The stone builders rejected (Luke 20:9-19)*

Luke 20:9-19

Key verse – Luke 20:17b "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

Introduction:

As Jesus entered Jerusalem, he rebuked the money exchangers and sellers in the temple. In this way, he asserted his authority in the temple, his Father’s house, as God’s Son. By doing so, Jesus also delivered judgment and condemnation on how the temple of God was being mistreated and on the religious leaders of the nation. In this way, a war began between Jesus, the self-proclaimed Son of God, and the religious leaders who were the authority and power of the nation. This eventually led to Jesus’ crucifixion at the hands of these same leaders. In the Gospel of Luke, the sequence of events from his victorious entry into Jerusalem to crucifixion is as follows:

Cleansing the templeàquestioning Jesus’ authorityàthe parable of the tenantsàquestions on other controversial mattersàa widow’s offeringàthe signs of the end of the ages explainedàJudas’ agreement to betray Jesusàthe Last Supper.

Here, the parable of the tenants serves as an explanation on and justification for what Jesus was doing, according to the prophecy, but also offered an insight on what would soon take place in the coming days in Jerusalem. In the midst of this, Jesus also pointed out the nature of Israel’s failure, and that of her leaders.

Today’s parable is about the temple. Specifically, who had authority over the temple? What is the temple’s role? And who was Jesus, in regards to the temple? The religious leaders demanded Jesus to reveal the source of his authority; however, they could not get an answer from him, since they would not commit themselves to the truth. Immediately after this, Jesus told this parable to the people, in order to explain why he was doing these things and where his authority came from.

[Luke 20:1-15a] A man planted a vineyard.

This man rented his vineyard to farmers and went away for a long time. When it was time to harvest the crop, he sent a servant to his tenants so that they would give him some of the fruits of his vineyard.

The tenants beat his servant and sent him away, empty-handed. He sent another servant, but that one was also beaten, treated shamefully, and sent away, empty-handed. He sent a third one and the tenants treated him even worse than the others, wounding him and throwing him out of the vineyard.

For this owner, this was a very serious matter, for he could not get any fruit from his vineyard, for which he had poured out such effort and investment in the hope that he would harvest an abundant crop, the choicest grapes. Before he entrusted this vineyard to the tenants, in order to ensure the best harvest, he provided them with pretty much everything they would need to produce the best crop (Isaiah 5:1-4).

“I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. "Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?” (Isaiah 5:1-4).

The tenants had everything that was needed for them to reap the best grapes. Despite such rich provisions by the owner, these tenants did not appreciate him. Instead, when the moment came for them to give back a portion of the harvest, they dishonored the owner and rejected to give him what he was due. They rejected him three times. It meant that their attitude of rebellion was firm; yet, in dealing with his tenants, the owner was patient and endured the tenant’s weaknesses. He waited and embraced their weaknesses, because he wanted to solve this situation in a positive manner, since he had entrusted his vineyard to them from the beginning. So he thought this dilemma over and came up with this decision:

"Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.”” (Luke 20:13).

He foresaw a great risk in sending his son, but he had invested so much in the vineyard and could not leave it unfruitful. So, as a last resort to solve this problem, he sent his only son whom he loved very much. Then, what did the tenants do?

"But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. 'This is the heir,' they said. 'Let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.”” (Luke 20:14).

They came together and discussed all of their options. In this discussion, there is one thing that must not be forgotten; they had a moral and contractual obligation to give some of the harvest to the owner. This would be the very minimum display of respect to the owner; however, the tenants ignored such an obligation. They did not have any respect for the owner. Instead, they came together to take possession of the vineyard and decided to kill his son. So far, this story was a parabolic explanation of the events that had happened up until this time. Even while Jesus was speaking this parable to the crowd, the religious leaders were trying to find a way to kill him. How would be the ultimate result of their attempts and schemes?

“So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” (Luke 20:15a).

Jesus knew what would happen to him in the future and told this crowd that the tenants threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. He said this in the past tense as if it was already happened.

