Jesus' second parable to the temple authorities is that of a vineyard prepared by its landowner in every way to bear fruit before going away. The tenants He left in charge were Israel and its leaders, who killed the servants God sent (the prophets) when they came to call for the fruit, knowing they none to show. After sending more servants with the same result, the landowner decides to send his son, who carries his father's authority as the heir of the vineyard. The wicked tenants kill the son thinking they will retain adverse possession.
When Jesus finally asks the religious leaders what the landowner should do to these tenants, they unknowingly pronounce sentence against themselves, not only that they should be brought to an end, but that the vineyard should be given to faithful stewards instead.
The kingdom of God was taken away from natural Israel and given to a holy nation that will bear its fruits: the church. Jews and Gentiles who do not reject the son will fulfill the purpose Israel was originally given: to faithfully steward God's vineyard.
This is the story of sinners (the first son) who initially reject their father's command, but later regret their decision and actually desire to go work in His vineyard. As Jesus tells it, the religious authorities indict themselves as the second son, who initially said he would go work in the vineyard, but never did because he never had the true desire.
If there were ever two groups of people the religious leaders could be absolutely sure would never inherit the kingdom of God, it would be the tax collectors and the prostitutes. Yet through the parable of two sons Jesus just told them they would enter the kingdom before them.
What is the source of true authority? Jesus, a Rabbi without one of his own, who never studied in the Rabbinic Schools of the day, is questioned in the temple. He rabbinically makes them answer their own question by asking them the source of John's baptism, the man who most clearly affirmed the authority of the One for which he prepared the way.
What a picture to see Jesus, who has no authority in the eyes of these men, yet divinely has all authority in heaven and on earth, standing opposite these religious leaders, who have every human credential, yet prove to have no true authority from God.
Like the fig tree in leaf that Jesus walks up to on His way into Jerusalem, Israel had all the external signs of life, yet no fruit. So He declares that it will never bear fruit again in a pronouncement of judgment. He then tells His disciples that if they had faith and did not doubt, not only would they do the same in declaring fruitless external religion dead, but they would also say to this mountain of Jerusalem below that had yoked itself to worldly empire and been gutted of spiritual life to be cast into the sea. No matter how many external signs of ceremony, liturgy, and ritual a people have, without fruit it is all truly worthless.
As Jesus enters Jerusalem for His last Passover, the Lord suddenly comes in to His temple. Zeal for His Father's house has consumed Him once again as He "cleanses" the temple that wasn't cleansed 3 years ago when His ministry began. Never do we see our Lord more animated in righteous anger in His incarnated life than when worship was compromised. God's holy temple had become man's common marketplace, and a corrupted one at that, when it was always to be a house of prayer for all peoples.
As He had done at the beginning of His ministry, so He does again at the end.
As Jesus approaches Jerusalem, His entry will be crucial. As the rightful King, He could have ridden in on a horse in a declaration of war. Instead, Jesus will ride in on the foal of a donkey in fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy to cut off the bow of war. Our King established His kingdom as one where humility triumphs over pride, self-sacrifice triumphs over violence, and peace ultimately triumphs over war.
As large crowds following Jesus converge at Jericho on the way to the Passover, two blind beggars cry out for mercy. Though they don't know it, this will be their last chance for Jesus to hear them, and heal them. But as we see, their physical blindness is not a spiritual disability; quite the opposite, as they still recognize the true Son of David. Jesus' healing of their physical blindness becomes a display of their true sight, and ends in the glory of God as they follow Jesus to Jerusalem.
After Jesus gives the third and clearest prediction of His death, He begins to ascend the mountain of the Lord for the final time. As He does, James and John's mother requests her sons sit at His left and right in His kingdom. She understood Christ as King, but she completely misunderstood the nature of His kingdom. Jesus would show her the paradoxical nature of the Kingdom; the one where the King is the Slave, the Master is the Servant, and the Victor overcomes through suffering. The Kingdom where death leads to life, and laying yours down means that no one ultimately takes it from you.
Jesus' parable of the landowner and the day-laborers illustrates that grace is the currency of heaven and the economy of the kingdom. Those who were chosen and called from the marketplace at the very end of the day received the same wages as the ones who had been working since the early morning.
