Parable of the tenants

JESUS began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey. At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant. And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully. He sent yet another whom they killed. So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed. He had one other to send, a beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, put the tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture passage: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?” They were seeking to arrest Him, but they feared the crowd, for they realized that He had addressed the parable to them. So they left Him and went away.

REFLECTION HE WILL COME, PUT THE TENANTS TO DEATH. The Gospel appears violent. Servants are beaten and killed; the landowner’s son is slain and thrown out of the vineyard. The murderers are the greedy tenants who appropriate for themselves what is not lawfully theirs. What is surprising is that the landowner, supposedly standing for God, gets back at the murderous tenants and puts them to death.

In the story, Jesus predicts what the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders will do to Him. They will kill Him because Jesus threatens their power over the people. But God will raise Him. He will become the cornerstone, the stone that the builders rejected.

Jesus teaches us that we cannot frustrate God’s plan. We may succeed for a while in our evil schemes, but there is always a day of vindication. No evil deed will go unpunished; every wrong will be righted. In Jesus, God will establish God’s Kingdom.

Tame your greed and dissociate from greedy fellows.