The Treason of the Tenants: Text: Matthew 21:33-46
Introduction: A Declaration of War in the Temple Courts
We come now to a passage that is nothing less than a direct, frontal assault on the corrupt leadership of first-century Israel. Jesus is in the Temple, the very heart of the nation's life, and He has just finished cleansing it of the money-changers, an act of kingly authority. The chief priests and elders, the men whose turf He has just overturned, have challenged Him, demanding to know by what authority He does these things. In response, Jesus does not give them a simple answer. Instead, He tells them a series of parables, and the one before us today is the most explosive of them all. It is a declaration of war.
Parables are not gentle, fuzzy stories for children. They are weapons. They are designed to conceal the truth from those who are hardened in their rebellion, and to reveal it with stunning clarity to those with ears to hear. A parable is a kind of spiritual intelligence test. For the proud and the self-righteous, it is a riddle they cannot solve. For the humble, it is a window into the very heart of God's purposes. In this parable of the wicked vine-growers, Jesus is holding up a mirror to the leaders of Israel, and the reflection is not flattering. It is a portrait of centuries of rebellion, murder, and covenant infidelity, culminating in the ultimate act of treason.
This is not just a history lesson about ancient Israel. This is a story about how God deals with His covenant people in every age. It is about stewardship, fruitfulness, rebellion, and judgment. It reveals the long-suffering patience of God, the vicious depravity of man, and the sovereign triumph of Christ, the rejected cornerstone. And it forces a question upon every generation, including our own: who has the right to God's vineyard? Who truly belongs to the kingdom? The answer is not determined by bloodline, or religious pedigree, or institutional affiliation. The answer is determined by one thing: fruit.
The Text
"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. Now when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his fruit. And the vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 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.’ And they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” 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.”
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’? 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. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”
And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to seize Him, they feared the crowds, because they were regarding Him to be a prophet.
(Matthew 21:33-46 LSB)
God's Lavish Provision (v. 33)
Jesus begins with an image that every Jew would have recognized instantly.
"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." (Matthew 21:33)
This language is drawn directly from Isaiah 5, the Song of the Vineyard. In that passage, the prophet Isaiah describes God's beloved vineyard, which is the house of Israel. God did everything for this vineyard. He planted it with the choicest vines, cleared it of stones, built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine vat. But when He looked for it to produce good grapes, it produced only wild, worthless ones. Jesus is picking up this well-known prophetic image and reapplying it to His own generation.
The landowner is God the Father. The vineyard is the nation of Israel, with all its covenantal privileges: the law, the temple, the promises, the land. God lavished His care upon them. He put a "wall" around them, the law of Moses, which separated them from the pagan nations. He dug a "wine press," the sacrificial system for dealing with sin. He built a "tower," the prophets who watched over the nation. Everything necessary for life and fruitfulness was provided. This was an act of sheer grace. Israel did not earn this status; it was a gift.
Then the owner "rented it out to vine-growers." These are the tenants, the stewards of the vineyard. In this context, they are the religious leaders of Israel: the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the elders. They were entrusted with the spiritual care of God's people. Their job was to cultivate the vineyard so that it would produce the fruit of righteousness, justice, and faithfulness for the owner. But notice, they are tenants, not owners. The vineyard belongs to God. This is the fundamental error of all corrupt leadership; they begin to think the ministry is theirs. They forget they are merely stewards.
Rebellious Tenants and Patient Messengers (v. 34-36)
The parable now turns to the conflict between the owner and his tenants.
"Now when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his fruit. And the vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them." (Matthew 21:34-36 LSB)
The owner has a right to expect a return on his investment. The "fruit" he seeks is righteousness, faithfulness, and obedience from His covenant people. The "slaves" or servants he sends are the prophets of the Old Testament. This is a condensed, brutal summary of Israel's history. God repeatedly sent His prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and all the rest, to call the people and their leaders to repentance and to demand the fruit of the covenant. And how were they received? Exactly as the parable describes.
Jeremiah was beaten and put in stocks. Isaiah was, according to tradition, sawn in two. Zechariah was stoned in the temple court. The author of Hebrews summarizes this history: they "were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword... of whom the world was not worthy" (Hebrews 11:37-38). This was not an occasional problem; it was the consistent pattern of the leadership. They were spiritual squatters who refused to pay the rent and murdered the owner's representatives.
