QT 2/28/2022 Matt 21:33-41, Fruit--what are we doing to produce fruit?

Matthew 21:33–41 (ESV) —

33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

 

NOTE: The parable closely resembles a passage in Isaiah 5:1–2 (ESV)

1 Let me sing for my beloved

my love song concerning his vineyard:

My beloved had a vineyard

on a very fertile hill.

2 He dug it and cleared it of stones,

and planted it with choice vines;

he built a watchtower in the midst of it,

and hewed out a wine vat in it;

and he looked for it to yield grapes,

but it yielded wild grapes.

Additionally, Isaiah declares that the vineyard is Israel: Isaiah 5:3–4 (ESV)

3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem

and men of Judah,

judge between me and my vineyard.

4 What more was there to do for my vineyard,

that I have not done in it?

When I looked for it to yield grapes,

why did it yield wild grapes?

There is an emphasis on "fruit" in this passage and the preceding passage on the cursed fig tree. The wording reminds one of Psalm 1:3 (ESV)

He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

God was looking for fruit from his special people group that he put his name upon and they had not delivered. He warned them many times through his prophets and they still did not obey. Jesus says that the vineyard is now going to other tenants. The church is the "other tenants." We don't replace God's plan for Israel--that is not finished, but we carry on the task that they did not complete.

 

PONDER:

1. So what am I doing to produce fruit?
2. How am I taking care of his vineyard?

 

PRAYER: Father, the church with the Holy Spirit within and has done a good job of taking the gospel around the world. And, in many cases, has produced the fruit that is a pleasant aroma to others around us. I could also say the opposite things of major swarths of Christianity, so the results are mixed. My emphasis has to be on me and what am I doing to be a pleasant aroma to my world? And while my recognition of my own sin grows deeper so does my realization of the positive change in those I interact. Thank you for changing me.