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Matthew 21:33-46 (Parable of the tenants)

INTRODUCTION: Our messages series is called Jesus in Jerusalem, and we are looking at the last week of Jesus’ life before he went to the cross.

We are currently in a section of Scripture that is marked by a series of contrasts and conflicts. Last week we looked at the contrast between what you say and what you do. This week the contrast is between the kingdom taken and the kingdom given. Jesus tells another parable, and in the process, he antagonizes the religious leaders even further. (Read Matthew 21:33-39 and pray.)

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Have you ever had something and then lost it? Something really important, something extremely valuable that just sort of slipped out of your hands? You know the old saying, “You should have seen the one that got away!” It’s not just fishermen who say that. We say it about lost jobs, lost dreams, lost opportunities, lost relationships.

The tenants in today’s parable represent the religious leaders and the whole Jewish people that let something of extreme value get away from them. They had been entrusted with the kingdom of God, but they rejected the King’s Son when he came to them, and they ended up losing the kingdom in the process.

Jesus had just finished telling them the parable of the two sons where the tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the kingdom of God before them. Now he tells this second parable which comes with an even stronger warning – the kingdom of God will be taken from them and given to others who will produce its fruit.

The lesson for the religious leaders is the same lesson for us today. Don’t let the kingdom get away from you! There is nothing more important than entering the kingdom of God. God offers the kingdom to you through his Son, Jesus. Don’t let the kingdom get away!

I. Parable of the tenants (33-39)

So, let’s begin by looking at the parable itself.

   A. The tenants seize the servants (33-36)
      – the landowner = God; vineyard = Israel/the kingdom; tenants = the religious leaders; servants = the prophets (2 Chronicles 36:15-16)

In the first part of the parable Jesus talks about how the tenants seize the servants. Look at verses 33-36 with me now. Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders:

“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. 35 The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way.” (Matthew 21:33-36)

This parable is more detailed than most other parables and also more allegorical, where one thing stands for another. We can sometimes get ourselves into trouble with parables by trying to line up every detail with something else when many times the details are there just to tell the story. And what we’re really supposed to do with parables is look for the meaning behind the story rather than get distracted by all the minor details.

We can still make that mistake with this parable if we press the smaller details too hard, but the major elements in this parable clearly each refer to something else. The landowner refers to God. The vineyard stands for both Israel and the kingdom. (The vineyard was a common image for Israel in the Old Testament, and this parable is in some respects a reworking of an Old Testament parable about a vineyard found in Isaiah 5.) The tenants in the parable refer to the religious leaders and really anyone who rejects Jesus. And the servants refer to the prophets.

With all that in place we can begin to see what Jesus is saying in the parable. In the parable the landowner plants the vineyard and carefully prepares everything to ensure its success. He puts a wall around it to protect it from animals. He digs a winepress in anticipation of the fruit that the vineyard will bear. He even builds a watchtower for protection against thieves. He then rents the vineyard to farmers and goes away on a journey.

In the same way God carefully prepared everything for his people Israel. He chose them as his own people; he led them to the promised land; he gave them his law; he gave them priests and the tabernacle; he gave them everything they needed in order to succeed.

And then, when Israel still did not produce the fruit that God desired, he sent his prophets, but just as the tenants in the parable mistreated and even killed the servants, Israel rejected God’s prophets. We read in 2 Chronicles 36:15-16: “The Lord … sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets.” (2 Chronicles 36:15-16) God sent them prophets again and again, and each time they rejected God’s messengers. So, that’s the meaning of the first part of the parable where the tenants seize the servants.

   B. The owner sends his son (37-39)
      – the owner = God; the son = Jesus; killing the son = crucifixion

In the second part of the parable the owner sends his son. This is the heart of the parable and really should make anyone outraged upon hearing it. Look at verses 37-39 with me now:

“Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” (Matthew 21:37-39)

Of course, this is unthinkable – that the tenants would kill the son. It was wrong to mistreat the servants. It was worse to kill them. But to kill the owner’s son is unconscionable. It was an act of pure evil and greed. It was also an act of great foolishness, to think they would get away with it, that there would be no consequences.

