Context No. 4158 of 4322 · Matthew

Matthew 21:33-40: in context

33“Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country. 34When the season for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the farmers to receive his fruit. 35The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36Again, he sent other servants more than the first; and they treated them the same way. 37But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard, then killed him. 40When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”

Jesus tells of a landowner who planted a vineyard, equipped it carefully, and leased it to tenants before going away. At harvest time he sent servants to collect his share of the fruit, but the tenants beat, killed, and stoned them. He sent more servants, and they were treated the same way. Finally he sent his own son, thinking they would respect him; but the tenants, seeing the heir, killed him too, to seize the inheritance for themselves.

The meaning would have been plain to Jesus' hearers. God is the landowner; his people are the vineyard; the servants are the prophets he sent again and again, and who were rejected; and the son is Christ himself, whom they would soon crucify. Two things stand out. God's remarkable patience. He sent servant after servant, and even, at last, his own Son, giving his people every chance to render him what was due. And the terrible sin of rejecting the owner's rightful claim, culminating in the murder of the Son. God has entrusted us with lives, gifts, and a vineyard to tend; he looks for the fruit that is rightly his.

God has entrusted me with a life and gifts that are his and looks for the fruit that is rightly his; do I render it to him and receive the Son he sent, or do I, like the wicked tenants, seize what is his for myself and reject his rightful claim?

Sources

Matthew 21:37-39: "He sent to them his son, saying, They will respect my son... But the farmers... said, This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and seize his inheritance."
Matthew 21:34: "When the season for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the farmers to receive his fruit."
Matthew 21:35: "The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another."