Lord’s Vineyard
187
The Jewish people cherished the idea that they were the favorites
of heaven, and that they were always to be exalted as the church of
God. They were the children of Abraham, they declared, and so firm
did the foundation of their prosperity seem to them that they defied
earth and heaven to dispossess them of their rights. But by lives of
unfaithfulness they were preparing for the condemnation of heaven
and for separation from God.
In the parable of the vineyard, after Christ had portrayed before the
[295]
priests their crowning act of wickedness, He put to them the question,
“When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do
unto those husbandmen?” The priests had been following the narrative
with deep interest, and without considering the relation of the subject
to themselves they joined with the people in answering, “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.”
Unwittingly they had pronounced their own doom. Jesus looked
upon them, and under His searching gaze they knew that He read the
secrets of their hearts. His divinity flashed out before them with unmis-
takable power. They saw in the husbandmen a picture of themselves,
and they involuntarily exclaimed, “God forbid!”
Solemnly and regretfully Christ asked, “Did ye never read in the
scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become
the head of the corner; this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in
our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken
from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And
whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever
it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.”
Christ would have averted the doom of the Jewish nation if the
people had received Him. But envy and jealousy made them implaca-
ble. They determined that they would not receive Jesus of Nazareth
as the Messiah. They rejected the Light of the world, and thenceforth
their lives were surrounded with darkness as the darkness of midnight.
The doom foretold came upon the Jewish nation. Their own fierce
passions, uncontrolled, wrought their ruin. In their blind rage they
destroyed one another. Their rebellious, stubborn pride brought upon
[296]
them the wrath of their Roman conquerors. Jerusalem was destroyed,
the temple laid in ruins, and its site plowed like a field. The children