Commentary - Matthew 21:33-46

Bird's-eye view

In this parable of the vine-growers, or wicked tenants, Jesus delivers a searing indictment against the religious leadership of Israel. This is not a gentle story with a soft moral at the end; it is a declaration of war, a formal announcement of dispossession. The parable functions on several levels. It is, first, a condensed history of Israel's covenant rebellion, detailing God's patience and the nation's escalating wickedness. Second, it is a direct prophecy of their ultimate sin: the murder of the Son. Third, it is a verdict of judgment, the pronouncement of a sentence that was about to be carried out. Jesus, having cleansed the Temple and confounded the chief priests with a question about authority, now presses His attack. He uses their own Scriptures against them, showing them that their rejection of Him was foretold, and that this rejection would be the very thing that undoes them.

The structure is straightforward. Jesus tells a story (vv. 33-39). He then asks for a verdict from His hearers (v. 40), which they pronounce upon themselves (v. 41). He then applies the parable, buttressed by a key messianic psalm, directly to them (vv. 42-44). The passage concludes with the reaction of the leadership, understanding, rage, and fear, which confirms their guilt and sets the stage for the final act of their rebellion (vv. 45-46). The central theme is covenantal judgment. God, the landowner, is entirely just and patient. The tenants, the leaders of Israel, are entirely faithless and murderous. The result is their utter destruction and the transfer of the kingdom to a new people who will bear its fruit.

Outline

Context In Matthew

This parable comes at a crucial juncture in Matthew's gospel. Jesus has made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Matt. 21:1-11), cleansed the Temple (Matt. 21:12-17), and cursed the fig tree as a living parable of Israel's fruitlessness (Matt. 21:18-22). His authority has been directly challenged by the chief priests and elders (Matt. 21:23-27), a challenge He turned back on them. The parable of the two sons immediately preceding this one (Matt. 21:28-32) has already established their hypocrisy. This parable of the wicked tenants, therefore, is not an isolated teaching. It is the culmination of a series of confrontations in which Jesus is systematically dismantling the authority of the corrupt Jewish leadership and pronouncing the judgment that their rebellion has incurred. This is the King, in His capital city, declaring the old regime finished and the new kingdom established on a different foundation altogether.

Verse by Verse Commentary

v. 33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT AND DUG A WINE PRESS IN IT, AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey.”

Jesus begins with an image straight from the Old Testament, specifically Isaiah 5. Every scribe and Pharisee present would have immediately recognized the vineyard as a metaphor for the nation of Israel. God is the landowner. He did everything necessary for a fruitful harvest. He planted, He protected (the wall), He provided for the processing of the fruit (the wine press), and He watched over it (the tower). This is a picture of God's lavish grace and covenant care for His people. He gave them the law, the land, the temple, the sacrificial system, everything they needed for life and godliness. He then entrusted this vineyard to the care of tenants, the vine-growers. These are the religious and civil leaders of Israel. The landowner's journey signifies a period of delegated responsibility, a time for the tenants to work the vineyard and produce fruit for the owner.

v. 34 “Now when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his fruit.”

The arrangement was not a giveaway. The vineyard belonged to the landowner, and he had a right to expect a return on his investment. The "fruit" here represents the righteousness, justice, and faithfulness that God required of Israel. The "slaves" or servants are the prophets whom God sent, time and again, to call His people to repentance and to remind them of their covenant obligations. The harvest time is a time of accounting.

v. 35 “And the vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third.”

Here is the history of Israel in one brutal sentence. This is how the leadership consistently treated God's messengers. Think of Jeremiah being thrown into a cistern, Isaiah being sawn in two (according to tradition), and the stoning of Zechariah. The tenants did not just refuse to pay; they reacted with violent, murderous rebellion. They were not just bad businessmen; they were insurrectionists who wanted to usurp the owner's authority.

v. 36 “Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them.”

The landowner's patience is highlighted here. He does not immediately come in judgment. He sends more servants, demonstrating his longsuffering and his desire for his people to repent. But the tenants' hearts are hard. Their response is the same. The rebellion is not a one-time flare-up but a settled pattern of defiance. This underscores the depth of Israel's apostasy.

v. 37 “But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’”

This is the climax of the landowner's grace. After the repeated rejection of his servants, he sends his own son. This is a move of profound love and condescension. The owner's reasoning, "They will respect my son," is not a statement of naive optimism, but rather a way of highlighting the tenants' extreme wickedness. The authority and identity of the son are so far above that of the servants that to reject him would be the ultimate act of rebellion. Of course, Jesus is speaking of Himself, the beloved Son of the Father.

v. 38 “But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’”

The tenants' wickedness is now revealed in its fullness. They recognize the son for who he is, the heir. Their response is not respect, but calculated murder. Their motive is pure greed and lust for power. They believe that by eliminating the heir, they can claim the vineyard for themselves. This is a stunningly accurate depiction of the conspiracy of the chief priests and Pharisees against Jesus. They knew He was a threat to their position and power, and they plotted to kill Him to maintain their control over the nation.

v. 39 “And they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.”