What was this parable about? The vineyard was symbolic of the temple, where God had invested so much in cultivating the nation of Israel as His people. God gave them the Law of Moses and had provided all the necessary rules and regulations to preserve the temple as the place where ‘true vine’ or the best grapes were produced. When it became obvious that the temple could no longer sustain a plentiful harvest, Jesus, the Son of God, came down and took drastic measures in order to take charge of the temple. However, the religious leaders, i.e. the tenants, would eventually take Jesus outside of Jerusalem and kill him on a cross. The disciples and the people were to witness and understand this for it would happen in the next few days. Jesus taught them this, as a matter of fact through this parable, for it would surely happen.

What might murdering the owner’s son tell us about the tenants? They had no respect for him at all. They were full of contempt and disdain towards him. In addition to this, their vile act was a direct challenge of the owner’s authority. What was their deep-seated desire in this? It was to take the vineyard, the best vines, and the best grapes for themselves; they wanted to be the permanent owners of this vineyard! They were driven by greed and selfishness (Jeremiah 6:13).

[Luke 20:15b-16] God will bring judgment on the tenants.

At this time, Jesus stopped teaching and asked the crowd this question:

"What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?” (Luke 20:15b).

From the crowd’s perspective, Jesus was asking them what was the right and just thing for the owner of the vineyard to do. He wanted to bring them into the story, and put them into the current context that was evolving before them. Each of them, at some point, must have had to discern and decide what was right, specifically whether or not to follow Jesus or sympathize with the religious leaders. They were weighing and might even have been struggling to choose between Jesus and the religious leaders, in regards to who was right, who was going to win, who was representative of God. However, Jesus was demanding that they view this parabolic situation from the owner’s perspective! They were to understand the things that were currently evolving, according to God’s perspective! We are so attuned to see and understand everything from our personal perspective, which will likely lead us to selfishness and greed. When one’s mind is devoid of God, His injunctions, or His perspective, either personal or corporate justice will take over, and greed and selfishness become the standards of life.

God is the owner of the vineyard and the tenants must abide by the contractual agreement they have with Him. This was the standing rule! While they were thinking about the question Jesus had raised, he delivered this final answer:

“He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others." (Luke 20:16).

If I included the full nuances of the original words in my consideration of this sentence, it would read more like, “He himself will come and surely will kill those tenants”. Until this time, the parable had been told in the past tense; from this point on, though, it would be communicated using the future tense. That meant that this was certainly going to come to pass. The crowd knew what Jesus had done in the temple and how angry the religious leaders were with Jesus, in addition to their threats to kill him. The implied meaning of this was clear: God would come and kill the religious leaders for their rebellion against His Son, Jesus. This would also be a very sweeping change for the temple, resulting in the removal of all the religious leaders, Pharisees, teachers of the Law, Sanhedrin members, and Sadducees from their positions of power. Jesus was revealing, or prophesying, that they would all be thrown out of the Master’s vineyard and be killed! When the full picture of Jesus’ teaching was realized by their hearts, how did the crowd respond? When the people heard this, they said, "God forbid!"(May it never be!)

This would be a tragic outcome. As we have noted, the owner’s response is given in the future tense; i.e. this would happen sometime in the coming days. For the crowd, it came as a shock to know what would happen to the tenants, for they knew this was symbolic of the religious leaders. They would all be thrown out of the vineyard/temple,  killed, and replaced by new people! They said ‘God forbid!’ To them, this was a shocking and unthinkable thing to have happen. God established the temple and the entire religious system, including the establishment of all of the religious leaders. This system had been preserved, even after the temple’s destruction, and had been kept alive until after the nation had been subjected to pagan nations. According to their belief, as long as God existed, this temple would stand forever! However, Jesus said that the Pharisees, priests, high priests, teachers of the Law, and Sadducees would all be removed. This would be too painful for them to see! Was this just a conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders? If this was the case, it would be an unfortunate event! It is likely that the crowd would not accept or fully understand this parable. In other words, there was a deep question or doubt in their hearts about whether or not Jesus said that this would happen. To them, he had fixed his eyes on them and asked this question. When everything goes along as usual, it is hard to see or take any warning about coming judgment.

