Amy C Walters

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants | Luke 20:9-19

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants can feel really heavy, with violent tenants and a punishing response. But it also reveals to us the lengths that God goes to in order to communicate to his people. The question is, are we listening?

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants is rather heavy and it’s easy to feel like it’s all bad news, doom and gloom. But this story also conveys so much hope and mercy and patience. 

Let’s start with the owner. He plants a vineyard and rents it out to tenants. A vineyard sounds like a lovely place to live and work. Also, as tenants, they get to share in the fruit of the vineyard. They aren’t slaves. 

While the owner is far away, he goes to great lengths to bridge the gap between himself and the tenants. He initiates contact with them, sending a servant with a message. So he sends a person, not just a letter. 

What happens when the first servant returns to the owner, abused and empty-handed? The owner does not immediately kick the tenants off the land. He sends them another servant and another. What does this tell us about the owner?

It tells us that he’s patient, that he’s merciful, giving the tenants so many opportunities to do the right thing. The owner even goes so far as to send his beloved son to give those wicked tenants just one more chance. 

This son is the ultimate communication to the tenants. He is the closest representative to the owner that could possibly be sent. Hebrews 1:1-2 talks about this, saying, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed an heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” 

The servants in this story are the prophets. Through them, God communicated to his people. They gave sermons, they did object lessons, they sang songs, they wrote their messages down, they ate weird foods and wore weird clothes and married unfaithful people, all in an effort to communicate God’s message. 

And then came Jesus. He is the ultimate communication from God, both the greatest messenger and the greatest message. We’ve seen him teach and heal and feed and comfort and dignify and affirm and welcome and rebuke and warn. 

In this story, the tenants see the delay and the distance from the owner as proof that he’s either powerless to do anything about it or that he just doesn’t care. But actually, that delay is proof of the owner’s mercy. He delays judgment to give them the time and the opportunity to repent. Second Peter 3:9 talks about this, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” 

The tenants, however, don’t change their attitudes or behaviors, no matter what the owner does. 

What about you? How do you respond to God’s messages and messengers? Maybe you think, if God would just give me a sign, then I would believe in him. But look at all the ways that God has spoken to you! 

We may not have the Old Testament prophets with us today, but we have their words. We can read them and study them in the Bible and be changed by them. Are we doing that? Or are we letting our Bible collect dust on the shelf? 

And we have preachers and teachers who can explain God’s Word to us. Are we listening to them? Or are we sitting in the service playing on our phones, distracting ourselves until we can go get lunch? 

Tim Keller says that life itself is a messenger to us. The fact that life doesn’t go the way we want it to is proof that we are not the owner but the tenant. Are we trying to ignore that message? 

Our responses to the frustrations of life reveal where our heart is. Are we listening to how we are responding? Are we recognizing, “Whoa, I don’t like how I responded to that. What does that reveal to me about what’s going on in my heart?”

CS. Lewis, in his book, The Problem of Pain, wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Pain is a messenger, not a welcome one, but one that does speak to us. Is our pain turning us to God or away from him?

Romans 1:20 tells us that even creation itself is a message from God. “For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse.” We can look out our window and see a message from God. And that’s a message that’s accessible anytime, anywhere. 

Our key truth for today is that God speaks to us. 

He is not absent. He is not distant. He goes to great lengths to communicate his love to you. 

Are you listening? Are your eyes and ears open to the messages that he is sending to you? Are you talking to him about what you’re seeing? Are you measuring everything against the truth of his Word? Holding that up is the highest authority in your life. Are you listening?