Jesus told this parable in the temple courts with the cross already in view. He had entered Jerusalem to Messianic cries, cleansed the courts where commerce drowned prayer, and cursed a leafy but fruitless fig tree as a living picture of show without substance (Matthew 21:9–13; Matthew 21:18–19). When the chief priests and elders challenged His authority, He answered with stories that laid hearts bare. Among them, the parable of the wicked tenants exposed a long history of resisting God’s messengers and foreshadowed the leaders’ rejection of God’s Son, even as it pointed to the certainty of judgment and the rise of a people who would bear the fruit God seeks (Matthew 21:23–27; Matthew 21:33–46).
The story is simple and searing. A landowner plants a vineyard with care, leases it to tenants, and goes away. When harvest time comes, he sends servants to collect his share. The tenants beat, stone, and kill the servants. After patient appeals, the owner sends his beloved son. They throw him out and kill him, hoping to seize the inheritance. Jesus asks what the owner will do; His hearers pronounce the verdict. Then He quotes Scripture: the rejected stone will become the cornerstone, and the Kingdom will be taken from those who refuse to yield and given to a people producing its fruit (Matthew 21:35–43; Psalm 118:22–23). With a few strokes, Jesus retells Israel’s story, names the leaders’ plan, and calls all who hear to honor the Son.
Words: 2975 / Time to read: 16 minutes
Historical and Cultural Background
Vineyards were not only common in Judea — they were symbols of God’s covenant care. Isaiah’s song had already set the pattern: “My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well” (Isaiah 5:1–2). Isaiah then interpreted the image: “The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in” — yet instead of justice and righteousness, He found bloodshed and cries of distress (Isaiah 5:7). When Jesus opens His story with a landowner who plants a vineyard, builds a wall, hews a press, and erects a tower, He is not inventing scenery. He is locating His hearers inside a well-known picture of God’s gracious preparation and rightful expectation (Matthew 21:33; Psalm 80:8–11).
The leasing of land to tenant farmers fit the economics of the day. Wealthy owners might live away from their estates, entrusting the work to tenants who owed a fixed portion of the crop. To withhold the owner’s share was a breach of contract. To beat and kill his representatives was treason against the one who had given opportunity and protection. Jesus’ story escalates from fraud to violence because history had done the same. The Lord had sent prophets early and often, and the nation had often answered with mockery, imprisonment, and blood (2 Chronicles 36:15–16; Jeremiah 7:25–26). Elijah fled Jezebel’s sword. Zechariah son of Jehoiada was stoned in the temple court. Jeremiah was beaten and put in stocks. The listeners knew this pattern, and Jesus presses it into the present moment (1 Kings 19:1–2; 2 Chronicles 24:20–22; Jeremiah 20:1–2).
The final turn — sending the son — would have shocked even sympathetic hearers. A father hopes that what tenants refuse to give to servants they will give to his heir. But the tenants calculate an evil gain: kill the heir, seize the inheritance, and remove the last claim of the owner. Jesus says they “took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him,” a detail that anticipates His own suffering outside the city gate (Matthew 21:39; Hebrews 13:12–13). In Jesus’ mouth, the parable becomes prophecy. The leaders listening will soon fulfill it as they hand Him over to be crucified, seeking to keep control of a vineyard that belongs to God (John 11:47–53; Matthew 26:3–4).
Biblical Narrative
“Listen to another parable,” Jesus says. “There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower” (Matthew 21:33). He rented it to some farmers and went on a journey. When the season arrived, he sent servants to receive his fruit. The tenants seized the first group — beating one, killing another, stoning a third. The landowner sent other servants, more than the first, and they received the same treatment (Matthew 21:34–36). The accumulation matters. The owner does not strike at the first refusal. He appeals again and again. His patience is real, but it is not endless.
“Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said” (Matthew 21:37). The tenants saw the heir and plotted. “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance” (Matthew 21:38). They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Jesus then turns to His hearers: “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They answer their own case: “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time” (Matthew 21:40–41). In saying this, they confess that justice demands both judgment on traitors and stewardship entrusted to faithful hands.
Jesus confirms the verdict with Scripture. “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Matthew 21:42; Psalm 118:22–23). He then states the consequence that follows from both the parable and the psalm: “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit” (Matthew 21:43). He adds a hard word about the stone — the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and anyone on whom it falls will be crushed — a warning that encounter with the rejected-yet-exalted Christ is never neutral (Matthew 21:44; Isaiah 8:14–15). When the chief priests and Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew He was speaking about them. They looked for a way to arrest Him, but they feared the crowd because the people held Him to be a prophet (Matthew 21:45–46).
The rest of the New Testament will not let this “stone” theme go. Peter will stand before the Sanhedrin and declare that Jesus is “ ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone’ ” and that “salvation is found in no one else” (Acts 4:11–12; Psalm 118:22). Paul will explain that Israel stumbled over the “stone that causes people to stumble” because they sought righteousness by works instead of faith (Romans 9:32–33; Isaiah 28:16). Peter will write that Christ is a living stone — chosen by God and precious — and that believers are living stones built on Him, while those who refuse Him stumble because they disobey the message (1 Peter 2:4–8). Jesus’ line in the temple courts thus becomes the apostolic line from which the Church is built — not against Israel, but on Israel’s Scriptures and Israel’s Messiah (Ephesians 2:20; Luke 24:27).
Theological Significance
At the surface, the parable is a moral indictment of leaders who usurp authority, abuse trust, and murder messengers. At depth, it is a covenant indictment that traces a line from God’s gracious planting to human refusal and then to the sending of the Son. The landowner is God. The vineyard is Israel — a nation chosen, planted, protected, and purposed to bear fruit for God’s glory among the nations (Deuteronomy 7:6–8; Isaiah 5:7). The tenants are the leaders entrusted with care — priests, elders, and teachers who should have shepherded the flock with justice and mercy (Jeremiah 23:1–4; Ezekiel 34:2–4). The servants are the prophets through whom God pleaded with His people. The son is Christ, the heir of the promises, the beloved sent not merely with words but as the Word made flesh (Hebrews 1:1–2; John 1:14).
From a dispensational reading — God unfolds His plan in stages — Jesus’ verdict, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit,” does not mean Israel is erased from God’s future (Matthew 21:43). It means that stewardship shifts away from corrupt hands to those who believe. In the near term, that includes a Jewish remnant — faithful few God preserves — who receive the Son and form the nucleus of the people of God after His resurrection, and it includes Gentiles grafted in by faith who share in the blessing of Abraham in Christ (Acts 2:41–47; Romans 11:17–20; Galatians 3:8–9). The Church, built on the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone, bears fruit in this age by the Spirit’s power while Israel as a nation remains largely hardened (Ephesians 2:19–22; Romans 11:25). Yet that hardening is partial and temporary. The same Scriptures that forecast judgment also promise restoration. In the future tribulation — future worldwide distress before Christ’s reign — God will again deal directly with Israel, raise witnesses, purge rebels, and bring a nation to faith as they look on the pierced Son and mourn (Jeremiah 30:7; Zechariah 12:10; Revelation 7:4–8).
The stone imagery strengthens that hope. The rejected stone becomes the cornerstone — foundation stone Christ sets — not of a new plan but of the plan long promised. The builders reject Him, but the Lord exalts Him. The vineyard is not abandoned forever; it is reclaimed by its rightful Lord. Jesus will say in the next breath that the Son of Man will come in His glory and sit on His glorious throne, separating the nations and rewarding those who served His brothers — lines that point to the King’s earthly reign promised by the prophets (Matthew 25:31–34; Isaiah 9:6–7). Until that day, the cornerstone creates a dividing line. Those who fall on Him in humble repentance are broken and remade. Those on whom He falls in judgment are crushed. Neutrality is not offered when the Son stands in the vineyard (Luke 20:18; Acts 17:30–31).
