Parable of the Tenants

Parable of the Tenants

Matthew 21: 33 - 39

Matthew 21: 40 – 46

March 15, 2026

Context and Background is almost always vitally important to wrestling with God’s word. Some of the worst abuses of the church have occurred when overly zealous individuals and groups with a strident theological agenda have lifted texts out of context, with little if any appreciation for background to serve up “proofs” and authority for their personal positions. We need to do better than that.

Our text comes to us on Tuesday of Holy Week. Jesus has entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, has cleansed the Temple and cursed the Fig Tree on Monday, and now – on Tuesday – he is back in the Temple teaching three parables that really need to be seen as contributors to a common set of themes.

Dale Brunner, in his two-volume masterpiece commentary on Matthew, links the Parable of the Two Sons, Parable of the Tenants, and the Parable of the Wedding Feast as teachings on judgment – yes, but so much more. They are also parables that teach about the urgency of faith – verbal faith, formal faith, and conversion and experience faith all sitting under Matthew’s particular umbrella emphasis on obedient faith. 

The connection between these parables is made clear as Jesus begins the Parable of the Tenants with these words: “Listen to another parable.” He goes on to describe the hard work and connection of the vineyard owner to his land.

We urban folks, particularly in this century, are pretty far away from understanding the farmer’s connection to the land he has prepared, tilled, seeded, and harvested. If you have been to Israel, you know that it is am amazingly rock filled land, even in those places where the land is rich and fertile. Absent modern farm machinery, the landowner has dug these rocks out by hand, sweating over the soil intensely to increase its productivity. They can’t run to Home Depot or Loews to get cheap labor and fencing material. That is all done by the farmer and his family. It is a labor of intense love….. for the land.

Since grapes are going in, this visionary farmer digs a wine press. Most often these were dug two to three feet down into the bedrock and were a combination of two or three rotating, carved, and meticulously sanded stones between which grapes could be crushed and the juice extracted. Gravity fed this grape juice through the combination of pressing stones with the finalized juice collected in the bottom tank.

The vineyard, cleared of rock, the soil tilled and prepared, fenced with an operating wine press makes the vineyard almost ready to go. The last thing to be added would be the watch tower. The watch tower was a two-story structure. The harvested grapes would be collected and stored on the first floor as they awaited pressing. The workers of the vineyard – at least one or two – would then sleep on the second floor of the watch tower to head off thieves or animals that might hurt or steal their crops. 

You see, this vineyard owner has put all of himself into the creation of this vineyard. He has designed it. He has created it. He has invested all of himself into it; its very existence reflects a vision of life for the vineyard owner. This isn’t a flipped property. This isn’t the modern industrial farming where farming has become so corporate and institutional. No, this vineyard is life, it is the essence of the owner, it is designed for fruitfulness and purpose.

Of course, the vineyard is a metaphor for the world. God has created all that is and designed it for relationship, for purpose, for fruitfulness. And one of the amazing parts of this story is that God takes the vineyard, his Creation, and entrusts the working of this land, the nurture of Creation NOT to a special group of beings – angels, spirits, and so on – but to us – his created humanity. Those created out of love, to be in love with him, his people, and serving his purposes forever.

That’s why, in our Parable of the Tenants, after all this creative work, the vineyard owner travels to a far country and leases his land to farmers – tenant farmers who split the fruits of their labors with the owner. Again, don’t miss the grace and the creative work of the vineyard owner here. He – God – has done all the heavy lifting. He has expended all the resources. He has set it all up for faithful, fruitful work. He enters into a working relationship, a contractual relationship, a covenant relationship and trusts in that understanding….. and leaves.

Harvest time comes. As defined by the relationship, the owner sends his slaves, his servants, to the vineyard to collect his produce. But rather than the agreed upon results of their relationship, the workers receive the representatives of the owner with evil intent – beating one, killing another and stoning the third. The workers have chosen to unilaterally redefine the relationship. They are deciding what is right. They are deciding what is wrong and what is good. Their eyes have been opened to new possibilities. Hmmm….. where have we learned of that before?

In another shock – the first even hiring tenant workers, now the vineyard owner extends to the brokenness of the tenants, not violence, not judgment, not with the decision to break their relationship; but AMAZINGLY with a second chance. Friends, thank goodness we are in relationship with a God of love, grace, second chances, and more!

Second verse, same as the first! And yes, that is from an old Herman’s Hermit Song. The tenants receive this second delegation from the owner with the same evil consequences. Beaten, killed, stoned – what are these folks thinking? It is helpful to understand first century farm practice. If a landowner abandoned his property, squatter’s rights gave the tenants rights to the property. Over time, they became the de facto owners.  

Clearly these tenants have decided to try and force the owner to abandon the property – effectively taking it for themselves. They are asserting, or trying to assert, their own sovereignty over the vineyard. Not just abandoning their relationship with the owner – the creator of the vineyard – now they are trying to unilaterally dictate their own mastery of the land.

Two groups of representatives. Two horrible, identical results. Relationships broken. Lives ended. Purpose and faithfulness stolen and abandoned. In the real world we would be calling in shock and awe. The owner would be bringing in the heavy hitters to take back his property. But friends remember, this is a parable to teach us about God, relationships, purpose, and faithfulness. As Dr. Daniel Marguerat, a Swiss theologian and professor reminds us, ultimately this is a parable about the history of salvation!

A second failure, a second rejection of the grace of the owner, is met with as new plan. The owner decides to send his own son to restore the relationship. “They will respect my son,” the owner believes. 

The son of the owner doesn’t get any better treatment. The tenants, watching from far off, see this man and recognize that this one is the son, the heir of the father, the eventual owner of the land. Kill him and their plan to take over the vineyard will be sure to succeed. 

Three offers of grace and restitution. The heart of the vineyard owner. Three evil, broken, murderous replies. The heart of the tenant workers. 

Finally, judgment falls. But this is not a capricious, vindictive, even contractual decision. This judgment comes as a result of the choices of those who have decided to go their own way. In doing so, they reap the consequences of their decision. This is not about the owner. This is about bad decisions that have overwhelmingly horrific consequences. 

Those who are in the Temple listening to Jesus teach this parable don’t miss the point. Jesus finishes by moving out of the parable and saying that those who reject a relationship with God; those who reject the grace, mercy, and forgiveness of God; those who insist on going their own way; those who reject God’s ultimate expression of Grace in Jesus Christ – the Cornerstone - as a result of those decisions will receive the consequences of their decisions. Those who were once in a unique, purposeful relationship with God will find that relationship broken and extended to include a newfaithful people.

And the chief priests, the pharisees, those functioning in the role of the tenants in our parable get it! The text says, “They realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.”

Friends, yes, this is a prophet about judgment; but it is a judgment brought about by broken choices. It is a parable about relationships being unilaterally redefined. It is a parable about faithfulness and purpose no longer being obeyed and realized.

But it is also about the sovereignty of God – the owner of the vineyard. It is a story about an amazing God who believes in us so much that he is willing to have his purposes worked out through us – THROUGH US! It is a story about grace, mercy, forgiveness, and multiple second chances. 

Obedient faith, purposeful faith is not about coercion. Obedient faith is about relationship. Obedient faith is not about choosing to go one’s own way. Obedient faith is the conscious decision to remain true to the will and purposes of the One who blew life and meaning into our very souls. 

In this faith is life, and life abundant! Amen.