Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. 34 When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. 35 But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. 36 Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. 37 Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ 39 They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?” 41 They answered him, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.” 42 Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes’? 43 Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit. 44 [The one who falls on this stone will be dashed to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.]” 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them. 46 And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.
After Jesus’ authority is challenged in the temple, he tells a parable that draws on Israel’s own Scriptures and history. A landowner plants a vineyard and equips it with everything needed for fruit: protection, a wine press, and a watchtower. Then he leases it to tenants and goes away. The picture is not of neglect, but of trust. The vineyard is carefully prepared, then entrusted. (Ignatius, p. 45; Paulist, p. 952)
When harvest time comes, the owner sends servants to receive his produce. The tenants respond with violence. One servant is beaten, another is killed, another is stoned. When the owner sends more servants, they do the same. The pattern is deliberate. The parable is tracing Israel’s long history of resisting God’s messengers. The servants represent those sent by God to call His people back to covenant faithfulness. These prophets were often rejected because they confronted Israel’s covenant infidelity: idolatry, injustice, and a hardened refusal to return to the Lord.
The climax comes when the owner sends his son. The owner’s thought, “They will respect my son” (v. 37), heightens the tenants’ guilt. The son is not one messenger among many. He is the heir but the tenants see the son and calculate. If they kill the heir, they think they can keep the vineyard for themselves and treat it as if it were theirs. In this way, the tenants act as if the vineyard exists for their control, and as if removing the son would remove the owner’s claim. So they throw him out of the vineyard and kill him. This “thrown out” detail anticipates what will happen to Jesus, who is put to death outside the city (cf. Heb. 13:12). (Ignatius, p. 45; Paulist, p. 952).
Jesus then asks what the owner will do when he comes. The chief priests and Pharisees, along with those listening, answer with their own verdict: the owner will put the tenants to death and lease the vineyard to others who will deliver the produce at the proper times. They have judged correctly, and their answer becomes a mirror held up to their own leadership.
Jesus seals the point by quoting Scripture: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.” The image shifts from vineyard to building. The “builders” are the leaders responsible for God’s house, yet they reject the very stone God has chosen. In the New Testament, this line becomes a central way of explaining what happened in Jesus’ rejection and resurrection: human rejection does not cancel God’s purpose; it becomes the place where God establishes what endures (cf. Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:7). Mark and Luke place the same parable and the same Psalm in this same temple conflict, showing that the early Church remembered this as a defining moment in Jesus’ public confrontation with the leadership (Mk. 12:1-12; Lk. 20:9-19).
Then Jesus states the consequence plainly: “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” The issue is not that God has stopped being faithful to His promises. The issue is entrusted responsibility and how they respond to God. God’s reign is not something leaders can claim as their own or use for their own purposes. It is received by obeying God, and it is shown by producing the fruit He expects. The tenants wanted the vineyard without the owner. They wanted the gifts of God without submission to God. Jesus announces that such leadership will not remain in charge of God’s vineyard.
The bracketed sentence in v. 44 (“The one who falls on this stone…”) intensifies the warning by combining two images: stumbling over the stone and being crushed by it. The point is not that the stone is dangerous by nature, but that refusing God’s chosen cornerstone has real consequences. The stone imagery fits the biblical pattern where God’s decisive act —His saving intervention in history—becomes either salvation or judgment depending on one’s response.
Finally, Matthew tells us the leaders understood. “They knew that he was speaking about them.” Yet they still move toward arrest, restrained only by fear of the crowds who regard Jesus as a prophet. The parable has exposed the leadership’s posture: they are prepared to protect their position even if it means rejecting the Son of God.
Lord Jesus, give us the humility to receive what the Father has given in you, the cornerstone. Make our lives bear the fruit God desires, and keep us from resisting your word when it corrects and calls us back. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The Holy Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition (2011).
- Bernard Orchard et al., A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture (1953).
- Faculty of the University of Navarre, The Navarre Bible: Matthew (Four Courts/Scepter).
- José Enrique Aguilar Chiu et al., eds., The Paulist Biblical Commentary (2018).
- Raymond E. Brown et al., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1990).
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