This parable also guards the Israel–Church distinction without flattening the moral call. Israel remains Israel, with covenants and promises that God will keep for His name’s sake (Romans 11:28–29; Ezekiel 36:22–24). The Church does not seize Israel’s national future; she does bear witness now as a people from every nation built on Israel’s Messiah. The transfer in Jesus’ words is not a permanent displacement of one people by another but a relocation of stewardship to those who will give the Owner His fruit in season until He restores all things He spoke by His holy prophets (Matthew 21:43; Acts 3:19–21).
Spiritual Lessons and Application
The first lesson is about ownership. The vineyard is God’s, not ours. The wall, press, and tower tell the story of divine initiative and investment. The tenants live and work inside grace. Their job is not to invent fruit but to tend vines and return what belongs to the Owner. That posture marks true ministry in any age. Paul said, “What do you have that you did not receive?” and Peter calls elders to shepherd “God’s flock that is under your care,” not domineering but serving willingly under the Chief Shepherd (1 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Peter 5:2–4). Whenever leaders speak as owners rather than stewards, or churches act as if the King must fit their plans, the seeds of this parable sprout nearby. The Lord still expects fruit that matches His character — justice, mercy, truth — not the thin leaves of reputation and ritual (Micah 6:8; Matthew 23:23).
The second lesson is about how we treat God’s messengers. The tenants’ violence echoes in quieter forms whenever we sidestep hard words, mute faithful voices, or punish those who tell us the truth. Stephen asked which of the prophets the ancestors did not persecute and then named Jesus as the Righteous One betrayed and murdered (Acts 7:51–52). The impulse he named lives on. It is possible to host Bible studies and yet refuse the Bible’s claims when they cross our ambitions. It is possible to admire courage at a distance and smother it nearby. Hebrews urges us to “remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you” and to imitate their faith — a call that cuts both ways by honoring those who labor and by summoning leaders to speak the truth in love without fear (Hebrews 13:7; Ephesians 4:15). The pattern of receiving or rejecting God’s servants reveals how we regard the Lord who sent them (Luke 10:16).
The third lesson is about honoring the Son. The tenants say, “This is the heir,” and move to kill. The crisis of the parable — and of every human heart — is what we do with Jesus. He is not a consultant to be heard when convenient but the Son whose claim is total. He told another audience, “Whoever is not with me is against me” — a line that dismantles the dream of safe indifference (Matthew 12:30). To honor the Son begins with repentance and faith — the surrender that trusts His blood for forgiveness and His life for power — and continues in daily obedience that gives Him fruit in season: praise on our lips, good deeds in our hands, and witness in our mouths (Ephesians 1:7; John 15:5; Hebrews 13:15–16). The Father has made Him both Lord and Messiah, and all must answer to Him (Acts 2:36; John 5:22–23).
The fourth lesson is about patience and warning. The Owner sends servant after servant and then the Son. His patience is astonishing. Peter explains that what looks like delay is mercy — the Lord is patient, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance — yet the day of the Lord will come (2 Peter 3:9–10). That balance shapes wise ministry. We plead, wait, reason, and pray. We also speak plainly about judgment because Jesus did. He said the Owner “will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” and He spoke of a stone that crushes (Matthew 21:41; Matthew 21:44). Love does not erase warning; it delivers warning with tears. Jesus wept over Jerusalem even as He foretold her fall, and Paul warned night and day with tears as he prepared the Ephesian elders for wolves that would not spare the flock (Luke 19:41–44; Acts 20:29–31).
The fifth lesson is hope. The story ends with the Son dead and the tenants still in the vineyard — but Jesus is telling it on His way to a cross that will not be the final word. The rejected stone will be raised and set in place as the cornerstone of a people who bear fruit to God. Out of the ashes of A.D. 70, the gospel ran through the world, and out of the pressures to come, God will bring Israel to faith and restore the vineyard under the true King (Matthew 28:18–20; Romans 11:26–27). In the meantime, ordinary believers become tenants who give the Owner His due — prayers that rise, good works that shine, and lives that announce the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9–10; Matthew 5:16).
