Then he began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watchtower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes'?"
“Beloved son” is the term that stands out to me today. We know Jesus as the only beloved Son of God. In the parable story that Jesus tells, it is easy to place Jesus in the role of the beloved son that the tenants of the vineyard seized, killed, and threw out of the vineyard.
Parables are succinct stories that have no historical integrity but display events so that they have an alternative meaning and a lesson to be learned. Jesus uses parables to explain situations, and this parable of the vineyard owner is no different. The vineyard owner has been paralleled with God, and the ones sent to collect the produce are the mighty prophets of old. Jesus himself is the Son. The tenants are the world and could be Israel in this case. Jesus sites for them a psalm that they would easily recognize (Psalm 118:22-23). The audience would immediately understand that the story Jesus is telling has a distinct meaning for what is about to happen to him.
The tenants have been given great responsibility for the vineyard, which is well equipped with a fence, a wine press, and a watchtower. God has given us everything that we need, yet we continue to turn our backs on God, not acknowledging all the wonderful blessings. The world has rejected and killed all the prophets of God and then reject and kill the beloved son.
The call today is not simple. It involves understanding and accepting the responsibility to care for the creation (the vineyard) that God has provided for us. In that, we are expected to honor and respect God’s prophets. It also involves placing Jesus Christ, the cornerstone, at the foundation of our life so that everything else aligns with Him.
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