Parable of the Vine-growers
12 ‘And He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and put a wall around it, and dug a vat under the wine press and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. 2 At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. 3 They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others.6 He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ 8 They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not even read this Scripture:
‘The stone which the builders rejected,
This became the chief corner stone;
11 This came about from the Lord,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
12 And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so they left Him and went away.
Jesus asks the question after the story today: What will the owner of the vineyard do?
He will come and destroy; he will give the vineyard to others. He will reject, expel, silent those who do not see the marvellous cornerstone. What were these teacher builders seeking, seeing?
Jesus’ death.
Jesus in his mercy tells them the hate filled story of their hearts. And they can’t hear; can’t see. Jesus asks and answers his own question so they can be have the absolute, the cornerstone truth.
And so they continue to plan to kill Jesus. This is what they are planting: death.safly, their own.
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