It was not a minor thing that Jesus overturned the money exchangers’ tables and drove out the merchants from the temple, condemning that they had made his Father’s house a den of robbers. This was a clear statement from the Son of God that the temple and all its systems had failed to do what they were supposed to do and would become obsolete. In order to enlighten the crowd’s understanding, Jesus raised this question:

“Jesus looked directly at them and asked, "Then what is the meaning of that which is written: "'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone'?”” (Luke 20:17).

[Luke 20:17] The stone the builders rejected has entered through the gate of the Lord’s temple.

This is seen in Psalm 118. This psalm was sung during a feast, as people went up to Jerusalem (i.e. a song of ascent), to the temple, most likely as they were coming either from other parts of Israel or from other nations. So, this was a very familiar song. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, people shouted this song (v25-26), which they had already heard.

This song seems to be a pictorial description of an eschatological event when the Messiah would come and march up to the temple in order to meet God Almighty along with His people. In order to understand this song, it’s good to look into some of its details. This song has two stages - a procession outside of the temple (1-19), and what happened in the temple court after they entered the temple gates (20-29).

V1-4, 23-29 is general giving of praise and thanks to the Lord.Vv5-21 is a description of a warrior’s life of faith that leads him to enter the Lord’s temple, after fighting against the enemy. V22 is the conclusion or summary of what happened in v5-21.

V5-22 presents the theme of this song; it is about a warrior’s personal struggle in faith, so that he may be able to enter God’s presence, i.e. the Lord’s temple. His struggle is divided into three parts, according to the forces that he faced.

In v5-9, the worrier enters into a spacious place and exclaims that the Lord is with him, acknowledging that it is better to take refuge in the Lord. So this part is purely in his mind, addressing his personal faith/conviction regarding the Lord’s presence with him.

In the second part (v10-17), the warrior is surrounded by enemies and about to be conquered by the enemy. He pushed them back, yet he was overwhelmed by the enemy forces and was on the verge of death. In the midst of this, God came to help him and he declares that the Lord was right. God helped him and rescued him from death.

“I was pushed back and about to fall, but the LORD helped me… I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done.” (Psalm 118:13b, 17).

In the third part (v18-21), it was the Lord who chastened the warrior severely (18a), yet He did not give him over to death. Instead, He opened the gate of righteousness for him, giving him full rights to enter the temple courts. The conclusion is found in the warrior’s declaration that ‘you (the Lord) have become my salvation.’

In the three stages of the warrior’s fight against his enemies, actually depictive of his sin, he was eventually able to go through the gate that enabled him to enter into the Lord’s presence. In the last stage, it was not the enemies, but the Lord Himself who chastened him. Nevertheless, He (the Lord) did not hand him over to death; instead, He opened the gate of righteousness. Likewise, he received affirmation that the Lord would help and that he fought the fiercest enemies with the Lord’s help. And finally, the warrior was chastened by the Lord but did not suffer death because of His grace. So, v22 is the climax of this song and unveils who the victor is and the full significance of this song:

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” (Luke 20:22).

The rejected stone, Jesus, became the cornerstone.

Who is this warrior that was allowed to pass through the temple gate and to enter the temple courts? Jesus quoted this verse (v22) to indicate that this passage was about himself; he was the rejected stone but would become the cornerstone that would ultimately enter the true temple of the Lord. The implication of this is clear; the life he had lived and would finish was what this Psalm described. He is the right one to enter the Lord’s presence.

This is the ‘rejected’ stone’; the builders rejected Jesus because he depended on God the Father for his life from beginning to end, and refused to comply with any other authority, including the religious leaders. Also, he did not claim his own justice and goodness at all, which was totally opposite to the temple builders’ character. These two contrasting natures are also shown in the rejected stone in Psalm 118:5-19. In this way, the rejected stone cannot be one of the worldly temple builders.

