Matthew 21:33–46 (ESV)
The Parable of the Tenants
33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and
dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country.34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.35 And
the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them.37 Finally
he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’39 And
they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”41 They
said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have
you never read in the Scriptures:
“ ‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the
Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.44 And
the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he
was speaking about them. 46 And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.
Jesus is telling a parable
about the Jews beating and killing the prophets that God had sent. So he sends his son… and they nail him to a cross. The Lutheran Study Bible states: “Jesus warns His opponents that rejecting Him will ultimately lead to their exclusion
from the Kingdom. Judgment is based on one’s reaction to Jesus. Those rejecting Him are excluded from God’s kingdom and are consigned to the only other option: an eternity apart from God in hell. In His great wisdom and mercy, God used the murder
of His Son to work salvation, and He used the rejection of Israel’s leaders to hasten the extension of the Kingdom to Gentiles.”
I pray: Heavenly Father, keep us united by faith to Christ, our source of life, lest we
ever turn away, reject Him, and so lose our hope of salvation. Amen.