Who are the Wicked Tenants in Matthew 21?

140 Views 4 min Jul 17, 2024

Does Matthew 21 teach that God took His Kingdom away from Israel due to disbelief and gave it to Gentile believers (the Church) instead? Exactly who was Jesus speaking to in this chapter? Gateway Center for Israel Executive Director Nic Lesmeister tackles these questions in this episode of "Responding to Viewer Comments."

Nic offers evidence that this claim, considered a doctrine of Replacement Theology, is an inaccurate interpretation of the phrase "wicked tenants." He touches on how the use of allegory and metaphor is commonly misunderstood and also emphasizes the importance of scriptural context - especially when a passage is used as a proof text (one upon which a theological position is based) - when determining biblical definition.

Video Transcript

Another comment that we got was, what about Matthew 21:33? That is the parable of the tenants or the parable of the farmers where it seems like Jesus is saying God’s going to take away the kingdom from Israel and give it to the Gentiles.

So I just want to read this really quickly and I want you to understand, whenever there’s a scripture like this that seems to be like a proof text to say, no, no, no, no, Israel’s done away with. You need to look in context. Who is Jesus talking to? What is the context that he’s talking to people about? Same thing with Paul. This happens a lot with Paul. Well, Paul is a Christian now, and they make a case out of this on one chapter. But if you look back two chapters earlier, then there’s a different set of scenarios here. So we need to understand it says right here, in Matthew 21: 23, when Jesus returned to the temple and began teaching, the leading priests and elders came up to him and said, by what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right?
They’re challenging Jesus’s authority. They’re the leaders of the Jewish people, and they’re telling him, you’re not the leader of the Jewish people, we are. So what is Jesus doing? He is confronting the fact that they have gotten this backwards.

So when you get to Matthew 21:33, and it says this: “Now listen to another story. A certain landowner planted a vineyard, built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country.” So it goes on and on, and then Jesus basically says this: “The stone that the builder has rejected has now become the cornerstone… I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit. Anyone who stumbles over the stone will be broken to pieces and it will crush anyone who falls on it.” Remember, who is Jesus talking to? He’s talking to the Jewish leadership. He’s saying, look, guys, God gave you a mandate to lead the Jewish people. What are you supposed to be doing? You’re supposed to be leading them into relationship with God. You have failed. You are doing this wrong. And I came to try to correct that because I am the leader and the shepherd of Israel, and now you’re challenging my authority. So I’m going to tell you this. He’s saying to them, if you don’t get in line with God, he will take away your power and authority and he will give it to another group of people. And he did do that. He gave the power and authority to the apostles who were all Jewish. So this scripture actually got fulfilled. Jesus isn’t talking about taking away the kingdom from Israel and giving it to the Gentiles.

He’s using an allegory where in this case, it’s very well known. You look back in late second Temple Jewish literature, and when Jesus says, planting a vineyard, and then he says a lookout tower. The vineyard is the land of Israel. There’s common writing about this, and the tower is the temple. So he’s saying, you have authority over the temple in the land of Israel. God’s going to take that away from you if you don’t receive His authority and come in line with Him, and he will give it away to another group of people who will steward it in a way that I am telling them to steward it, to lead people into a relationship with God. That’s what this is all about.

So this is commonly misunderstood. There’s a ton of scholarship out there on this. I’m not just making this up as I read this. You can go read books by Dr. Gerald McDermott, an Anglican priest who puts forth a very well-founded set of scripture on this. Or Joel Willetts, there’s another PhD. I mean, there’s a lot of scholarship on this. Just go look it up for yourself. Check it out.

Hey, seriously, thank you for commenting on our videos. If you’re somebody that’s commented and you’ve been critical about what we’re saying, literally I hope we love you and we want to keep learning with you. Please, if you don’t agree with what we’re saying, put it in the comments. We just ask you to be kind and let’s learn together. We’re not saying we’re right all the time. Look seriously. But let’s go through the process of learning together and working together to solve some of these technical tricky questions. So please keep commenting, and I hope this was helpful for you as you guys listen to some of these things and looking forward to seeing you in another video.