Conclusion
Jesus’ parable takes us into a vineyard planted by grace, tended with patience, and judged with righteousness. It shows us leaders who claim what is not theirs, servants who carry a faithful word at great cost, and a Son whose blood will cleanse even those who once said, “Not this man, but Barabbas” (John 18:40). It binds the ancient song of Isaiah to the psalm of the rejected stone and ties both to the moment when the Lord of the vineyard stood in His temple and called for fruit that fits repentance and faith (Isaiah 5:7; Psalm 118:22–23; Matthew 21:43). It confronts us with the question that cannot be dodged — will we give the Owner His fruit in season, and will we honor His Son?
For Israel then, the story named a road that led through judgment and into hope — a city burned within a generation because she did not recognize the time of God’s visitation, and a future day when she will look on the Pierced One and be cleansed (Luke 19:41–44; Zechariah 13:1). For the Church now, the story defines faithful stewardship — build on the cornerstone, receive the prophets’ word, bear fruit by the Spirit, and wait for the King who will reclaim His vineyard and reign in righteousness (Ephesians 2:20–22; Galatians 5:22–23; Isaiah 11:3–5). The Owner is not absent. He is patient. He is just. He is good. Honor the Son today, and you will find that the vineyard you tend by grace becomes a place where others taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8; John 15:8).
“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” (Psalm 118:22–23)
Want to Go Deeper?
This post is adapted from my book, The Parables of Jesus: Covert Communication from the King (Grace and Knowledge Series, Book 7), where I explore each parable’s dispensational significance and prophetic meaning in greater depth.
Read the full book on Amazon →
All Scripture quoted from:
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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The Parable of the Wicked Tenants – Matthew 21:33–46
Published by Brother Woody BrohmJesus told this parable in the temple courts with the cross already in view. He had entered Jerusalem to Messianic cries, cleansed the courts where commerce drowned prayer, and cursed a leafy but fruitless fig tree as a living picture of show without substance (Matthew 21:9–13; Matthew 21:18–19). When the chief priests and elders challenged His authority, He answered with stories that laid hearts bare. Among them, the parable of the wicked tenants exposed a long history of resisting God’s messengers and foreshadowed the leaders’ rejection of God’s Son, even as it pointed to the certainty of judgment and the rise of a people who would bear the fruit God seeks (Matthew 21:23–27; Matthew 21:33–46).
The story is simple and searing. A landowner plants a vineyard with care, leases it to tenants, and goes away. When harvest time comes, he sends servants to collect his share. The tenants beat, stone, and kill the servants. After patient appeals, the owner sends his beloved son. They throw him out and kill him, hoping to seize the inheritance. Jesus asks what the owner will do; His hearers pronounce the verdict. Then He quotes Scripture: the rejected stone will become the cornerstone, and the Kingdom will be taken from those who refuse to yield and given to a people producing its fruit (Matthew 21:35–43; Psalm 118:22–23). With a few strokes, Jesus retells Israel’s story, names the leaders’ plan, and calls all who hear to honor the Son.
Words: 2975 / Time to read: 16 minutes
Historical and Cultural Background
Vineyards were not only common in Judea — they were symbols of God’s covenant care. Isaiah’s song had already set the pattern: “My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well” (Isaiah 5:1–2). Isaiah then interpreted the image: “The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in” — yet instead of justice and righteousness, He found bloodshed and cries of distress (Isaiah 5:7). When Jesus opens His story with a landowner who plants a vineyard, builds a wall, hews a press, and erects a tower, He is not inventing scenery. He is locating His hearers inside a well-known picture of God’s gracious preparation and rightful expectation (Matthew 21:33; Psalm 80:8–11).
