All Scripture helps us to learn about God. It gives us promises. It teaches us how to live. It teaches us how not to live by giving us the opposite example. It also gives us a pattern and a role for living.
Today, in this parable about the vineyard, we can see all these things. On the surface, there is a strong rebuke of the Jews, because of their rejection of the Messiah. Some of the Jews were the ones, of course, that were the husbandmen who killed the Householder’s servants and even His son. The Jews understood this when He rebuked them. Have no doubt about it. This was one of the things that led them to plot to kill Him.
We not only see the negative example of the Jews, but also a pattern for how to live. If you look at how carefully God created the vineyard, and His continual entreating of the householders and what he required of them, you can see that this is, in microcosm, the Christian life. And you can see how to live and how not to live. And then, with a little explanation, with an understanding of the mind of the Church of what fruits are and what some of the symbolism is, you can see how this parable doesn’t just apply to the wicked Jews who killed the Savior. It applies to us, who are wicked if we do not do the work that we are called to do in the vineyard.
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