Once again, it is fairly easy to identify the various elements in this part of the parable. The owner is God who sends his Son. The son is Jesus who is the Son of God and the heir of all things. The seizing and the killing of the son refer to Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion that will take place later in the week.

We saw earlier in the gospel of Matthew how Jesus repeatedly told his disciples what the religious leaders would do to him when he got to Jerusalem – how they would arrest him and kill him. Now Jesus is telling the religious leaders what they will do! But it is all hidden from them at the moment in the form of the parable.

II. The landowner’s response (40-41)

So that’s the story of the parable, and it all leads up to one big question. What is the landowner’s response? How will the owner respond to these terrible, inexcusable actions of the tenants?

   A. Jesus asks: “What will the owner do?” (40)
      – cf. 2 Samuel 12:1-7 (Nathan and David)

Jesus is the one who asks the question. Look at verse 40:

“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” (Matthew 21:40)

Similar to what Jesus did with last week’s parable of the two sons, Jesus is getting the religious leaders to commit themselves to an answer up front before he reveals to them the meaning of the parable.

It reminds me of how Nathan the prophet confronted David in the Old Testament. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed. But instead of confronting him directly, Nathan told David a story about a rich man who owned a large number of sheep and a poor man who had one little lamb that he loved dearly. A traveler came to the rich man but instead of taking one of his own sheep to feed him, the rich man took the poor man’s sheep instead. David was angry and said that the rich man should be punished for what he did. Then Nathan told him, “You are the man. You did this to Bathsheba and her husband.” Nathan wisely used the story to get David to commit up front to a course of action, and then David repented and confessed his sin.

Jesus does the same thing here with the religious leaders. He asks them, “What will the owner do?” Before he lowers the boom, before he reveals the meaning of the parable, he gets them to commit to an answer up front.

   B. “He will get rid of the tenants and rent the vineyard to others.” (41)

The religious leaders walk right into his trap. We read their answer in verse 41:

“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.” (Matthew 21:41)

Notice they condemn the tenants’ behavior and pronounce them worthy of judgment. They also say that the owner is well within his rights to rent the vineyard to other tenants who will produce fruit for him.

III. God’s kingdom taken and given (42-46)

Just like David didn’t know that the story about the rich man taking the poor man’s sheep was really about him, the religious leaders don’t know that this parable is about them. And now that they have committed their answer up front, Jesus reveals the meaning of the parable to them. It is a parable about God taking the kingdom from them and giving it to others.

   A. The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone (42)
      – cf. Psalm 118:22-23

Jesus begins by quoting Scripture to them. Look at verse 42 next:

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Matthew 21:42)

Jesus is quoting from Psalm 118, the same Scripture we read from earlier in the service today. When Jesus asks them, “Have you never read?” he is really asking them, “Have you never understood?” He knows they have read this Scripture he is quoting. It is one of the Scriptures associated with Passover week. They read it every Passover, and they would be reading it again in just a few days. And so, Jesus is saying, “This Scripture that you read faithfully every year and you are about to read again. Don’t you understand it?”

The capstone was the most important stone in the building. The word here could refer either to the cornerstone which formed the foundation of the building or the capstone which was the final stone placed at the top of an arch, completing the building and securing the structure. Jesus is both. He is both cornerstone and capstone. He is the foundation and beginning of God’s kingdom, and he is the one who completes it and brings everything to fulfillment.

Jesus is the fulfillment of Psalm 118. Jesus is the stone the builders rejected that God has chosen to honor. The religious leaders are the builders who are rejecting him even now, but God will still choose to honor him.

   B. The kingdom will be taken from those who do not believe and given to those who will produce its fruit (43)
      – Acts 13:46

And then Jesus tells them in verse 43:

“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” (Matthew 21:43)

Because they have rejected Jesus, God has rejected them. Do you remember one of the first things Jesus did after entering Jerusalem? He cursed the fig tree. Do you remember why he cursed the fig tree? Because it had no fruit.