This is prophecy. Jesus is foretelling His own death with chilling precision. The detail of being thrown "out of the vineyard" is significant. It points to His crucifixion outside the city walls of Jerusalem, cast out by His own people. It is the final, definitive act of rejection.

v. 40 “Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?”

Having laid out the case, Jesus now turns the tables and puts the chief priests and elders in the position of judge. He forces them to render a verdict on the story. The question is plain, the guilt of the tenants is obvious, and the just punishment is inescapable.

v. 41 “They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.””

Without realizing it, they pronounce sentence upon themselves. Their answer is absolutely correct from a standpoint of simple justice. The wicked tenants deserve a miserable death. And the vineyard cannot be left in the hands of rebels; it must be given to others who will be faithful. The irony is thick. They correctly identify the just punishment for their own actions. The "other vine-growers" are the apostles and the Church, drawn from both Jews and Gentiles, who will produce the fruit of the kingdom.

v. 42 “Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone; THIS CAME ABOUT FROM THE LORD, AND IT IS MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES’?””

Jesus now drives the point home by quoting from Psalm 118:22-23, a psalm associated with the Messiah. He changes the metaphor from a vineyard to a building, but the players are the same. The "builders" are the religious leaders of Israel, the very men He is speaking to. The "stone" they rejected is Himself. But their rejection does not thwart God's plan. On the contrary, the very stone they cast aside is the one God uses for the most important position in the entire structure, the chief cornerstone, which holds everything together. This is the Lord's doing, a divine reversal that is marvelous to all who have eyes to see it. It is the gospel in miniature: man's greatest act of wickedness, the crucifixion, becomes God's greatest act of salvation, the resurrection and exaltation of Christ.

v. 43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation, producing the fruit of it.”

Here is the explicit verdict. The "therefore" connects the parable and the psalm directly to their situation. The kingdom of God, in the sense of its earthly administration and covenant privileges, is being stripped from the current leadership and from the nation that follows them in their rebellion. It will be given to a new "nation." This is not a political entity, but the holy nation Peter speaks of, the Church of Jesus Christ, made up of people from every tribe and tongue and nation (1 Pet. 2:9). The defining characteristic of this new nation is that it will produce the fruit that God requires.

v. 44 “And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”

The cornerstone is not passive. It is a stone of judgment. There are two ways to interact with this stone, and both are destructive for the unrepentant. To "fall on this stone" is to stumble over Christ in unbelief during His earthly ministry. This results in being "broken," a severe but not necessarily final judgment. But for the stone to "fall on" someone depicts the final, eschatological judgment. This is the wrath of the exalted Christ coming down upon His enemies, and it results in their being utterly obliterated, scattered like dust. This is a solemn warning of the absolute necessity of coming to terms with Christ.

v. 45 “And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them.”

The message hit its mark. They were not dull; they were rebellious. They knew exactly what Jesus was saying and who He was talking about. The parable was a mirror, and they saw their own wicked faces in it. There was no misunderstanding, only a hardening of their hearts.

v. 46 “And although they were seeking to seize Him, they feared the crowds, because they were regarding Him to be a prophet.”

Their immediate reaction was to do exactly what the parable predicted: to seize the Son. Their murderous intent was confirmed. The only thing that stopped them was not a pang of conscience or a fear of God, but the fear of man. The crowds still held Jesus in high esteem, and the leaders were political cowards. This fear gave Jesus a little more time to complete His work, but their resolve to kill Him was now set in stone, so to speak.

Application

This parable is a sobering reminder that covenant privilege does not guarantee salvation. The leaders of Israel had every advantage, the Scriptures, the Temple, the promises. But they were faithless tenants who presumed upon the owner's patience and sought to steal what was not theirs. The warning for the Church today is stark. We have been grafted into the vineyard. We have been given the administration of the kingdom. We must not become proud or complacent, assuming that our position is secure regardless of our fruitfulness. God demands the fruit of righteousness, and if we fail to produce it, we should not be surprised if He removes our lampstand.

Second, we see the absolute centrality of Jesus Christ. He is the Son, the Heir, the Cornerstone. Everything hinges on our response to Him. To reject Him is to invite certain destruction. The world, like the builders of old, still rejects Him, deeming Him irrelevant or offensive. But God has made Him the head of the corner. Our only safety is to build our lives, our families, and our churches on this foundation. To stumble over Him is to be broken; to have Him fall on you in judgment is to be crushed to powder.

Finally, we see the glorious and sovereign plan of God. The most wicked act in human history, the murder of the Son of God, was turned by God into the very means of our salvation. The rejection of the stone by the builders was the occasion for God to display it as the cornerstone. This is marvelous in our eyes. It gives us profound confidence that no matter how dark things get, no matter how much the world rages against Christ and His kingdom, God's purpose will stand. He will get His fruit, and His Son will be honored.