Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen

thumb|The son of the vineyard by James Tissot The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, also known as the Parable of the Bad Tenants, is a parable of Jesus found in the three Synoptic Gospels. It describes a landowner (KJV: householder) planting a vineyard and letting it out to husbandmen (tenants in some translations) who failed in their duties. A common Christian interpretation is that this parable was about the chief priests and Pharisees, and was given to the people present within the Temple in Jerusalem during the final week before the death of Jesus. Quotes about Bible 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. 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. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. [...]“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. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. Gospel of Matthew 21:33-37;43-46 NIV. “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’“But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.“What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture:“‘The stone the builders rejectedhas become the cornerstone;the Lord has done this,and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Gospel of Mark 12:6-11 NIV. He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.“Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’[...]Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people. Gospel of Luke 20:9-13;18-19 NIV. And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: and I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. Book of Isaiah 5:5-7 KJV. Others The vineyard workers had imagined that the vineyard where they had been sent to work for their master was their property; that everything in the vineyard had been made for them, so that they could enjoy life in that vineyard, forgetting their master and killing anyone who reminded them of him and their obligations towards him. “We do the same thing,” thought Nechljudov, 'living in the senseless belief that we are masters of our own lives, and that they are given to us for our pleasure. But this is clearly absurd. Because if we have been sent here, it is by someone's will and for some reason. Instead, we have decided that we live only for our own joy, and it is clear that we are suffering, just as the worker who does not do the master's will will suffer. And the master's will is expressed in these commandments. It is enough for men to put these commandments into practice, and the kingdom of God will be established on earth, and men will receive the supreme good that is accessible to them." Lev Tolstoy, Resurrezione, translation into Italian by Emanuela Guercetti, Garzanti, Milano, 2002, explicit. ISBN 8811361575 The vineyard survives everything. It is beyond change, wear and tear, and decay. It is an image of the fruit that the Lord desires and that must be harvested from the world. The work on people always remains the same. They must be purified, supported, helped to mature, so that they can work for God. But the Son, whom the vine-growers killed, the stone which they rejected, is Christ, who, precisely because he was rejected and precisely through his death, founds the Church and gives it the certainty of his assistance. Adrienne von Speyr, Le parabole del Signore (Gleichnisse des Herrn, 1966), translation into Italian by Giuseppe Reguzzoni, Jaca Book, Milano, 2008, p. 99. ISBN 978-88-16-30459-8 The missions of the Old and New Covenants, with all their differences, are a service to the vineyard. Between them is the mission of Jesus, a mission of an incomparable kind, and yet a mission in the vineyard. A mission to admonish the vine-growers, to call them back to bring all the fruit of the vineyard to the Father. He will be killed, but from his death new missions will spring forth. All the envoys of the New Covenant work and labour at what the Son has made possible and opened up with his death, in participation in his filial mission. Adrienne von Speyr, Le parabole del Signore (Gleichnisse des Herrn, 1966), translation into Italian by Giuseppe Reguzzoni, Jaca Book, Milano, 2008, p. 98. ISBN 978-88-16-30459-8. External links The Tenants in the Vineyard Category:Parables of Jesus