The landowner's patience is remarkable. After the first group of servants is murdered, he sends a second, larger group. This shows the longsuffering of God. He gave them chance after chance. He did not immediately bring judgment but continued to send messengers, pleading with His people. But the tenants' hearts were hard. Their rebellion was not a misunderstanding; it was a calculated, violent rejection of the owner's authority.
The Ultimate Crime (v. 37-39)
The owner's patience leads him to a final, ultimate appeal.
"But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 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.’ And they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him." (Matthew 21:37-39 LSB)
Here, Jesus makes His identity unmistakably clear. He is not just another prophet in the long line of servants. He is the "son," the "heir." The owner's statement, "They will respect my son," is a poignant expression of divine hope, but it also serves to highlight the depth of the tenants' wickedness. Their rejection of the son is not done in ignorance. They know exactly who he is. "This is the heir."
Their motive is pure, demonic greed. They believe that if they can eliminate the heir, the vineyard will become theirs by default. This is the very essence of man's rebellion against God. We want to be God. We want to seize His inheritance and run the world for our own glory. This is the lie of the serpent in the garden: "You will be like God." The chief priests and Pharisees saw Jesus, they recognized His authority, they saw His miracles, and they knew He was a threat to their position. Their response was not repentance, but a conspiracy to murder. "Come, let us kill him."
The detail that they "threw him out of the vineyard and killed him" is prophetically precise. Jesus was crucified outside the city walls of Jerusalem, cast out of the holy city, the heart of the vineyard. This was not just a political execution; it was a covenantal excommunication, carried out by the very men entrusted with the covenant.
The Self-Condemning Verdict (v. 40-44)
Jesus now turns the parable back on his listeners, making them the judges of their own case.
"Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” 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.” (Matthew 21:40-41 LSB)
Trapped by the logic of the story, the religious leaders pronounce their own sentence. Their answer is swift and just. The wicked tenants deserve a "wretched end." And the vineyard must be given to others who will be faithful, who will produce the required fruit. They have no idea they are describing the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the transfer of the kingdom's privileges from national Israel to the international body of Christ, the Church.
Jesus then drives the point home by quoting from Psalm 118, a messianic psalm.
"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’?'" (Matthew 21:42 LSB)
The "builders" are the same as the vine-growers, the leaders of Israel. They were supposed to be building God's house, but when the most important stone, the cornerstone, was presented to them, they rejected it. They threw it on the scrap heap. But God's plan cannot be thwarted by human rebellion. The very stone they rejected, God has made the foundation of His new temple. Jesus Christ, rejected and crucified by men, has been raised and exalted by God to be the head of all things.
Jesus then spells out the consequence of this rejection in the starkest possible terms.
"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. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust." (Matthew 21:43-44 LSB)
This is the great transition of redemptive history. The kingdom is not being destroyed, but it is being transferred. The privileges of being God's special people are being taken from the faithless tenants and given to a new "nation." This nation is not another ethnic group, but the transnational, multi-ethnic church of Jesus Christ, the "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation" (1 Peter 2:9). The defining characteristic of this new people is that they will produce the fruit of the kingdom.
The cornerstone is not neutral. You either build on it or you are broken by it. To "fall on this stone" is to stumble over Christ in unbelief, as the Pharisees were doing. This leads to being "broken." But to have the stone "fall on you" speaks of final judgment. The cornerstone becomes a crushing weight that grinds rebels to powder. You can deal with Jesus as your foundation, or you can deal with Him as your judge. There is no third option.
The Dawning, Hateful Realization (v. 45-46)
The parable hits its mark. The intended targets understand the message perfectly.
"And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to seize Him, they feared the crowds, because they were regarding Him to be a prophet." (Matthew 21:45-46 LSB)
The truth did not lead them to repentance. It led them to rage. They understood every bit of it. They knew He was calling them murderous, faithless tenants. They knew He was claiming to be the Son. And they knew He was predicting their destruction. Their response was to try to make the parable come true. They sought to seize Him, to arrest the Son, proving the very point He was making. The only thing that stopped them was not the fear of God, but the fear of man. They were worried about their poll numbers. The crowd's opinion meant more to them than the word of the living God.
This is the anatomy of a hardened heart. When confronted with the truth, it does not soften; it calcifies. The light, instead of illuminating, only serves to intensify the hatred for the light. They heard the gospel in the form of a parable of judgment, and their only reaction was to double down on their murderous intent. They were fulfilling their role as the wicked tenants, right on schedule.