The Gospel of Matthew
The Vineyard and Its Tenants: Mt 21,33-46
The vineyard is now the centre of the story and not just its setting as in the two earlier stories.
The song of the vineyard in Isaiah, Is 5,1-7, more clearly provides the background to this story of Jesus because the focus of that song is on the vineyard itself. The vineyard is the house of Israel producing not sweet grapes but sour grapes, not justice but bloodshed (Is 5,7).
In the Gospel, this has become a song about the leaders' failure before God. The focus of Jesus' story is about those responsible for the vineyard: the householder who planted it and the tenants who care for it.
The story is introduced as "another parable" and picks up from the mention of the vineyard in the previous parable, 21,28. We can keep in mind that story of the two sons as we read this story.
In verses 34-36, the owner sends out two groups of servants instead of three individual servants as in Mark. In verse 36, he actually sends a bigger group of servants. In chapter 23, Jesus will be refering to the killing and stoning of the prophets (23.34.37).
The Son in verse 38 therefore is Jesus himself, though Matthew omits the "beloved" asin Mark. The killing takes place outside the vineyard just as Jesus will die outside the walls (Heb 3,12).
Verses 40 and 41 then become question and answer, just as in verse 31. In Mark, Jesus answers his own question. Here, "they", the chief priests and elders, are led to condemn themselves with their reply.
Ps 118 is quoted many times in the NT. It said much to early Christians about Jesus and what he did
Verse 43 is Matthew's conclusion to the parable. This gives more emphasis to the fruits of the vineyard than Mark. Unusually for Matthew, 21,43 speaks of "the kingdom of God" rather than his usual "kingdom of heaven". The new tenants would then be the Christians. With this verse, Matthew increases the tension
Verse 45-46 are the evangelist's conclusion as a follow-up to verse 43. The Pharisees make an unexpected appearance in verse 45. Generally, it seems that Matthew when speaking of Jewish leaders may be flexible in the groups he mentions.
Jesus in the Gospels is portrayed as a prophet, 13,57. Rejection by the leaders as in verse 46 is traditionally the fate of prophets. The fate of John the Baptist, regarded as a prophet by the people, 14,5, anticipates the rejection of Jesus.
Matthew has changed Mark, Mk 12,12, so that the ending is favourable to the crowds who regard Jesus as a prophet.
That leaves quite a strong conclusion at the end of this chapter. Chapter 22 continues the confrontations as we have noted. When we start the chapter, it will become clearer how Matthew's focus changes there.
We can therefore return to the main page in order to move on to that chapter.