The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
A landowner prepares a vineyard, leases it, and sends servants for fruit, but the tenants abuse every servant and kill the son. The hearers answer the owner’s question with judgment and replacement.
L33isten to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey. 34When the harvest time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit. 35But the tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36Again, he sent other servants, more than the first group. But the tenants did the same to them. 37Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. 38But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard returns, what will he do to those tenants?” 41“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and will rent out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the fruit at harvest time.”
Jesus turns to Scripture, names the kingdom’s transfer to a fruitful people, and warns that the stone will break or crush. The leaders recognize themselves in the parable and hesitate to seize him because of the crowd.
42Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: 43Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed. ” 45When the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they knew that Jesus was speaking about them. 46Although they wanted to arrest Him, they were afraid of the crowds, because the people regarded Him as a prophet.