By Jon Beaty

Both my children enjoyed bedtime stories. The stories I and their mother read aloud to them included Bible stories. But not every Bible story ends on a cheerful note. Many of Jesus’ parables are meant to unsettle us rather than prepare us for a good night’s sleep. They’re not stories intended for young children. One of those parables is titled “The Parable of the Tenants.” Some of the first people to hear the parable were so disturbed by it they wanted to “cancel” Jesus.

In Matthew 21:33, Jesus describes a landowner who planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went to a far country, leaving them to tend what belonged to him.

At harvest time, the landowner sent servants to receive what was due. The vinedressers answered with violence—scourging one, killing another, and doing the same to the larger group of servants sent after them.

Finally, the landowner sent his son. Recognizing him as the heir, the vinedressers defied moral reason, killed him, and tried to claim the vineyard as their own.

Quizzed by Jesus about what the landowner would do next, the Pharisees and temple elders correctly answered that the landowner would judge against the wicked men who rejected his servants and killed his son. The landowner would then lease the vineyard to vinedressers who would return to him the harvest he desired.

Then the chief priests and Pharisees realized Jesus had portrayed them as the vinedressers in His parable. At that moment of realization, the right response would have been repentance. Instead, they plotted to arrest Jesus. They stopped short of doing it at that moment for fear of the crowds, because, as Matthew says, the crowds “considered Jesus a prophet.”

Matthew’s account of this story implies that the chief priests and Pharisees did not consider Jesus a prophet. Instead, they saw Jesus as a threat to their power and positions of influence as religious leaders.

One of a prophet’s assignments is to call us down from our high places and to humbly confess our sins.

The men who appeared to have devoted their lives to serving God were blind to the very presence of God in their midst. They opposed the message He was delivering in Person to them so much, they plotted to silence His voice.

How does this happen? Could it happen to us? Could we find ourselves claiming full devotion to Jesus and in opposition to Him at the same time?

Jesus’ parable of the tenants gives us a clue.

Before the vinedressers decided to murder the landowner’s son, they first rejected his servants. Their rejection of the servants the critical turning point that led to the vinedresser’s fatal mistake.

The servants in the parable represent the prophets God sent to His chosen people for thousands of years before Jesus’ arrival in Bethlehem. Because the prophets delivered messages from God that called people to repent from their sins, those prophets were mostly unwelcome, and often rejected, persecuted or killed. God’s people suffered dire consequences as a result.

King Jehoshaphat’s reign over Judah was one of the few periods of Judah’s history marked by prosperity because the king recognized God’s sovereignty and the importance of faithful obedience and worship. Faced with invading armies, King Jehoshaphat counseled the inhabitants of his kingdom: “Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper,” (2 Chronicles 20:20 NKJV).

They followed the king’s counsel, and God rewarded their belief with victory over their enemies.

But the path taken by the vinedressers in Jesus’ parable is a path too often traveled. Many people who claim Christianity (vinedressers) reject the messages of the prophets. Prophets (servants) are unwelcome because they often proclaim God’s judgment against evil and evildoers. The judgments are welcome when someone else’s bad behavior is brought to light. But the faithful prophet will eventually step on the toes of all who consider themselves righteous.

When we read the Bible from cover to cover, we discover a lot of material that’s not comforting bedtime reading for children or adults. In His mercy, God designs His words to alarm us to dangers that threaten to cost us our souls.

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account,” (Hebrews 4:12-13 NKJV)

Once the sword pierces, we must choose our response.

The natural response is to reject the prophecy and dismiss the prophet. Some choose what they consider a middle ground: accepting the prophecies they like while rejecting the ones that confront them. But either response places our judgment above God’s. Once we do that, we are only one step away from rejecting the God who sends the prophets—and His Son.

The right response is repentance and to receive God’s forgiveness.

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ‘He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God,’” (John 3:17-18 NKJV).

Just as God, in the person of Jesus, stood before the religious leaders in Jerusalem and called them to repentance, God stands before us today through the Holy Spirit, speaking through His servants with the same merciful call. When His Word confronts our sin, His prophets disturb our comfort, and His servants expose what we would rather protect, we must not harden our hearts. To receive the Son and His forgiveness, we must also receive the correction of the God who sent Him. His servants are His messengers.