The Parable of the Wicked Tenants (Luke 20:9-19)

Parables are tricky things. The temptation is to allegorize them and give every detail a symbolic meaning. This is a mistake and should be avoided. Most parables illustrate a specific and spelled out point. However, this parable is indeed allegorical. It is a not so veiled picture of God’s salvific work with Israel up until the day of Jesus.

The vineyard here is not exactly Israel as in Isaiah 5. It is the promised and blessed land. The tenants are the nation of Israel, and particularly its leaders even though the whole nation is in view. God sends messengers to the nation repeatedly to remind them of His agreement with them, but they repeatedly reject these messengers, the prophets.

So, God ultimately sends His Son, and the tenants—Israel—kills Him. Jesus declares that God is going to take the vineyard away from the tenants and give it to others. When the crowd hears this, they protest. The message is not lost on them. Jesus, the long awaited for Messiah, is the cornerstone that will break all who reject Him. The idea of a savior who comes to die a humiliating death is scandalous. The Jews did not anticipate anything less than a conquering warrior as their savior. Instead, God’s plan was to send a humble man to die the death of a slave and a criminal. This is the stumbling block that Israel could not overcome.

It is also the message that we need to accept. Jesus is not coming as a strongman who will bend the culture to Him through power, laws, and will. He has come with the invitation for us to die to self and follow His ways, which are not the ways of the world.