My Dear People, 

In this parable of the wicked tenants, Jesus draws upon the allegory of Isa. 5:1-7.  Referring to someone who planted a vineyard, pruned a hedge, made a wine press and a tower—the same words found in the Septuagint translation of Is 5:2, “the house of Israel” is likened to a vineyard  planted by God.

Because the vineyard yielded bad fruit, it was destroyed. Originally serving as a warning of judgment on Israel for its iniquity, this oracle foreshadowed the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile in 586 BC (see Isa. 5:25-30).

Jesus uses this vineyard image from Isaiah to continue his own message of judgment on the chief priests for turning the temple into “a den of thieves.”  Following the pattern in Isaiah’s allegory,  the landowner  represents God, and the vineyard is Israel. Jesus introduces a new set of characters, the tenants, who are responsible for the vineyard while the owner is away. Since the vineyard is Israel, the tenants tending the vineyard would represent the chief priests who have the responsibility of caring for God’s people.

In first-century Palestine, tenant farmers were expected to give an agreed-upon portion of their crop to their landlord. But the tenants in Jesus’ parable have not paid the landowner his share of the vineyard’s fruit. When the owner in the story sent his servant to collect his produce, the tenants beat, stoned, and killed him. 

The servants represent the many prophets who were sent by God to call Israel to repentance but were persecuted by the leaders of the people. This will become clearer when Jesus later uses the language of killing and stoning to depict what Jerusalem did to the prophets: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to you” (23:37).

The owner’s benevolence is highlighted by the fact that he gives the wicked tenants several chances to repent, sending more servants who are treated in the same way and finally sending his son as his emissary. The son, of course, represents  Jesus—God’s own Son—coming last in a long line of prophets who have even been rejected by Israel’s leaders. But the tenants oppose even the landowner’s son. They threw him out of the vineyard and killed him—a foreshadowing of how the chief priests will turn Jesus over to the Romans, who will take him outside the city walls and put him to death. 

When Jesus identifies himself with the stone that the builders rejected, he is saying much about himself and the temple. To feel the full force of these words, consider how in Jesus’ day the temple leaders were overseeing a major renovation of the temple. It was a project that King Herod began about 20BC and was not finished until AD 63. When Jesus spoke these words, the temple was still in the process of completion. With this background in mind, imagine Jesus standing in the midst of the temple having a heated discussion with the temple leaders who are about to plot his death (21:46). At the climax of this clash, Jesus says he is the crucial temple stone that the builders rejected. Who were the builders? The builders of the temple were the chief priests, who oversaw the temple building project. They are the ones who are rejecting the temple stone, Jesus, just as the wicked tenants in the parable rejected and killed the landowner’s son . 

Yet since the rejected stone in Ps 11:8 becomes the cornerstone, Jesus’ words announce his victory in the end. Jesus, the murdered Son, will be vindicated.  Jesus, the rejected stone, will become the cornerstone of the new temple—a reference to the Church that he will build, which he likened to a new temple (See 16:18-19).

Yours in Christ, 

Fr. Vincent Clemente