Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and shall be given to a nation producing the fruits of it.
These words close the parable of the tenants. The Lord has just let Israel's leaders pronounce sentence on themselves. What was taken away, who receives it, and on what terms do they hold it?
The Verdict They Passed on Themselves
The Lord told the parable to the chief priests and elders, and they supplied the ending themselves.
But the Lord now pronounces His verdict upon them. He had heard the words spoken by His enemies in their self-condemnation; He speaks next and tells them that their judgment was right.
Behind that sentence lies a long history.
He had done everything for His vineyard. Then, at the right time, He looked for fruit. He sent the prophets, who were rejected, persecuted, and killed. He sent more, and they treated them the same way. At last He sent His Son, saying, "They will respect my Son." They cast Him out and killed Him.
What Was Taken Away
The thing removed was real and already in their hands. God's rule had been set up among them, and its administration had been trusted to the nation's leaders.
The parable of the vineyard and the tenants (vv. 33-41) shows God entrusting His kingdom to the rulers of the nation. Every time God sought their recognition of His rights, they rejected not only His voice in the prophets, but His Son in person. Had Israel not been guilty of shamefully corrupting the Lord's kingdom? What else could result?
This was not only a warning to Israel. It happened.
They were broken as a people, and this finally came to pass when Jerusalem was destroyed. God had established His kingdom among them through Moses. Now it was taken from them for good. It was to be given in another form to a "nation" that would produce its proper fruits.
Kingdom Tied to the King
Why should rejecting a person cost a nation a kingdom? Because the two cannot be separated.
The kingdom of God is so bound up with the person of the Christ, the true King, that it goes with His rejection, and comes with His reception.
That also explains the change of form.
Is the answer not simply this, that the kingdom of God was now to take a completely different form? In the Old Testament it stood on an earthly level. That was only a temporary arrangement, and it proved men totally unfit to administer God's kingdom. The true King Himself had come. It was the sowing of a new crop, a kingdom that would not be limited to Israel.
The Nation That Receives It
Commentators differ here. Some hold that the receiving nation is Israel itself in a future day, since the church is never called a nation.
The nation to whom the Lord promises the Kingdom is not the Church. The Church is called the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the dwelling of God by the Spirit, the Lamb's Wife, but never a nation. The nation is Israel still, but that believing remnant of the nation, living when the Lord comes.
Others read the phrase as reaching beyond Jewish limits altogether.
In this the Lord goes beyond the idea of the vineyard, using language which takes in God's dealings with Gentiles along with those who are Jews. For the kingdom of God is made up of believers from both Jews and Gentiles.
One writer holds both sides together. That nation will be born again at the start of the coming age. Believers now anticipate it, called "a holy nation" who "show forth the virtues of the One who has called" them (F. B. Hole). Even where the verse is applied to Gentiles, "it is only to fruit-bearing, not to covenant, that it applies" (William Kelly).
Held on Terms of Fruit
The new holders are marked by fruit, not by being Gentiles. That condition cuts both ways.
It was to Gentiles, but that is not the special point of the Lord's words. It was to a nation producing the fruits of the kingdom. If that is not done, they cease to answer to the description, whatever the patience of God; and though that is not the subject here, they too would have to be cut off.
Summary
- Fruit — God looked to His vineyard for fruit. The kingdom moves to those who give it, and stays only while they do.
- Verdict — the leaders sentenced themselves in the parable, and the Lord confirmed that their judgment was right.
- Person — the kingdom is so tied to Christ the King that it leaves with His rejection and arrives with His reception.
- Form — the earthly form proved men unfit. What follows is the kingdom in a new form, not limited to Israel.
- Nation — commentators differ. Some point to the believing remnant of Israel in a coming day. Others point to believers from Jews and Gentiles now. Either way, the church does not take over Israel's covenant.