The Parable of the Vineyard

Driving home: But in seeking to ascertain the meaning of parable, we must not try to find significance in every wrinkle of the drape, in every thread in the wall hanging, and in every color in the rug. The meaning is found in the subs…

Martin uses the analogy of a furnished room with essential items (table, chair, couch) and decorative elements (drapes, wall hangings) to explain that the meaning of a parable is found in its central concerns, not every minor detail.

Then the immediate, the immediate response of the Jewish leaders to the parable, verse 12, and then seek to make the very crucial applications of this parable. First of all, then, the essential facts and meaning of the parable. And as we take up the parable, since it has been some time that we studied the parables recorded in Mark's gospel, particularly in chapter 4, I would remind you that, in seeking to grasp the facts and the significance of a parable, we must not get bound up in seeking to find a significance for every little detail. A parable is like a room furnished with a chair, a couch...

11:32 - 12:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But in seeking to ascertain the meaning of parable, we must not try to find significance in every wrinkle of the drape, in every thread in the wall hanging, and in every color in the rug. The meaning is found in the subs…

He describes the common practice of building hedges from stones or thorns around vineyards in Palestine to protect the investment from predators and intruders, making the parable's setting vivid.

Now we are told by those who have studied the written records of this particular period of human history in Palestine, and by those who have examined the remains that have been dug up by archeological digs, that what our Lord described here in the establishment of this vineyard and in its being leased to tenant farmers was a common situation that would have been clearly understood by everyone who heard him that day in the temple precincts. Verse 2. Because the circumstances are very different from anything most of us have witnessed, it's necessary to give a little explanation. What we have des...

13:56 - 15:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But in seeking to ascertain the meaning of parable, we must not try to find significance in every wrinkle of the drape, in every thread in the wall hanging, and in every color in the rug. The meaning is found in the subs…

Martin details the typical construction of a wine press in Palestine, involving an upper treading area and a lower collection area, to explain the 'pit for the winepress' in the parable.

Then it is said, that having done this, he digged a pit for the wine press. Now that's an awkward attempt to translate a Greek word found only here in the New Testament, but the significance again can be seen even in Palestine today. The way they would make a wine press is generally to find a place where there was some solid rock shelf on a slope. They would dig out an area on the upper part that might be three or four feet thick.

16:34 - 17:02 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin outlines the structure of the sermon and begins to explain the first category of the parable: the establishment of the vineyard, its common historical context, and its…

He explains the multi-purpose use of a tower in a Palestinian vineyard for storage, shelter for farmers, and a watchtower, clarifying its role in the parable.

by those who have studied the matter and seen the remains of such towers to this day that the tower served a two or threefold purpose. The tower was used to make wine. It was used sometimes for the storage of the agricultural equipment needed for cultivating. It was also used for shelter for the actual farmers who might have spent time over a period when there was intense work needed to be done rather than going back into their homes.

18:16 - 18:47 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin outlines the structure of the sermon and begins to explain the first category of the parable: the establishment of the vineyard, its common historical context, and its…

Martin likens the contractual arrangement with tenant farmers to modern sharecroppers, explaining the economic model where a percentage of the produce goes to the landowner.

And it could also be used as a watchtower from which to look and to seek to make sure that no one who was a threat to the well-being of the vineyard would be allowed to come undetected and therefore unaccosted. So the picture which our Lord draws is one that would have stood out very, very vividly in the minds of his hearers. And after this particular landowner had done whatever was necessary to plant the vineyard, set the hedge about it, dig the wine press, build the tower, then we are told, he left to husbandmen and went into another country. That is, he entered into a contractual arrangemen...

18:47 - 20:04 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the second category: the vineyard owner's repeated sending of servants and ultimately his beloved son to collect fruit, and the tenant farmers' increasingly brutal…

He references the Old Testament practice of cutting off clothing to the buttocks to publicly shame messengers, illustrating the 'shameful handling' of the second servant.

he sent unto them another servant. And to him they wounded in the head and handled shamefully. This one, they put apes in his back and sent him back to his master empty-handed, but they became excessively brutal. They wounded him in the head with an ability which can most quickly produce death with a blow struck strategically. And in some way that is not explained, they handled him in the head and handled him shamefully. Perhaps they did something similar to what is recorded in the Old Testament when desiring to insult the messengers and the one who sent them. Men had their clothing cut off to...

24:22 - 25:23 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the second category: the vineyard owner's repeated sending of servants and ultimately his beloved son to collect fruit, and the tenant farmers' increasingly brutal…

Martin explains that casting the son's body outside the vineyard, denying a decent burial, was the highest insult in Israel, where an unburied body was a sign of reproach.

So they reasoned among themselves saying, let's kill him and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him and killed him, and cast him forth out of the vineyard. And they take the wealth and they not owe him, but they do not even give him a decent burial. And that means little to us, but in Israel, as the barren was a harming of reproach and occasion of reproach.

29:08 - 29:50 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains the predicted sequel to the parable, quoting Psalm 118 about the rejected stone becoming the head of the corner, signifying Christ's exaltation despite rejection.

He uses the analogy of a stone mason trying to fit a strategic stone in an arch to illustrate the builders' rejection of the 'cornerstone' and its significance.

the very thing with messianic identity and now he comes back to that psalm and he says have you not read the stone which the builders of the world rejected it's graphic imagery some of you masons here I don't mean who belong to the masonic lodge I don't think we have anyone who belongs to the masonic lodge I know we have no members who do but I mean masons you know people that put brick and block together people that put the brick up on the outside of this building have you ever seen a stone mason work trying to fit stones together and here is a peculiarly strategic stone in an arch and it mus...

40:21 - 41:51 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin describes the Jewish leaders' immediate response of self-condemnation and intensified determination to kill Jesus, and then underscores how the parable interprets and…

Martin connects the parable to the symbolic miracle of the cursing of the fig tree, explaining both as object lessons for Israel's lack of spiritual fruit despite religious activity.

we'll wait our time and so the parable ends with these words or the record ends they left him and went away well that's the text dear people that's what the passage sets before us the essential facts the essential facts and meaning of the parable, the predicted sequel to the parable and its meaning, and the immediate response, now you and I ask, and rightly so, what does this say to us? Well, let me first of all underscore what is obvious, but the obvious needs to be underscored. This parable interprets and confirms God's dealings with national Israel as indicated in the symbolic miracle of th...

47:32 - 48:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Flee from the wrath to come by calling upon Christ while He is near, lest He, as the chief cornerstone, grind you to powder.

He uses the example of Saul of Tarsus (Paul) stumbling on the stone (Christ) in unbelief but later being converted, to illustrate that initial rejection can still lead to repentance.

This is what he's saying. When men see God taking the rejected one, Jesus of Nazareth, killed as the world, and when they see God raising him from the dead and sitting him at his own right hand in the place of glory and power, rejected, I can't believe they stumble on that stone. In their unbelief, but listen, when they stumble on that stone in unbelief, they don't move the stone. They only break their own bones, but listen, there's still hope for that, because Saul of

60:43 - 61:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Extract sweetness from the parable by affirming that no amount of men's wickedness can frustrate God's purposes, and that the rejected stone is the head of the corner.

Martin uses the imagery of God with folded arms, laughing at human plots to thwart His purposes, to emphasize God's sovereignty and the futility of man's wickedness.

Oh, blessed be God that we have a Savior whose purposes cannot be frustrated by man. The kings of the earth get together and say, How was rain and the rain of His anointed? And what does Psalm 2 say? He that sits in the heavens shall laugh.

66:51 - 67:13 Read in full sermon