The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

Jesus has been welcomed into Jerusalem with Palm branches and he enters the temple and is teaching. The chief priests and elders are not happy and question his authority, but Jesus has evaded their questions with skill and gives this parable. 

The rejection of the people who were sent by God and then the rejection of the Son of Man which was to come. The owner of the Vineyard is God himself and the servants were God’s chosen people and prophets in history, representing the numerous opportunities given to the people of Israel to come back to God. God then gave his only Son to bring them back, but instead of being redeemed, they put him to death!  

Jesus then reminds them that they will face the consequences of their actions and face God’s wrath. The chief priests and elders understood that the underlying reference of the parable was to them and were upset about it, but they could not arrest him. 

We have heard the parable of the vineyard owner and the tenants several times, but as we often see, history invariably repeats itself. From Israel to our very own current times, we have got many opportunities to revert from our sinful state to a state of complete communion with God. Will we continue to be the ruthless tenants or will we choose to be the ones who bear fruit?