The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen

"Listen to another parable," Jesus said to them. "A certain man planted a vineyard, surrounded it with a fence, built a winery and built a watchtower; but since it was necessary for him to leave for another place, he gave the vineyard to the management of the tenants, with the obligation to provide him with part of the fruit. When the time came to gather the fruit, he sent a servant to the tenants to receive the fruit from them; but the tenants beat him and gave him nothing. He sent another servant; but even this husbandman sent away empty-handed, smashing his head with stones. The owner of the vineyard sent a third servant, but the tenants killed him also. He sent many more servants, but all in vain: the tenants did not give fruit, and the servants sent were either beaten or completely killed. It would seem that the time has come to take away from the wicked tenants the vineyard that has been given to them to govern; but the landlord was so kind that he decided to try one last remedy: "I have," he said, "a beloved son; I will send him; it cannot be that they reject him either; perhaps they will be ashamed of him and give him his due." The landlord's son went to the tenants; but when they saw him from afar, they recognized him as a son and heir, and fearing that he would take away the vineyard from them, they conspired to kill him. "Let us kill him," they said, "and then the vineyard will be ours forever." Having decided so, they seized him, killed him and threw him out of the vineyard."

This parable made a strong impression on the people; and when Jesus said that the tenants had killed their son and thrown him out of the vineyard, the people, indignant at the wicked tenants, cried out with one voice:

let it not be!" (Luke 20:16).

The chief priests, scribes, Pharisees, and elders of the people looked at everyone maliciously, as if they were convicted criminals. Jesus' final words about the first parable left no doubt in them that the second would also expose their iniquities; the content of this second parable was so transparent that the leaders and corrupters of the Jewish people had to recognize themselves in the wicked husbandmen; they should have guessed that Jesus also knew their decision to kill Him. Yes, they undoubtedly understood that the vineyard of the parable refers to the Jewish people chosen by God, the care of which is entrusted by the Owner of the vineyard, God, to the chief priests and the leaders of the people (the husbandmen)

In short, the meaning of the parable was clear to them, as it is now to us; but if they had given the people the slightest hint that they recognized themselves in the face of wicked tenants, they would probably have seized the stones and slain them all. It was this fear of the people that doubled their shamelessness and impudence, and they, in order to show everyone that the parable had nothing to do with them, in response to Jesus' question:

So when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to these tenants? They answered: "There is no doubt that