Authority and Faithfulness: The Parable of the Vineyard Tenants

In the days between Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem (what we now call Palm Sunday) and the last supper, the Gospel of Matthew has Jesus and the elites¹ encountering each other in the Temple. They have a series of exchanges. The elites ask Jesus who authorized him to teach. Jesus responds with three parables that focus on authority and faithfulness. This week we are looking at Matthew 21:33-46, the second of these parables. (For a very short discussion about parables, see here.) We need to remember, again, that Christians have a long history of anti semitic and supersessionism influenced readings of these three parables. We need to read carefully to avoid this. Jesus’ conflict is with a particular group of leaders and not all Jews. The leaders, the elite authorities were the legal, religious and economic rulers in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem elites had their authority because the Roman Empire allowed it.

In the parable of the Vineyard Tenants, Jesus starts with a real life situation for a vineyard, a landowner and tenants. Most Biblical commentators agree that we can loosely allegorize this parable. The landowner is God, the vineyard is Israel, and the tenants are the Jerusalem elites. The slaves sent by the landowner are the prophets and the son is Jesus.

This parable has a shocking twist in it. The tenants kill both the slaves and the son rather than give the harvest to the landowner. They think if they kill the son they will get his inheritance. They want to take, to own, what is not theirs and they are willing to steal and kill to do it. Shocking behavior. No wonder when Jesus’ asks what the elites think the landowner will do, they answer, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at harvest time.”

Then Jesus quotes part of Psalm 118 ( a psalm of thanksgiving for victory) and tells the elites that “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.” The elites don’t realize the parable is about them until Jesus directly tells them (v43). Their response to this is not repentance but more plotting against Jesus.

Notice in the parable that the vineyard is not destroyed or replaced. Those in charge of the vineyard are replaced so that the vineyard’s fruits will be given to the owner. What are the fruits of this vineyard? They are what the prophets, Torah, and Jesus have been teaching- blessing and justice.

Parables are for the first audience. As scholar John Walton says, the Bible is written for us, not to us. Many Biblical scholars believe that this parable concerns the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE by the Roman empire. The empire acts as an unwitting agent who takes the vineyard away from the elites. The question of who are the “people that produces the fruits of the kingdom” (v43) is unanswered in the parable. Does this mean that it’s not too late for the elites to change their ways? If this gospel is written around or just after the destruction of the Temple is this still an open question for the community leaders- what are they called to do and be? Does the author of the gospel want their readers to think about what it means to be the people who produce the fruits of the kingdom? Are readers to think about what leadership and authority in the kingdom of God are like?

Parables are often open ended like this. Rather than one meaning we are left to ponder and ask questions and reflect together about complex situations and ideas.

For us the questions are similar to what the first audience heard. Questions for us as a community of faith. Questions about leadership and authority. Questions about what it means to produce fruit for the kingdom of God. Questions about whether we need to repent and adjust our ways.

What questions does this parable raise for you?

1. I am using the term “elites” as a way to describe the group of leaders who engage Jesus in the Temple. They are not always described as the same groups of people. The chief priests, elders, and Pharisees and Sadducees all encounter Jesus in the Temple. What is important to remember is their elite status as people with (delegated) power and authority. ↩︎