What is the spirit that ran through the rejected stone? Reasonably speaking, when one was rejected by the religious leaders, he or she was essentially condemned by the Law of Moses. So, ‘rejected stone’ implies being condemned by the law and facing the Day of Judgment; he had no hope at all and could not be a part of the temple. If there is any hope, it is by the Lord’s mercy. Actually, the Lord was the only hope for him, from beginning to end, and he looked to the Lord for grace and mercy, even while he was driven to the open land, swamped by enemies, and chastened by the Lord. We see such a thing also happen with the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). Her sin was obvious to everyone and she had no way to defend herself from the religious leaders’ and crowds’ judgment. Being judged by the law, she was totally helpless and about to be stoned to death. Actually, she must have thought she was as good as dead, according to the Law’s judgment. This was the same spirit that ran through the rejected stone. She was saved by Jesus’ grace, and he would not condemn her.

In Psalm 118, the rejected stone is not only a depiction of Jesus’ life as the Savior, but also an illustration of how we, as sinners, gain access to the Lord or how we become righteous in God’s eyes. Despite this man’s fight in faith during the first two stages in and with the Lord against the enemy, he was still not good or right enough in the Lord’s eyes and God chastised him. From God’s perspective, this man was worthy of death and could have died; however, the Lord, in His grace, gave him ‘righteousness’ instead, so that he was able to enter into His presence. All these events converged on one issue - how one can enter through the gate of righteousness. Man’s salvation is by God’s grace and mercy, from beginning to end! Nothing else! Faith such as this was practiced well in the first two stages described in Psalm 118, but even that must not be the only condition for his righteousness or seen as what will make him worthy of God’s justice! One can only enter the gate of heaven by God’s grace and mercy, as shown in the third stage. This is well captured in v21:

“I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.” (Psalm 118:21).

Faith’s culmination is utter dependence on God’s grace, which saves mankind from the worthiness of death into eternal life. So salvation is by the grace of God alone, nothing else!

Only the rejected stone can become the cornerstone of the new temple. So the religious leaders’ rejection and murder of Jesus was all within God’s plan. However, despite their murder of the son, he would not end in death, but would enter the Lord’s temple, indicating that he was the coming Messiah! It would not be the religious leaders, but Jesus, who would win this battle!

[Luke 20:18] Eternal life is only by and through the rejected stone

Did the crowd understand this teaching’s meaning and significance? Jesus gave them a final nudge:

““Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed."” (Luke 20:18).

This was about how one relates with this stone. Here, there are two ways to crash against the rejected stone, Jesus.

a.       Everyone who falls on that stone…

A prime example of this was Israel and Judah who held on to a temple made by man. This is well described by the prophet, Isaiah:

“He will be a holy place; for both Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare. Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured." (Isaiah 8:14-15).

As we know and as Jesus prophesied, the builders of man-made temples rejected him and eventually they all perished in AD 70. Jeremiah also gave us some insight into the cause of their failure

"From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.” (Jeremiah 6:13).

Paul said this more precisely as the reason why they suffered such a fate.

“Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.” (Romans 9:32).

These are also very sound warnings to us today. More often than not, even though we are chosen by God’s grace, over the course of time, we tend to go back to our innate nature, trying to build our righteousness by works. We might say, “I served the Lord so much and so long, have so many sheep flocks under me, know His word more than others, and have sacrificed so much throughout my life.” Often times, these things are going through my mind as a train of thought that follows those who build temples by their own efforts and labors. So to me, this is a perpetual reminder and warning so that I may not join with them, but may live by faith in Jesus, the Lord, the rejected cornerstone.   

b.      Anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.

We can capture the meaning of this by considering Daniel’s prophecy:

While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:34-35).

