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The Murder of God’s Son: A Prophetic Parable
(Luke 20:9–18)

And He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to vine-growers, and went on a journey for a long time. At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would give him some of the produce of the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send another slave; and they beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send a third; and this one also they wounded and cast out. The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others.” When they heard it, they said, “May it never be!” But Jesus looked at them and said, “What then is this that is written: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone’? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.” (20:9–18)

As noted earlier, from the outset of Christ’s ministry, the Jewish religious leaders sought to kill Him. When He attacked their temple the first time (John 2:13–17), they demanded a sign from Him to prove that He had authority for His audacious action. Aware that even at that early stage of His ministry they wanted Him dead, “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’” (v. 19). As verse 21 notes, “He was speaking of the temple of His body”; that is, He was referring to His death and resurrection. After He healed a man on the Sabbath, “the Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him” (Mark 3:6). In Matthew 17:22–23 Jesus said to the disciples, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day” (cf. 16:21; Luke 18:33). “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him,” John wrote, “because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God” (John 5:18; cf. 7:1, 19, 25; 8:37, 40).

As the Lord’s ministry neared its climax, the religious leaders’ determination to kill Him intensified. After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, “many of the Jews who … saw what He had done, believed in Him” (John 11:45). The chief priests and Pharisees, alarmed at Jesus’ popularity with the people and fearing that it would bring Roman reprisals against them and the nation, held a council. At the urging of the high priest, Caiaphas (vv. 49–50), “from that day on they planned together to kill Him” (v. 53; cf. Mark 14:1). As passionately as they sought it, they were hesitant to carry out their plot because they feared doing so would trigger a riot (Matt. 26:5), until with the assistance of the traitor, Judas Iscariot (Luke 22:3–5), they were able to seize Jesus and work a plan for executing Him.

Jesus, well aware of what His enemies were plotting, told a parable in which He predicted both the murder and the consequences. This prophetic parable, which was told to the people but aimed at the leaders, looks forward to Christ’s death as well as backward through Israel’s history. It contains four features: the illustration, the explanation, the extension, and the application.

THE ILLUSTRATION

And He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to vine-growers, and went on a journey for a long time. At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would give him some of the produce of the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send another slave; and they beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send a third; and this one also they wounded and cast out. The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others.” (20:9–16a)

As was true of all the Lord’s parables, this one used imagery from everyday life with which His hearers would be familiar. Vineyards were common in Israel, especially on the terraced hillsides. In this parable a man planted a vineyard, making every effort to provide all that was necessary to produce a good crop (the parallel account in Matthew’s gospel notes that he built a wall around it, put a wine press in it, and built a tower for added protection against robbers and animals [Matt. 21:33]). As was often done, he rented it out to vine-growers. These were tenant farmers, who rented the land from the owner and paid him a percentage of the harvest.

Having leased his vineyard to continue its usefulness and provide income for himself, the owner went on a journey for a long time. This absentee landowner, a common case in Israel and elsewhere, was still away at harvest time. To collect his percentage he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would give him some of the produce of the vineyard. This, too, was a feature the hearers would have been familiar with.

What occurred next, however, was not at all expected, and utterly outrageous. Instead of giving the slave the agreed-upon share of the crop due to the vineyard owner, the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Derō (beat) is a strong term; it literally means “to remove the skin,” and vividly depicts the savage beating they gave him. The Lord’s hearers would have been incensed at such deplorably ungrateful, illegal, and wicked behavior.

Patiently giving the hired vine-growers, who were profiting themselves, multiple opportunities to do what was right, the landowner proceeded to send another slave, but the defiant vine-growers beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. A third servant met a similar fate; this one also they wounded and cast out. Matthew and Mark note that Jesus had him sending still other slaves, all of whom were either beaten, stoned, or murdered.

The answer to the question the owner of the vineyard asked, “What shall I do?” would have seemed obvious to Jesus’ hearers. Surely they expected him to bring vengeance and just retribution on those criminals. He had given them privileges, and opportunity to benefit from his land. They would have made pledges, promises, and contracts, which they violated by selfish, rebellious, and criminal conduct.

In a generous display of patience and mercy, the vineyard owner hopefully offered one more appeal to the farmers to do what was right. “I will send my beloved son,” he reasoned. “Perhaps they will respect him.” Though they thrashed his slaves, surely they would respect his son. Instead, they saw this as their opportunity to seize full control of the vineyard once and for all, so when the vine-growers saw the son, they reasoned (i.e., discussed the situation) with one another. Their perverse reasoning brought them to deadly violence. “This is the heir,” they said to each other. “Let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.” They may have thought that the son was coming to claim his inheritance. According to traditional law, land that remained unclaimed for three years reverted to those who were working it. Therefore if they killed the son, the land could eventually be theirs.

When the son arrived, they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. This act of cold-blooded, premeditated murder was the ultimate outrage to those hearing Jesus spin the story.

The Lord’s concluding question to the hearers, “What, then, will the owner of the vineyard (who was not dead) do to them?” was easy to answer. According to Matthew 21:41 they completed the parable by saying, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.” Jesus agreed with them that “he will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others.” Such was an appropriate and just response on the part of the owner.