The leasing of land to tenant farmers fit the economics of the day. Wealthy owners might live away from their estates, entrusting the work to tenants who owed a fixed portion of the crop. To withhold the owner’s share was a breach of contract. To beat and kill his representatives was treason against the one who had given opportunity and protection. Jesus’ story escalates from fraud to violence because history had done the same. The Lord had sent prophets early and often, and the nation had often answered with mockery, imprisonment, and blood (2 Chronicles 36:15–16; Jeremiah 7:25–26). Elijah fled Jezebel’s sword. Zechariah son of Jehoiada was stoned in the temple court. Jeremiah was beaten and put in stocks. The listeners knew this pattern, and Jesus presses it into the present moment (1 Kings 19:1–2; 2 Chronicles 24:20–22; Jeremiah 20:1–2).
The final turn — sending the son — would have shocked even sympathetic hearers. A father hopes that what tenants refuse to give to servants they will give to his heir. But the tenants calculate an evil gain: kill the heir, seize the inheritance, and remove the last claim of the owner. Jesus says they “took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him,” a detail that anticipates His own suffering outside the city gate (Matthew 21:39; Hebrews 13:12–13). In Jesus’ mouth, the parable becomes prophecy. The leaders listening will soon fulfill it as they hand Him over to be crucified, seeking to keep control of a vineyard that belongs to God (John 11:47–53; Matthew 26:3–4).
Biblical Narrative
“Listen to another parable,” Jesus says. “There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower” (Matthew 21:33). He rented it to some farmers and went on a journey. When the season arrived, he sent servants to receive his fruit. The tenants seized the first group — beating one, killing another, stoning a third. The landowner sent other servants, more than the first, and they received the same treatment (Matthew 21:34–36). The accumulation matters. The owner does not strike at the first refusal. He appeals again and again. His patience is real, but it is not endless.
“Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said” (Matthew 21:37). The tenants saw the heir and plotted. “This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance” (Matthew 21:38). They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Jesus then turns to His hearers: “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They answer their own case: “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time” (Matthew 21:40–41). In saying this, they confess that justice demands both judgment on traitors and stewardship entrusted to faithful hands.
Jesus confirms the verdict with Scripture. “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Matthew 21:42; Psalm 118:22–23). He then states the consequence that follows from both the parable and the psalm: “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit” (Matthew 21:43). He adds a hard word about the stone — the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and anyone on whom it falls will be crushed — a warning that encounter with the rejected-yet-exalted Christ is never neutral (Matthew 21:44; Isaiah 8:14–15). When the chief priests and Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew He was speaking about them. They looked for a way to arrest Him, but they feared the crowd because the people held Him to be a prophet (Matthew 21:45–46).
The rest of the New Testament will not let this “stone” theme go. Peter will stand before the Sanhedrin and declare that Jesus is “ ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone’ ” and that “salvation is found in no one else” (Acts 4:11–12; Psalm 118:22). Paul will explain that Israel stumbled over the “stone that causes people to stumble” because they sought righteousness by works instead of faith (Romans 9:32–33; Isaiah 28:16). Peter will write that Christ is a living stone — chosen by God and precious — and that believers are living stones built on Him, while those who refuse Him stumble because they disobey the message (1 Peter 2:4–8). Jesus’ line in the temple courts thus becomes the apostolic line from which the Church is built — not against Israel, but on Israel’s Scriptures and Israel’s Messiah (Ephesians 2:20; Luke 24:27).
Theological Significance
At the surface, the parable is a moral indictment of leaders who usurp authority, abuse trust, and murder messengers. At depth, it is a covenant indictment that traces a line from God’s gracious planting to human refusal and then to the sending of the Son. The landowner is God. The vineyard is Israel — a nation chosen, planted, protected, and purposed to bear fruit for God’s glory among the nations (Deuteronomy 7:6–8; Isaiah 5:7). The tenants are the leaders entrusted with care — priests, elders, and teachers who should have shepherded the flock with justice and mercy (Jeremiah 23:1–4; Ezekiel 34:2–4). The servants are the prophets through whom God pleaded with His people. The son is Christ, the heir of the promises, the beloved sent not merely with words but as the Word made flesh (Hebrews 1:1–2; John 1:14).