The king of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar, had a dream about a huge human statue, which represented different human kingdoms, each in succession, from the head to the toe. This statue was broken to pieces by a large stone, not cut by human hands, and it became like chaff on a threshing floor, swept away by the wind. This tells us that Jesus, the rock not cut by human hands, will destroy all worldly powers. The implications of this are enormous. The rejected stone would rule the world and no earthly kingdom will be able to stand against it. To the world, it would merely be a rejected stone, but in it, is the power that conquers the world. Anyone who does not accept and follow the rejected stone will never enter through the Lord’s temple gate and never be part of God’s eternal blessing.

What does this teach us?

We should not follow Israel’s example. God provided the best vineyard for her. It took about 1000 years from the calling of Abraham for Him to fully establish the kingdom of Judah under King David. In every step of this process, God did this work by His grace and mercy.

God called Abraham by His grace and deselected those who did not have faith: Ishmael vs. Isaac; Esau vs. Jacob; the first generation of Israelites to leave Egypt vs. the second generation; Saul vs. David. It could have been enough to give them the Ten Commandments and display His full glory at Mount Horeb; however, God gave them the Law of Moses, in which he provided a sacrificial system and the Sabbatical law, so that, even if they violated the law, they might be able to escape His judgment. This was the best vineyard – for them to know and live by God’s grace, but Israel, God’s firstborn son, failed thoroughly in their attempts to reap the benefits of His goodness. Their failure signifies the failure of the rest of God’s children, the whole human race, and teaches us one thing: that even with the Lord’s best provisions, man’s inherent character, or the traits ingrained in their inner being, could not escape from the  drive to justify themselves by doing good works, like the temple builders. Israel’s failure was the failure of all humankind, because they not only represent the rest of God’s children, but also the best of God the Father’s strength (this becomes obvious through God’s selection of the best and deselecting the unfit by creating the nation of Israel).

All human races are under the same predicament as Israel. This is well expressed through the many idols that men had created. Jeremiah’s prophecy against Babylon gives us some insight on this:

"I am against you, you destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth," declares the LORD. "I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a burned-out mountain. No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone, nor any stone for a foundation, for you will be desolate forever," declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 51:25-26 NIV).

This is the word prophesied against Babylon. God rejected any Babylonian materials for constructing the new building, even a single cornerstone, because of their idolatry. God said that He would utterly destroy the Babylonians because of their useless idols and not even a single Babylonian stone should be used for His purposes.  He rejected all pagan religions and their idols. As much as the temple builders in Israel rejected the temple’s cornerstone, so will the Lord reject all who build temples in order to uphold their own goodness and justice. They will never share any of God’s blessing; their ‘faith in and through their idols’ would never lead them to the gate of righteousness, which is acceptable to the Lord.

We are to live only by Jesus’ spirit and grace, as the rejected stone.

Even now, there are many temple builders. In Athens, Paul spoke to two classes of philosophers: the Epicureans and Stoics (Acts 17:18). They stood as pillars of human philosophy during that time. If we simplify who the Stoics were, they might be labeled as ‘builders of the temple’. There are two classes of people who challenged Jesus in days following his teaching of this parable (Luke 20:20-40): the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, and the Sadducees. The Pharisees and teachers were the ones that we have already labeled as ‘builders’ of the temple, while the Sadducees who rejected the resurrection were the other half, sharing the same mindset as the Epicurean. Even among believers, we find similar characteristics of different ‘faith-styles’. The ones with a greater tendency to build their lives upon righteousness are the ones whose minds are more inclined to enjoy the life of God’s blessing. Neither should be the basic medium of our thoughts, or the source of our strength and drive. Rather, the spirit of the rejected stone should be ours as we eagerly look forward to the day when we meet the Lord. This is most explicitly expressed in Romans 1:17b (“The righteous will live by faith”). Let this spirit be upon our hearts as we fix our eyes on our Lord Jesus, the Cornerstone of the new temple. And then we will surely welcome Jesus with praise:

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” (Psalm 118:26).