“There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away.” (Matthew 21:33)
Thus begins one of the most violent parables Jesus ever told though it doesn’t begin violently. It’s a story of a beautiful vineyard, and it might have been a lovely story except that the vineyard goes to seed very quickly through themismanagement of its tenants, though the focus of the story is not so much on their mismanagement of the property as it is on their callous disregard for the rights of the legal owner.
“When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.” (Matthew 21:34-36)
The behaviour of the tenant-farmers in this story is vicious. Moreover, it’s senseless! Even if they were useless tenants and couldn’t come up with the rent, why would they act with such disregard for the law and for their relationship with their landlord?
The longer I live, the more I become convinced that all violence is senseless, and indeed, I’ve seen way too much of it.
I’ve been in war zones in Syria a number of times. I was almost killed in a riot in Israel in 2004, and I somehow survived being drowned off the coast of Manus Island in 2016. Even so, the worst violence I’ve seen has been right here at home.
I was parish priest in Dulwich Hill during the early 1990’s when the heroin trafficking was at its peak, and during that time three members of our parish were shot though, happily, they all survived. Now, depending on where you are in the world, that may be pretty normal for your church. In Sydney, that’s pretty rare.
Yes, there’s violence in the streets, violence in our homes and here there’s violence in the vineyard and it is absurd violence! The master sends his servants to collect the rent and, if these tenant farmers had wanted to keep the master happy and at a safe distance, you’d think they would have just given him some token amount of rent to keep him satisfied? He doesn’t seem to have been a hard man to please.
Or why didn’t they try to give the owner the impression that his servants hadn’t shown up, or, if they were determined to kill the master’s servants, why didn’t they do it covertly and dispose of the bodies in secret? No! These people are unabashed in the way they behave! It’s as if they had forgotten that they had a master? Certainly, they act as if the master didn’t exist!
The only character more difficult to understand than the tenant farmers in this story is the master whose consistent response to the violence of these people is just to keep sending more servants! One messenger after another is abused and killed, and we’re waiting for the master to try something different, and … eventually, he does. He sends his son! They will respect my son,’ he said.” (Matthew 21:37)
What made the landowner think that these people would respect his son? Given their behaviour up to this point – their complete disregard for his rightful claim on the property, and the acts of violence that they had consistently meted out to every one of his representatives, what made the landowner think these people would now act differently? When is the penny going drop that this situation is not going to improve?
“when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” (Matthew 21:33-39)
Jesus ends his story with a question: Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” (Matthew 21:40) My response to that question is, ‘I don’t know. Has he got another son?’
We could have told him what would happen. What was he thinking? What sort of set-up is this where everyone is trapped in an endless cycle of mindless violence? What sort of people are these tenants? What sort of master is this?
This is our world, isn’t it? Look around! This isn’t just some 2,000-year-old fable. This is our story – the lies, the violence, the exploitation, and the complete disregard for rightful claims of the master. We aren’t just reading this. We are living it!
And so Jesus’ ends the parable with nothing resolved. The master has no rent, no servants, no vineyard and now … no son! The evil tenants are alive and well, and appear to still be running the show, and so the violence continues with no sign of resolution. ‘He who has ears, let him hear!’
When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
Yes, the hope for a final reckoning is there at the end of the story, and yet the reality we experience is exactly as Jesus depicts it – the servants have been rejected, the Son has been killed, and the ownership of the vineyard still seems to be very much in doubt! Meanwhile, the tenant farmers run wild in their violence and stupidity!
Where’s the Good News? Is there any good news in this story?
Personally, the good news I find in this story is less in the hope for a final reckoning than it is in the character of the master. Yes, the master is hard to understand. He seems far too indiscriminate in who he lets take charge of his vineyard, and he seems way too tolerant in terms of what he puts up with. Even so, there are two things that come through very clearly in this story.
Firstly, the master will not give up on his vineyard, and this despite the fact that it seems to be a lost cause. The master still loves the vineyard. He’s not letting go. That’s the first thing, and the second is this: that the master is committed to doing whatever it takes to regain control. No price is too great!
Hear the parable of the vineyard! Hear it in the chaos of our world. Hear it in the violence we endure. Hear it in the patience of God. Hear it in the sending of the Son.
The Master has not given up on us. He has not abandoned His vineyard. He has not withdrawn His claim on us. And He still calls out: “You who have ears, hear.”
First publisher in Father Dave’s weekly newsletter – October 3rd, 2026
