I wrote the other day about British subjects who reject the monarchy and proclaim loudly, “Not my king!” But a way more important king was rejected: Jesus told two serious back-to-back parables about the Jewish leaders’ rejecting his kingship.

“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another…Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” …Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. (Matthew 21.33 – 43, ESV)

By this time, the leaders are beginning to figure this thing out:

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. (Matthew 21.45, ESV)

And Jesus follows up with the parable of the wedding feast (Matthew 22.1 – 14) where the invited guests spurn the invitation. (Compare Matthew 8.11, 12) The wedding feast parable contains this scary sentence:

The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. (Matthew 22.7, ESV)

Scary because it’s exactly what happened in 70 A.D. when the Romans ransacked Jerusalem. Today, an Islamic mosque sits on the site of the magnificent Jewish temple.

The wall in this picture surrounds the area called the Temple Mount built by King Herod in Jesus’ day. Today, the Islamic “Dome of the Rock” sits on the site. Herod’s temple is “a heap of rubble” just as Jesus predicted directly:

Jesus said, “You’re impressed by this grandiose architecture? There’s not a stone in the whole works that is not going to end up in a heap of rubble.” (Mark 13.2, MSG)

I’ve seen part of that heap of rubble, and I’m reminded that if God didn’t spare Jerusalem for rejecting Jesus, he won’t spare individuals or churches or nations either.

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Revelation 2.4, 5, ESV)

I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. (Revelation 3.1 – 3, ESV)

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven…Our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12.25…29, ESV)