Matthew 21:33-41 You Can’t Have Your Fruit!
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: July 11, 2019 Matthew 21:33-41
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
“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. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 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 have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore 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 let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
(Understanding the Text) Jesus is still speaking to the leaders of the priests and the elders. He tells another parable. Jesus keeps using symbolism that should have appealed to their hearts. First, He talks about sons serving in vineyards, and now He describes the protections of the vineyard which echo Isaiah 5 exactly. “Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 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” (Isaiah 5:1-2). This was definitely Israel, and the leaders would have known it, but then Jesus added a new twist onto the old story. Instead of speaking of wild grapes, He spoke of tenants who were taking care of the vineyard for the owner. These tenants denied the owner’s right to have rent and considered the vineyard their own to do with as they pleased. Now, the leaders had to be a little confused about where Jesus was going with the story. Then Jesus said that the tenants had attacked and hurt/killed all the various representatives that the owner sent in order to collect what was due. Finally, He sent His Son to collect the rent, and the tenants rejected Him and threw Him out of the vineyard and killed Him.
(Revelation of God) This parable shows Jesus’ awareness of not only His own death, but also of who was going to kill Him. It shows His acknowledgement that the nation of Israel was about to reject Him. Jesus was pronouncing judgment on the nation of Israel and its leaders when He said that the vineyard would be taken away and given to a new group of people. Israel’s days as God’s chosen people were numbered, and soon they would be just a group who had once been God’s official representatives, but now were rejected as God’s chosen ones. This was a divorce for infidelity and abuse. This was a breaking of a legal relationship because of failure to fulfill the duties and responsibilities required by the position.
(Understanding the Text) The Jews thought the vineyard was them as a political unit, but the reality is the vineyard was the people of God who should have included Gentiles by now. One reason the tenants beat and hurt the representatives who came to collect the rent was that the tenants had nothing to give. They had not expanded the vineyard or improved it and thus, it was not producing fruit as it should.
Of course the representatives of the owner were the prophets. Stephen also speaks of the Jews hurting the prophets. “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” (Acts 7:51-53).
The Jewish leaders viewed the nation of Israel as their own. They believed that they had authority to make decisions about what happened to the vineyard of the people. When Jesus came and started making changes in the vineyard and watchtower (the temple), they claimed that He did not have the authority to do so. In doing this, they were rejecting His claim to come from the owner, from God. This parable goes back to the same question that had been answered already about John the Baptist’s authority. Jesus was still warning them that they were rejecting the representatives of the God that they claimed to serve. They were about to say that the Son was not part of Israel by handing Him over to Romans to execute. They were about to divorce themselves from God when even after Jesus’ resurrection which proved His origins, they still refused to repent and follow God. They still fought against Jesus’ teachings even after His resurrection. Here they pronounced their own judgment upon themselves. The vineyard would be taken away and given to someone else, and they would be judged guilty and die the second death.
The church is the vineyard in that the people of the church belong to God, but the official organization is not the vineyard. The official leaders of the church organization, however, are the tenants. Are we doing any better as tenants? Do we listen to the messages that God sends to us? I guess we don’t kill the prophets any more, but some people are trying to kill the message of prophecy.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that God has given me an awesome responsibility here in this one small section of His vineyard, and I do not always appreciate the trust that He has placed in me to take care of it. I need to treat it with all the love and protection that He wants. I need to bow to His superior knowledge of how His vineyard should be run. I need to humbly submit to following His instructions and learn from Him what He wants done here. I am His representative and I need to always be aware of the wonderful Master that I represent. I pray that You will guide me and instruct me and keep me in Your ways.