The Parable of the Tenants (Matthew 21:33)

C14N

I was at Saturday evening mass last night and I have to say that the Gospel given confused me. This happens from time to time but this one didn't make any sense to me at all. The priest read out the Parable of the Tenants which goes as follows:

The Parable of the Tenants

33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’[h]?

43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

I didn't see at all how paragraph 42 on had any relation to the story of the tenants or what the moral/lesson of the parable is.

Can anybody please explain this as it's been bothering me

The Quadratic Equation

C14N wrote: »

I was at Saturday evening mass last night and I have to say that the Gospel given confused me. This happens from time to time but this one didn't make any sense to me at all. The priest read out the Parable of the Tenants which goes as follows:

I didn't see at all how paragraph 42 on had any relation to the story of the tenants or what the moral/lesson of the parable is.

Can anybody please explain this as it's been bothering me

The landowner is God the Father.
His servants were John the Baptist etc.
The old tenants are the children of Israel, and the stone that was rejected by them was the son, Jesus Christ.
The new tenants are the Gentiles and Jews that become Christians.

santing

It is interesting to see that the judgement (41) "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time" is given by the chief priests the elders of the Jews (23) and then in verse 45 we read "When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them."
This underpins the explanation given by The Quadratic Equation.

C14N

Thanks, it makes more sense to me now.