<p>20:16 <i>He will come and destroy these husbandmen-</i> The Lord spoke of how the owner Himself would &ldquo;come and destroy these husbandmen&rdquo;. This is a shocking change in tempo- the owner has appeared impotent, distant and naive, to the point that the husbandmen considered He was effectively dead.&nbsp; They reasoned that if they killed the Son, then the vineyard would be theirs. But this is exactly the nature of Divine judgment. The God who appears effectively dead, at least impotent, distant and na&iuml;ve, will suddenly reveal Himself in direct judgment. We believe that now by faith, but it shall surely happen.</p><p><i>And will give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said: God forbid</i>- The Lord will&nbsp;<i>give&nbsp;</i>the vineyard to the others. And yet He will come and destroy the vineyard, and the new nation He will choose will not just give Him some of the fruit, but will themselves become part of the vine, and themselves bear fruit to Him (Mt. 21:43; Jn. 15).</p><p>The Lord&rsquo;s initial Palestinian hearers were well used to the scenario of absentee landlords. The parables of Israel would have been easily understood by them. The landlords lived far away, were never seen, and sometimes their workers took over the whole show for themselves. The Lord&rsquo;s parable of the absentee landlord in Lk. 20:9-16 alludes to this situation. He sends messengers seeking fruit from the vineyard, but the tenants abuse or kill them, and he does nothing. When his son shows up, they assume that he&rsquo;s going to do just as before- ignore whatever they do to him. After all, they&rsquo;d got away with not giving him any fruit and ignoring his messengers for so long, why would he change his attitude? He was so far away, he&rsquo;d been in a &ldquo;far country&rdquo; for a very long time (Lk. 20:9), they didn&rsquo;t really know him. The Lord asked the question: &ldquo;What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them?&rdquo; (Lk. 20:15). The obvious answer, from the context provided within the story, would be: &ldquo;Judging on past experience, not much at all&rdquo;. But then the Lord presented the element of unreality in the story, as a sudden, biting trick of the tail: No, the lord of the vineyard would actually personally come and destroy them, and give the vineyard to other tenants. Even though his experience of having tenants farm his land had been a fruitless and painful experience that had cost him the life of his son. And it was that element of unreality that brings home to us the whole point of the story. The Father does appear distant and unresponsive to our selfishness, our rebellion, and our refusal to hear his servants the prophets. But there is a real judgment to come, in which He will personally be involved. And yet even His destruction of the Jewish tenants hasn&rsquo;t taken away His almost manic desire to have workers, in His desperate desire for true spiritual fruit. The parables of Israel surely speak encouragement to each of us. The parable of the absentee landlord has a telling twist to it. Absentee landlords who had never visited their land for ages, and found the people they sent to the property beaten up, would usually just forget it. They wouldn&rsquo;t bother. In the parable which draws on this, the Lord asks what the landlord will do (Lk. 20:15). The expected answer was: &lsquo;Not much. He got what he could, he was never bothered to go there for years anyway&rsquo;. But <i>this</i> landlord is odd. He keeps on sending messengers when any other landlord would have given up or got mad earlier on. But God&rsquo;s patience through the prophets was likewise unusual. And then, when the tenants thought they must surely be able to get away with it because the Lord seemed so distant and out of touch&hellip; He suddenly comes Himself in person and destroys them. He doesn&rsquo;t hire a bunch of people to do it. He comes in person, as the Lord will in judgment. And instead of deciding he&rsquo;d had his fingers burnt and giving up vineyards as a bad job, this Lord gives the vineyard to others- He tries again. And so the Lord is doing with the Gentiles.</p>