(Jesus says) “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’?
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet. Matthew 21:33-46
These keepers of God's vineyard whom Jesus refers to in His Parable are truly both barren of faith's fruits and they are black-hearted-- Provider God is rejected in total by them. And the stumbling block which Jesus speaks about is Himself. Jesus highlights that He is also rejected and because of that rejection these folks will stumble into hell. Jesus is the cornerstone of belief and faith in God. He is the solid Rock.
Jesus' point to us today is that God uses people and life is not about us it is all about God. God's servants do not focus on what you do for yourself or ourselves, our focus is on what God is doing for us-- Out of our gratitude and thankfulness to God for everything we humble ourselves to be used in total for the Kingdom.
God moves through people, through us, and we realize very quickly that we cannot do enough to make ourselves holy on our own, no matter how much we do for God, and the doing is very important. So Jesus comes, gives His very life in place of each one of our lives, cancels out all of our sin, and with faith in Jesus Savior each of us have a direct way to God through Jesus when we individually trust in the Holy Spirit to love us, guide us, tell us what to say and do, and to fill each of us as Spirit replenishes our souls time after time with Spirit; Jesus' victorious Presence.
We believers in Jesus Christ, the servants in God's vineyard, are alerted by Jesus here. Keep in unity with Spirit. Spirit encourages you to use the fruits of obedience to Jesus-- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23). Believing people do God's work.
Jesus says, " I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me should not remain in the darkness." (John 12:46) Christ is the Light that fills your heart when you moment by moment live in Him and serve Him with trust in Him. As the Spirit directs and His Word in Scriptures confirm, you are producing fruits through your behaviors and words.
Saul was on the road to Damascus to hunt down those folks who not only believed in Christ but were doing His Heavenly Father's work in the vineyard. Jesus Christ knocks Saul off of his high horse and asks Saul, "Why do you persecute Me?" Once somebody does something to the Body of Christ (the people-- believers in Him) they are doing it to Christ Himself. Believers be on alert and listen to Spirit.
For Jesus is walking and talking to both believers and unbelievers through you. You walk, He walks. He talks, you talk. He talks in us. That is the way God sees you. When you do not keep His Word true in your life, when the Word goes in one ear and out the other ear, your heart darkens. When you keep Jesus' Word then you are Jesus' Light because Jesus is the Son of God and in you. Your true and fulfilling life is found in unity relationship with your Creator Provider, with Christ Redeemer, and Spirit alive within you. Your heart is filled with Jesus to serve God in the vineyard, the Kingdom of God here and now.