Matthew 21:43  “Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.”

This week’s verse is one part of the response from Jesus Christ to the chief priests and elders when Jesus had entered the temple (see Matthew 21:23). This verse is also one part of what is known as “The Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers”, which encompasses Matthew 21:33-46. Here’s the full parable.

33 “There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. He leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.

34 Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit.

35 And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.

36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.

37 Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

38 But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’

39 So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.

40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?”

41 They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected

Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?’

43 Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.

44 And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”

45 Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them.

46 When they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, who took Him for a prophet.”

What makes this parable different from the others He tells?      

“Landowner” = God the Father (YHWH)

“Vineyard” = People of Israel 

“Vinedressers” = Tenants to whom Landowner leased the Vineyard = Israel’s Religious Leaders 

“Servants” = OT Prophets 

“Son” = Jesus Christ

• In many parables, Jesus leaves them to puzzle things out, giving extra insight to His followers (see Matthew 13:10-13, where Jesus explains to His disciples why He speaks in parables).

• But in this parable, everybody knows what he’s saying: the chief priests and Pharisees want to kill Him all the more, because they understand that Jesus has cast them as the wicked tenant farmers, and Himself as the Son.

• In Matthew 21:33-36, Jesus is retelling Isaiah 5:1-7 to explain why God cannot withhold judgment from Israel. This time, there is a new twist to the story. God is not coming to the vineyard looking for grapes.
• He has sent His servants to get them, and they’ve been ignored, ill-treated, stoned and even killed.
• Jesus is telling the story of Israel and showing that it has come to its true climax, in Him and his work: He is the Landowner’s Son, the Heir to the estate, coming to the Vineyard on the Landowner’s behalf.
• God as the Landowner now sends his Son, supposing that they will respect Him. The Vinedressers throw Him out and kill Him.

Matthew 21:40-41 Jesus ends his story with a question: what will the Vineyard’s Landowner do?

• They give Him the answer: He will come and take the vineyard away from the tenants (Religious Leaders) and give it to others “who will render to Him the fruits in their seasons.”

• The Jewish Religious Leaders pronounce judgment on themselves. Their verdict against the “evil vinedressers” in the parable is Christ’s verdict against them.

Matthew 21:42  “Rejected Stone” (Jesus’s Death); “Chief Cornerstone” (Jesus’s Resurrection)

• The “rejected stone” refers to Christ’s crucifixion, and the “chief cornerstone” refers to His resurrection.

• Jesus connects Psalm 118:22-23 with Isaiah 28:16 to tell them the Son who was killed and thrown out of the vineyard was also the “chief cornerstone” in God’s redemptive plan.

Psalm 118:22-23 = “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”

Isaiah 28:16 = “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily.”

• God’s judgment on the nation of Israel comes later in the form of the Roman Empire. It is the direct result of what the Jewish people had chosen.

They reject the Vineyard Landowner’s Son as their King, so they end up with the princes of this world:

John 1:11 = “He came to His own people, and His own did not receive Him.”

Luke 19:41-44 = “As Jesus drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying ‘If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

John 19:13-16 = “Pilate brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, ‘Behold your King!’ But they cried out, ‘Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar!’ Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified.”

Matthew 21:43  The kingdom and all spiritual advantages are given to “a nation bearing the fruits of it” = All trusting in Jesus Christ = Christians (whether Old or New Testament Saints).

John 1:12-13 “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who BELIEVE IN HIS NAME. Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of GOD.”

Romans 11:11 “…have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealously, SALVATION HAS COME TO THE GENTILES.”

Romans 2:28-29 “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one INWARDLY; and circumcision is that of the HEART, IN THE SPIRIT, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from GOD.”

Romans 9:6-8 “It is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called.’ That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the CHILDREN OF THE PROMISES ARE COUNTED AS THE SEED.”

Galatians 3:16 “To Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ WHO IS CHRIST.”  

Galatians 3:29 “If you are Christ’s, you are ABRAHAM’S SEED, and heirs according to the PROMISE.”    1Peter 2:9-10 “You are a CHOSEN GENERATION, a royal priesthood, a HOLY NATION, His SPECIAL PEOPLE, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”

The Question: “Does Matthew 2:43 teach that the Church has replaced Israel?”

The Answer: “No. Matthew 21:43, and the entire parable of the Wicked Vinedressers told by Jesus in Matthew 21:33-36, is specifically about the corrupt Religious Elite.

Now, these religious elite are being replaced to lead and care for God’s “vineyard” – all those trusting in Christ – by the Gospel of Jesus Christ through His church, which includes ALL believers – whether Old or New Testament and regardless of ethnicity, social status or sex, as Galatians 3:28 tells us:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for YOU ARE ALL ONE IN JESUS CHRIST.”  

“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance”_Article #659