(Chakhranutha, from rbx) which is referred to in the Parable, the lessees being bound

to give the owner a certain amount of fruits in their season.

Accordingly, 'when the time of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the

husbandmen to receive his fruits' - the part of them belonging to him, or, as St. Mark

and St. Luke express it, 'of the fruits of the vineyard.' We gathe r, that it was a

succession of servants, who received increasingly ill treatment from them evil

husbandmen. We might have expected that the owner would now have taken severe

measures; but instead of this he sent, in his patience and goodness, 'other servants' -

not 'more,'42 which would scarcely have any meaning, but 'greater than the first,' no

doubt, with the idea that their greater authority would command respect. And when

these also received the same treatment, we must regard it as involving, not only

additional, but increased guilt on the part of the husbandmen. Once more, and with

deepening force, does the question arise, what measures the owner would now take.

But once more we have only a fresh and still greater display of his patience and

unwillingness to believe that these husbandmen were so evil. As St. Mark pathetically

put it, indicating not only the owner's goodness, but the spirit of determined rebellion

and the wickedness of the husbandmen: 'He had yet one, a beloved son - he sent him

last unto them,' on the supposition that they would reverence him. The result was

different. The appearance of the legal heir made them apprehensive of their tenure.

Practically, the vineyard was already theirs; by killing the heir, the only claimant to it

would be put out of the way, and so the vineyard become in every respect their own.

For, the husbandmen proceeded on the idea, that as the owner was 'abroad' 'for a long

time,' he would not personally interfere - an impression strengthened by the

circumstance that he had not avenged the former ill-usage of his servants, but only sent

others in the hope of influencing them by gentleness. So the labourers. 'taking him [the

son], cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him' - the first action indicating that by

violence they thrust him out of his possession, before they wickedly slew him.

The meaning of the Parable is sufficiently plain. The owner of the vineyard, God, had let

out His Vineyard - the Theocracy - to His people of old. The covenant having been

instituted, He withdrew, as it were - the former direct communication between Him and

Israel ceased. Then in due season He sent 'His Servants,' the prophets, to gather His

fruits - they had had theirs in all the temporal and spiritual advantages of the covenant.

But, instead of returning the fruits meet unto repentance, they only ill-treated His

messengers, and that increasingly, even unto death. In His longsuffering He next sent

on the same errand 'greater' than them - John the Baptist.43 And when he also received

the same treatment, He sent last His own Son, Jesus Christ. His appearance made

them feel, that it was now a decisive struggle for the Vineyard - and so, in order to gain