This helps us understand that the groups of Gentiles who were brought in to the kingdom later may receive the same reward as the Jews who were brought in at the beginning. Likewise, the man called at the end of his life receives a reward just as him who was called at the beginning, all because God is generous. And even though some of us may only serve Him for 60 years, we may have the reward of the patriarch who served Him for 600.
When a rich, young ruler asks what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus doesn't tell him to pray a prayer or make a decision, but to sell his possessions and follow Him. Although it has the common elements of repentance, faith, and following Him, Jesus' message of eternal life is specific in seemingly each and every case, whether it be to the Samaritan woman at the well, Nicodemus, Zaccheus, or here to the rich young ruler. This young man may have been able to pray a prayer, but he wasn't able to follow Christ because of his great wealth. Though in earthly terms he was first, he was truly last as he walked back to his land and riches.
Our children are the earthly picture of what we must spiritually become to enter the kingdom. When parents begin bringing their children to Jesus to be blessed, the disciples try and turn them away. But like He so often does, Jesus welcomes them to come because their humility was the essence of entrance into the kingdom. Not only were children welcome to come, they were the picture of how we must come! Children aren't the second way of salvation; they're the only way!
As the Pharisees try to trap Jesus on the issue of marriage by making him side with one of the rabbinical schools of thought of the day, He confounds all in His hearing with the fulfillment of the law: "What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." Even though these religious leaders could only recall the case law that was given because of the hardness of their hearts, Jesus points them to Moses' words in the beginning of Genesis to show them the one flesh union between man and woman as long as they both shall live.
Contentment eludes most because it seems to lie in an ever-escaping dream that may never be a reality. But Paul learned the secret of being content in whatever circumstance he found himself. Being content in his present situation taught him how to be content in any and every situation, so that he could truly do all things through Christ who strengthened him.
As a man thinks, so he is. The things we think about, dwell on, and consider, have an enormous impact on how we feel, what we do, and who we are. As Paul brings this letter to a close, he exhorts the believers in Philippi to think. In these two verses we find incredible insight into the connection between thinking and doing, between the mind, the heart, and the hands.
For many, the idea of peace is for problems to disappear. But the peace of God, which surpasses comprehension because it can remain in every circumstance of life, is increasingly realized as we let our requests be made known to Him in prayer. This peace guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus as we obey this command to be anxious about nothing.
As believers, our citizenship is not ultimately in the place we were born or where we live, but in a place we've not yet been. We're citizens of the country to which we're heading. Paul's earthly citizenship lie in one country that would be gone as he knew it within a decade (Israel), and in another that was being built up for its great fall (Rome). But his true citizenship lie in a better country, the heavenly one that lay ahead of him.
The greatest hinderers of the gospel in the New Testament church were the Judaizers. Paul was so serious about warning the Philippians of them that he renounced every bit of his own Judaism according to the flesh. He even went so far as to count his whole resume as loss and consider all things rubbish for the sake of Christ, so that His identity was found in Christ alone.
To say you are a Christian is more than self-identification, but requires self-examination. The Apostle Paul gives the church at Philippi both a warning and assurance when he exhorts them to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, remembering God is the One willing and working their salvation. This means that when we test ourselves to see whether we are in the faith, we are really examining the work that God is doing in us.
Unity requires more than equality. Unity requires humility. When Paul appeals to the church at Philippi to be unified, he does so with the example of Christ, who, being in nature God, did not consider equality with God something to grasp onto in His incarnated life. He emptied Himself, not by putting off His divine nature, but by taking on the nature of a slave, the lowest human in the Roman Empire or the Jewish world. And He kept going down, as He put Himself in the path of the cross. Jesus went as far down as a man can go as a crucified slave, and then was exalted all the way back up as glorified Lord.
For some, the decision to live or die comes from being torn apart by the despair of not feeling like your life has purpose, but also having no hope after death. But Paul was actually held together by the choice between the fruitful labor of continued ministry or the hope of paradise with Christ. He ultimately was right to believe that God would keep him around longer to visit or hear of the progress of the Philippian church as they lived their lives in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
