Title: Parable of the Evil Farmer
Content 1. Words that begin
There are leaders in every field, and the general public is helped a lot because of them. The problem, however, is that some leaders like to appear in front of others and have a strong desire for honor and courage to the point of being pathological. These ailing leaders are distorting or destroying the nature and character of their fields in order to satisfy their desires by bribery and flattery. In addition, in order to maintain the courage once obtained, they use more filthy means and commit terrible crimes. It is not known how much damage the general public, let alone those who work in the field, suffer because of them.
2. Jesus' Parable of the Jewish Leadership
The Jewish religious leaders prided themselves on knowing the Law and the Prophets better than anyone else, and were therefore proud that they were best waiting for the promised Christ. However, because they were distorting the inner meaning of the Word, blinded by religious vested interests, lust for honor, and worldly desires, they did not recognize Christ Jesus, who came after the promise. Rather, they were trying to get rid of Jesus, who was gaining the popularity and trust of the people by preaching the word and exercising his power as the Christ. Those who did such things had no way of knowing that they were the greatest enemy of God's work of salvation.
Jesus spoke to those priests in an allegory. This allegory consists of the owner who rented the vineyard to the peasants and left, the bad deeds of the peasants toward the servants who went to collect the rent at harvest time, the peasants who even killed their son who went to collect the rent, and the master's treatment of the evil peasants.
A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge against thieves and beasts, dug two pits of different heights to be trampled on by his feet, and built a tower that doubled as a storehouse or lodging, rented it out to farmers and went abroad.
Here, the owner of the vineyard is God, the vineyard is Israel, the chosen people, and the farmer is the priests, Pharisees, scribes, and elders.
This allegory also shows how meticulously paid attention and care God provided facilities for Israel to bear precious fruit.
The true value of this allegory is that it can be directly applied to everyone living today. In other words, the owner means God the Creator, the vineyard means all people created by God, and the farmer means the leaders who should lead all people to bear fruit according to the will of the Creator God.
In fact, God the Creator put people in the Garden of Eden to lead a life that bears spiritual fruit, that is, a life that follows the Word of God. However, as people disobeyed the Word and obeyed Satan's temptations, they lived a life of slavery to sin. However, God promised to send Christ instead of destroying such sinners, and Christ Jesus came according to that promise.
As always, all good works apart from Christ are not the fruits of God. Please believe that the fruit that God desires is an action that comes from faith in Christ, who has existed since eternity.
When it was harvest time, the master sent a servant to receive some of the vineyard produce he was due. However, instead of paying rent, the peasants seized the servant, beat him badly, and sent him away for free. The master, who knew the evil deeds of these absurd farmers, endured and sent another servant. However, the peasants took another sip and wounded the servant's head and insulted him. Again, the master persevered and sent another servant, but the peasants killed him. The master endured again and sent many other servants just in case, but the peasants also beat or killed the servants.
In this story, God sent the prophets, God's true servants, to Israel to save the life of faith that works through the love that God's chosen people should have. It refers to historical facts.
God showed tolerance instead of wrath and punishment, even though the evil deeds of the clergy toward His servants were against Him. However, instead of repenting, the clergy abused God's forbearance to do more wicked and terrible things.
No, even today, there are not a few people who abuse the love that God's way is patient with and commit more evil deeds. Even among believers, there are those who, instead of using God's tolerance as an opportunity for enlightenment, use it as an opportunity to disobey more and more by rationalizing themselves.
Although the peasants commit the evil deed of killing many servants, their master's generosity and patience reach their peak. Even more surprising is the fact that the owner has not yet lost his trust in the evil peasants.
The master sent his only son whom he loved to give him a last chance, thinking, ?쏧 will honor only my son.??However, the owner's expectations were shattered without question. They expected the master to be respectful because he was his only son, but the wicked peasants liked it very much, saying that if the master's heir had come, and if he stopped killing him, the master's inheritance would be theirs. And using that last chance of repentance as the worst chance for murder, he killed the owner's only son and threw him out of the vineyard.
This parable foretells the fate of Jesus himself, who came according to God's will to give us the opportunity of repentance and salvation.
Romans 2:4 says, ?쏰r do you despise the riches of his kindness, forbearance, and forbearance, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? He prepares wrath for the day when the righteous judgment of God is revealed.??In the end, the master will come and destroy those wicked wicked farmers and give the vineyard to others. In fact, Christ Jesus, the only Son of God, was rejected and killed in scorn and disdain by the Jewish clergy, but was resurrected by God's work and became the cornerstone of the sanctuary in heaven, and now those who believe and follow him It is to build one church.
3. Negative reaction of the Jewish clergy
The Jewish clergy later realized that this allegory was referring to them, and tried to arrest Jesus, but the crowds were afraid and they went away. So I lost the opportunity to repent again and believe in Jesus Christ to be saved.
Here we find that even religious leaders, once entangled in worldly interests, can become ignorant of spiritual facts.
4. Conclusion
We borrow everything from the God who created and saved our life, and when the time comes, we must return it all and leave this world. We earnestly pray that all of us in the Lord will receive the help of pastors and all leaders, and bear fruit to be dedicated to God at that time.
(Poongseong Methodist Church. Book: Complete New Testament Commentary Series/ Interpretation of difficult scriptures/ Prayer of Prosperity/ Salvation Before Jesus Came/ Sermonbook 17. 426-3051)