What Kind Of Tenants

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned.

Again, he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the  same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’

They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?” They answered him, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.”

Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I say to you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” 

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them. And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet. (Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46)

No wonder the chief priests and the Pharisees were not too keen about Jesus. Matthew’s parable attributed to Jesus made it clear that both were to be “thrown out of the vineyard and killed.”  Their inheritance would be acquired by those who followed Jesus.  In other words, the Kingdom of God would be taken away from them and given to a people that would produce its fruit.  

The owner of the vineyard symbolically was God who would “put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.”  This pronouncement followed Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, his cleaning of the temple, and the cursing of the fig tree, all being quite a harsh treatment of the prevailing religious rulers. The “new tenants” were those who followed Jesus and no longer fell in line with the chief priests and Pharisees who cooperated with Roman oppressors and helped worsen the plight of the poor.

Are we tenants, or are we the “other and new” tenants who will give Jesus the produce at the proper times? Are we stones the builder will reject?  Are we worthy of the Kingdom of God?

Deacon David Pierce