The Parable of the Wicked Tenants.

This parable is found between the story of Jesus clearing the Temple (Mk 11) and his foretelling of the destruction of the Temple (Mk 13). In the parable a man plants a vineyard rents it to tenants and sends various servants to collect some of the fruit, but the servants are treated harshly. Watch the story being told and then read the comments below. 

Jesus tells a parable using a story from Isaiah 5 where God plants Israel like a vineyard, watches over it, hoping to find good grapes. Israel goes bad, despite God’s care so Israel goes into Exile. Jesus tells the same story but in Jesus’ story God patiently sends Israel His servants, the prophets, over and over again. Finally God sends his last messenger, His beloved son, but the rebellious tenants killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

In Jesus’ parable a man plants a vineyard, puts a fence around it, digs a pit for the wine-press and builds a tower. He leases the vineyard to tenants and goes away. The tenants, Israel, were the stewards of God’s vineyard.  At harvest the owner sends a servant, His prophet (Amos 3:7), to collect some of the fruit. The tenants beat the servant sending him away empty-handed. The vineyard owner (God) sent another servant (a prophet) to the tenants (Israel) but they hit him in the head and treated him shamefully. Another servant was sent who the tenants killed. Many other servants were sent, some were beaten others were killed. 

The vineyard owner sent his final servant, His own beloved son. The God sends his beloved son, Jesus, thinking the tenants (Israel) will respect his son. But the tenants killed the heir thinking the inheritance would be theirs. The killed the vineyard owner’s son and threw him out of the vineyard. Israel,  God sends his final prophet, Jesus, who was announced at in his baptism and confirmed at the transfiguration to be God’s son. In defiance of God’s express purpose, they killed God’s final messenger. 

The parable asks, ‘what will the owner of the vineyard do?’ The owner (God) will come and destroy those tenants (AD 70) and give the vineyard to others. Jesus makes this clear by quoting scripture: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” The psalmist foretold that God would send his final messenger who by being killed would became the ‘cornerstone’. This was God’s plan foretold in scripture and fulfilled in Jesus and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Jesus entered Jerusalem to the singing of Psalm 118 just a few days before. This psalm also mentions the rejected stone which became the cornerstone (118:22, 26). The chief priests, the elders and the teachers of the law wanted to arrest Jesus but they feared the crowds. Moreover, they knew that Jesus had told the parable against them, so they left. Jesus would be rejected by ‘builders’ so that this story leads from Jesus’ clearing of the Temple to his arrest and execution. The builders would reject the stone, and the stone would become the capstone and this was God’s plan all along to redeem the world.