And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.
Comment: The passage above in red are the words of Jesus. His saying these things to them made them immediately think of the passage in Isaiah 7 when Israel is described as God’s fruitless vineyard! Then Jesus quotes from a messianic Psalm (118 v 22) a portion that it doesn’t take too much knowledge (nouse) to realize that Jesus is claiming to be that ‘cornerstone’, that promised Messiah! The story is so clear that even I don’t need to read up a commentary to get the meaning! God’s messengers have been treated abysmally in the past and here Jesus is standing before them. What will they do? They answered with their feet!
Proverbs 19: 3 – When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD. – People tend to blame God for their own stupidity!
Prayer: Please when You speak don’t allow me to be foolish, but rather honest and prepared to change and to accept You.
As I read it! 