From a dispensational reading — God unfolds His plan in stages — Jesus’ verdict, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit,” does not mean Israel is erased from God’s future (Matthew 21:43). It means that stewardship shifts away from corrupt hands to those who believe. In the near term, that includes a Jewish remnant — faithful few God preserves — who receive the Son and form the nucleus of the people of God after His resurrection, and it includes Gentiles grafted in by faith who share in the blessing of Abraham in Christ (Acts 2:41–47; Romans 11:17–20; Galatians 3:8–9). The Church, built on the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone, bears fruit in this age by the Spirit’s power while Israel as a nation remains largely hardened (Ephesians 2:19–22; Romans 11:25). Yet that hardening is partial and temporary. The same Scriptures that forecast judgment also promise restoration. In the future tribulation — future worldwide distress before Christ’s reign — God will again deal directly with Israel, raise witnesses, purge rebels, and bring a nation to faith as they look on the pierced Son and mourn (Jeremiah 30:7; Zechariah 12:10; Revelation 7:4–8).
The stone imagery strengthens that hope. The rejected stone becomes the cornerstone — foundation stone Christ sets — not of a new plan but of the plan long promised. The builders reject Him, but the Lord exalts Him. The vineyard is not abandoned forever; it is reclaimed by its rightful Lord. Jesus will say in the next breath that the Son of Man will come in His glory and sit on His glorious throne, separating the nations and rewarding those who served His brothers — lines that point to the King’s earthly reign promised by the prophets (Matthew 25:31–34; Isaiah 9:6–7). Until that day, the cornerstone creates a dividing line. Those who fall on Him in humble repentance are broken and remade. Those on whom He falls in judgment are crushed. Neutrality is not offered when the Son stands in the vineyard (Luke 20:18; Acts 17:30–31).
This parable also guards the Israel–Church distinction without flattening the moral call. Israel remains Israel, with covenants and promises that God will keep for His name’s sake (Romans 11:28–29; Ezekiel 36:22–24). The Church does not seize Israel’s national future; she does bear witness now as a people from every nation built on Israel’s Messiah. The transfer in Jesus’ words is not a permanent displacement of one people by another but a relocation of stewardship to those who will give the Owner His fruit in season until He restores all things He spoke by His holy prophets (Matthew 21:43; Acts 3:19–21).
Spiritual Lessons and Application
The first lesson is about ownership. The vineyard is God’s, not ours. The wall, press, and tower tell the story of divine initiative and investment. The tenants live and work inside grace. Their job is not to invent fruit but to tend vines and return what belongs to the Owner. That posture marks true ministry in any age. Paul said, “What do you have that you did not receive?” and Peter calls elders to shepherd “God’s flock that is under your care,” not domineering but serving willingly under the Chief Shepherd (1 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Peter 5:2–4). Whenever leaders speak as owners rather than stewards, or churches act as if the King must fit their plans, the seeds of this parable sprout nearby. The Lord still expects fruit that matches His character — justice, mercy, truth — not the thin leaves of reputation and ritual (Micah 6:8; Matthew 23:23).
The second lesson is about how we treat God’s messengers. The tenants’ violence echoes in quieter forms whenever we sidestep hard words, mute faithful voices, or punish those who tell us the truth. Stephen asked which of the prophets the ancestors did not persecute and then named Jesus as the Righteous One betrayed and murdered (Acts 7:51–52). The impulse he named lives on. It is possible to host Bible studies and yet refuse the Bible’s claims when they cross our ambitions. It is possible to admire courage at a distance and smother it nearby. Hebrews urges us to “remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you” and to imitate their faith — a call that cuts both ways by honoring those who labor and by summoning leaders to speak the truth in love without fear (Hebrews 13:7; Ephesians 4:15). The pattern of receiving or rejecting God’s servants reveals how we regard the Lord who sent them (Luke 10:16).
