Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 21:33-41

"Hear another parable: There was a man that was a householder, who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge about it, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into another country. And when the season of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, to receive his fruits. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them in like manner. But afterward he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But the husbandmen, when they saw the son, said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and take his inheritance. And they took him, and cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him. When therefore the lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will let out the vineyard unto other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruits in their seasons." — Matthew 21:33-41 (ASV)

You see at once how this parable related to the leaders of the Jewish people. From generation to generation, they scorned the prophets of God, persecuted them, and put them to death. When our Lord himself appeared, though his glory might easily have been seen by them, they still cast him out from among them and put him to death.

Yet, beloved friends, we must never regard the Scriptures as referring only to strangers and people of past ages; we must also look to see what bearing they have upon ourselves. The rejection of God's prophets is the sin of our common humanity, and the murder of the Son of God was the crime not of the Jews only, but of the whole human race. We, too, have a share in it, for we have rejected the Son of the Highest. "But we were not there," you say. No, and yet we may have repeated that terrible tragedy in our own lives.

God has sent you many messengers; and if you remain, at this moment, unconverted, you have not treated them well; otherwise, you would have yielded your heart to God. Some of them you have rejected by your neglect, and others have been the subject of your ridicule and contempt. Against some, you have striven violently, for your own conscience has been touched, and you have had to do violence to your conscience in order to reject their message.

Last of all, the Son of God himself has come to you in the preaching of the gospel. You have heard of his death and of his atoning sacrifice, but you have rejected them. In acting this way, you have done, as far as you could, the same as those who crucified the Saviour. You still refuse to have him as your Saviour; you disown him as your King; you strive against his righteous sway. You tell me that you do not.

Well, then, you have yielded to him, and you are saved. But if that is not the case, you still remain such an adversary of God that you reject his Son. Take care lest that prophecy should also become true of you: He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.