God had chosen Israel and her leaders to bear fruit for his kingdom. They were like the tenants who were entrusted with the vineyard, but they rejected God’s messengers when he sent them, and now they were about to reject his Son. And so, the kingdom of God would be taken away from them and given to others.

We find a similar statement from Paul and Barnabas in the book of Acts. Everywhere Paul went he shared the gospel first with the Jewish people in the city. Why? Because they were God’s chosen people. They were the original tenants of the kingdom. It was only right that they should be told first.

So, when the Jewish people rejected the gospel in the city of Psidian Antioch, this is what Paul and Barnabas told them in Acts 13:46: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.” (Acts 13:46) What was Paul saying? The same thing as Jesus in Matthew 21. The kingdom of God was being taken away from them and given to others who would produce its fruit.

   C. Jesus becomes a rock of judgment to those who reject him (44)
      – cf. Isaiah 8:14; Daniel 2:44-45; 1 Peter 2:7-8

Back to Matthew 21, Jesus has just told the religious leaders about the cornerstone. Now he tells them that this stone that they rejected will become a rock of judgment. Look at verse 44 with me now where Jesus tells them:

“He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” (Matthew 21:44)

Jesus is quoting from two Old Testament Scriptures – from Isaiah 8:14 which speaks of a rock of stumbling, and also from Daniel 2 which speaks of the rock of the kingdom which will crush all the other kingdoms of the earth (Daniel 2:44-45). In quoting these passages, Jesus applies these Scriptures to himself. He is the Messiah. He is the Savior to all who will receive him, but he becomes a rock of judgment to those who reject him.

The apostle Peter says the same thing about Jesus in 1 Peter 2 where he writes: “Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,’ 8 and, ‘A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.’” (1 Peter 2:7-8)

Jesus is the cornerstone. He is precious to all who believe in him. But to those who do not believe, he is a stone that causes them to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. Or as Jesus puts it here in Matthew 21:44: “He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” (Matthew 21:44)

   D. The religious leaders harden their hearts even further (45-46)

When Nathan told David the meaning behind the story of the rich man and the lamb, David immediately repented and confessed his sin. That’s because David was a man after God’s own heart. But when Jesus told the religious leaders the meaning behind the parable of the tenants, they only hardened their hearts even further. Look at verses 45-46 with me now:

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. (Matthew 21:45-46)

They knew this parable was about them, but they still did not repent. Instead, they kept looking for a way to arrest him (thus fulfilling the parable!), but they were afraid of the crowd because the people viewed Jesus as a prophet.

CONCLUSION: So, this is the meaning of the parable of the tenants. Jesus came as the promised Messiah, but his own people rejected him, and so God’s kingdom was taken away from them and given to the Gentiles.

Now that doesn’t mean that if you are Jewish you are excluded from God’s kingdom. All the earliest Christians were Jews. And praise God there are many Jewish people today who put their faith in Jesus as the Messiah and enter God’s kingdom. The church is made up of both Jewish and Gentile believers together. But by and large the Jewish people did not receive Jesus as their Messiah, and so the gospel went to the Gentiles instead.

This is a warning to all of us. God’s kingdom is not automatic. You don’t enter God’s kingdom by either birth or culture. You are not a Christian simply because your parents are Christians or because you go to church. You must personally believe in Jesus yourself. You either believe in Jesus or you reject Jesus. There is no middle ground. Jesus is God’s precious cornerstone to you when you believe in him, but he is a rock of judgment for you when you reject him.

We read these words from God in 1 Peter 2:6: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” (1 Peter 2:6, quoting from Isaiah 28:16) Don’t let the kingdom get away from you! Don’t be like the religious leaders who only hardened their hearts even further. God sent Jesus into the world to be your Savior, so put your trust in him. Because the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.

© Ray Fowler

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