The third lesson is about honoring the Son. The tenants say, “This is the heir,” and move to kill. The crisis of the parable — and of every human heart — is what we do with Jesus. He is not a consultant to be heard when convenient but the Son whose claim is total. He told another audience, “Whoever is not with me is against me” — a line that dismantles the dream of safe indifference (Matthew 12:30). To honor the Son begins with repentance and faith — the surrender that trusts His blood for forgiveness and His life for power — and continues in daily obedience that gives Him fruit in season: praise on our lips, good deeds in our hands, and witness in our mouths (Ephesians 1:7; John 15:5; Hebrews 13:15–16). The Father has made Him both Lord and Messiah, and all must answer to Him (Acts 2:36; John 5:22–23).
The fourth lesson is about patience and warning. The Owner sends servant after servant and then the Son. His patience is astonishing. Peter explains that what looks like delay is mercy — the Lord is patient, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance — yet the day of the Lord will come (2 Peter 3:9–10). That balance shapes wise ministry. We plead, wait, reason, and pray. We also speak plainly about judgment because Jesus did. He said the Owner “will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” and He spoke of a stone that crushes (Matthew 21:41; Matthew 21:44). Love does not erase warning; it delivers warning with tears. Jesus wept over Jerusalem even as He foretold her fall, and Paul warned night and day with tears as he prepared the Ephesian elders for wolves that would not spare the flock (Luke 19:41–44; Acts 20:29–31).
The fifth lesson is hope. The story ends with the Son dead and the tenants still in the vineyard — but Jesus is telling it on His way to a cross that will not be the final word. The rejected stone will be raised and set in place as the cornerstone of a people who bear fruit to God. Out of the ashes of A.D. 70, the gospel ran through the world, and out of the pressures to come, God will bring Israel to faith and restore the vineyard under the true King (Matthew 28:18–20; Romans 11:26–27). In the meantime, ordinary believers become tenants who give the Owner His due — prayers that rise, good works that shine, and lives that announce the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9–10; Matthew 5:16).
Conclusion
Jesus’ parable takes us into a vineyard planted by grace, tended with patience, and judged with righteousness. It shows us leaders who claim what is not theirs, servants who carry a faithful word at great cost, and a Son whose blood will cleanse even those who once said, “Not this man, but Barabbas” (John 18:40). It binds the ancient song of Isaiah to the psalm of the rejected stone and ties both to the moment when the Lord of the vineyard stood in His temple and called for fruit that fits repentance and faith (Isaiah 5:7; Psalm 118:22–23; Matthew 21:43). It confronts us with the question that cannot be dodged — will we give the Owner His fruit in season, and will we honor His Son?
For Israel then, the story named a road that led through judgment and into hope — a city burned within a generation because she did not recognize the time of God’s visitation, and a future day when she will look on the Pierced One and be cleansed (Luke 19:41–44; Zechariah 13:1). For the Church now, the story defines faithful stewardship — build on the cornerstone, receive the prophets’ word, bear fruit by the Spirit, and wait for the King who will reclaim His vineyard and reign in righteousness (Ephesians 2:20–22; Galatians 5:22–23; Isaiah 11:3–5). The Owner is not absent. He is patient. He is just. He is good. Honor the Son today, and you will find that the vineyard you tend by grace becomes a place where others taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8; John 15:8).
Want to Go Deeper?
This post is adapted from my book, The Parables of Jesus: Covert Communication from the King (Grace and Knowledge Series, Book 7), where I explore each parable’s dispensational significance and prophetic meaning in greater depth.
Read the full book on Amazon →
All Scripture quoted from:
New International Version (NIV)
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