Temple Cleansed Again
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divine law which was their protection. The tower was a symbol of the
temple. The lord of the vineyard had done everything needful for its
prosperity. “What could have been done more to my vineyard,” he says,
“that I have not done in it.”
Isaiah 5:4
. Thus was represented God’s
unwearied care for Israel. And as the husbandmen were to return to
the lord a due proportion of the fruits of the vineyard, so God’s people
were to honor Him by a life corresponding to their sacred privileges.
But as the husbandmen had killed the servants whom the master sent to
them for fruit, so the Jews had put to death the prophets whom God sent
to call them to repentance. Messenger after messenger had been slain.
Thus far the application of the parable could not be questioned, and in
what followed it was not less evident. In the beloved son whom the
lord of the vineyard finally sent to his disobedient servants, and whom
they seized and slew, the priests and rulers saw a distinct picture of
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Jesus and His impending fate. Already they were planning to slay Him
whom the Father had sent to them as a last appeal. In the retribution
inflicted upon the ungrateful husbandmen was portrayed the doom of
those who should put Christ to death.
Looking with pity upon them, the Saviour continued, “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.”
This prophecy the Jews had often repeated in the synagogues,
applying it to the coming Messiah. Christ was the cornerstone of the
Jewish economy, and of the whole plan of salvation. This foundation
stone the Jewish builders, the priests and rulers of Israel, were now
rejecting. The Saviour called their attention to the prophecies that
would show them their danger. By every means in His power He
sought to make plain to them the nature of the deed they were about to
do.
And His words had another purpose. In asking the question, “When
the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those
husbandmen?” Christ designed that the Pharisees should answer as
they did. He designed that they should condemn themselves. His
warnings, failing to arouse them to repentance, would seal their doom,