
Now, it is easy to see the meaning behind this parable. However, it is the question Jesus then asks which makes all the difference. This step, this final wicked action, was too far. So, He asks them, “What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?” Then, without waiting for an answer, He tells them prophetically exactly what he will do: “He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” To reject the son, to refuse the master of the vineyard his fruit, is to invite your own destruction. In this parable, the coming of the son is the final offering, the final opportunity to repent and live. He will have the fruit of the vineyard. Therefore, this is a warning to all who are called to be his tenants.
This warning is further explained with the image of the cornerstone. He quotes Psalm 118, saying, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” The stone which received no glory, no praise among those engaged in building to their own desires, turns out to be the cornerstone. It establishes the foundation and becomes the reference point for surveyors’ measurements. It is the one unmovable piece that sets the pattern for all the buildings going forward. This stone is our Lord. He is the rejected Son who is cast out and killed by the wicked tenants. As the Psalmist goes on to say, “This is the Lord’s doing. It is marvelous in our eyes.”
Therefore, Jesus says, “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” To fall on the stone is to be broken to pieces. Broken, that is what you are as the people of God. We usually think of faith as the one sure thing that carries us through the twists and turns of life. It is our anchor in the storm and our light in the darkness. And while that is true, before all that, the call of faith is the call to be broken; broken in yourself, in your understanding, your strength, your morality, and works. The Stone is not about you finding your own glory. It does not exist to justify your own desires. No, it breaks you. It empties you out of your deeds and exposes the sin which runs rampant throughout all you do.
The Stone says, “Repent and believe the Good News.” Repent of your pride and arrogance. Repent of living as if God has not given you His Word, as if your desires reign over His decrees. Repent of your failures to love your brothers and sisters. Repent of all the ways you attempt to justify yourself, to barter a better deal, to negotiate for your salvation. In Christ, your life comes crashing into the Stone. There it must be broken into pieces lest you engage in the work of the wicked tenants and seek to remove the Stone altogether, to cast it away and live turned in on yourself.
But this Stone is not cast away. If you are not broken upon it, you will be crushed by it. The wicked tenants could not get away with their arrogance and scheming. As a result, those who refuse to be broken, who will not repent, will be crushed in the end. This is the final judgment. There is no other way. There is urgency in this warning. Christ has come. He has come to call you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. He has come to break you of your own efforts to secure identity, meaning, and security in your life by the works of your own hands and the desires of your hearts. But to reject Him, to turn from Him, is to fall under the weight of the Lord of the vineyard’s condemnation. For in Christ there is life and salvation, but outside of Him there will only be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The Stone is immovable. It may be ignored, mocked, and disregarded, but it remains. And the call of the Stone continues to sound forth, “Repent and believe the Good News.” To turn from your sin is to turn toward the promises of Christ. It is to repent and turn from your work to find yourself secure in His work. To be broken in yourself is to be bound up in His love and compassion, to be united to His forgiveness and care. This is the rhythm of our life together as the people of God. We come as the baptized, as those who have died with our Lord, and now we strive to live in Him. We are regularly broken as we confess our sins and come once again as empty-handed beggars before His gifts. And, once again, He fills you with good things.
This immovable Stone is eager to forgive, as He washes, clothes, feeds, and nourishes you. Jesus does this so you might not be crushed but endure. Let us not run from it or scheme how to get around it but let us repent and believe the Good News.