THE EXPLANATION

When they heard it, they said, “May it never be!” (20:16b)

The fact that when they heard it, they said, “May it never be!” indicates they had begun to gain clarity on the application our Lord intended. Heard translates a form of the Greek verb akouō, which refers here (as it does in Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22) to hearing with understanding. Whether the obvious dawned on the listeners, or Jesus explained it to them, when the full meaning of the parable hit them, they realized Jesus had just condemned their leaders and their nation to destruction.

By then the crowd was processing the component features of the parable: the vineyard owner is God; the vineyard is Israel (cf. Ps. 80:8–16; Isa. 5:7; Jer. 2:21); the vine-growers are the religious leaders of Israel; the extended journey taken by the vineyard owner pictures Old Testament history, which culminated when God returned in the person of His Son; the slaves are the Old Testament prophets, whom Israel mistreated in the same manner as the vine-growers mistreated the vineyard owner’s slaves. Alfred Plummer wrote,

According to tradition, Isaiah was sawn in half with a wooden saw (cf. Heb. 11:37). Jeremiah was constantly mistreated, thrown into a pit (Jer. 38:9), and, according to tradition, stoned to death by the Jews. Ezekiel faced similar hatred and hostility (Ezek. 2:6); Amos was forced to flee for his life (Amos 7:10–13); Zechariah was rejected (Zech. 11:12) and stoned (2 Chron. 24:21), and Micaiah was struck in the face (1 Kings 22:24). Both the Old Testament (e.g., Jer. 7:23ff.; 25:4ff.) and the New Testament (e.g., Matt. 23:33–39; Luke 6:22–33; 11:49; 13:34; Acts 7:51–52) rebuked Israel for rejecting and abusing the prophets.

The vineyard owner’s son depicts the Lord Jesus Christ. He is distinct from all the rest of God’s messengers; He is not God’s slave, but God’s beloved Son (Matt. 17:5; John 3:16; Col. 1:13; 2 Peter 1:17), the heir of all that He possesses (Heb. 1:2).

By creating this relevant dramatic illustration, Jesus made it clear to His murderers that He knew exactly what they were planning to do to Him. They wanted control of the inheritance; that is, of Israel. Just as the vine-growers threw the vineyard owner’s son out of the vineyard and killed him, so also would the religious leaders throw Jesus out of the nation to the Romans, who killed Him outside Jerusalem.

Backtracking in horror from their earlier declaration that the vineyard owner should destroy the vine-growers they said, “May it never be!” (mē genoito; the most emphatic negation in the Greek language). But it was to be. Just as the vineyard owner would destroy the rebellious vine-growers, so also would God destroy rebellious Israel. Divine judgment fell on the apostate nation four decades later in A.D. 70, with the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.

In the Lord’s parable, the vineyard owner not only destroyed the vine-growers, but also gave stewardship of the vineyard to others. So also would the custodianship of Israel pass from the hands of the unfaithful, Messiah-rejecting leaders to other stewards. “Therefore I say to you,” Jesus declared to them, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing the fruit of it” (Matt. 21:43).

Those new leaders of Israel would be the true followers of Jesus Christ. This was the worst-case scenario for the Jewish people, and especially their leaders. They hated Jesus, and they had nothing but disdain, scorn, and ridicule for His followers. They mocked them as unsophisticated Galileans (cf. John 7:52), lacking rabbinic training or credentials (Acts 4:13). The point is not that Gentiles were replacing the Jews, or that the church was replacing Israel. There were Gentile proselytes to Judaism, and there are Jewish believers in the church. But there would be a change in leadership from the corrupt, apostate incumbent rulers of Israel to the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ.

That transition had already begun. In Luke 9 Jesus “called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing. … Departing, they began going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere” (vv. 1–2, 6).

In Luke 10 Jesus sent out seventy more messengers:

In Matthew 13:11, Jesus said to the disciples, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.” The disciples had been given knowledge of the mysteries; that is, the now-revealed but formerly hidden truths concerning the kingdom of God contained in the New Testament. They were to be the new custodians of divine truth, and thus the earthly stewards of the kingdom of salvation.

After Peter’s affirmation that Jesus is “the Christ [the Messiah], the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16),

The disciples were a privileged group to whom God was granting special revelation. They saw things others did not see; they heard and understood what others did not hear and understand (cf. Matt. 13:11–17). The parables that others could not grasp were to them clear and understandable. They exercised power that the leaders of Israel did not have over demons, disease, and death. It was upon the rock of truth revealed to the apostles that Christ would build His church (v. 18; cf. Eph. 2:20).

Though the apostles were a small, nondescript group of unskilled, untrained, and unimpressive men, they were the new leaders of God’s vineyard; the stewards of divine revelation and shepherds of the new people of God. Their mission was to “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). They accomplished it in a way that turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6 ESV).

As “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4:1; cf. Eph. 3:1–11), the apostles were entrusted with the divine revelation of those mysteries in the New Testament Scriptures (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13; 2 Peter 1:21). Every succeeding generation of pastors, teachers, and evangelists follows in their line (cf. 1 Tim. 4:16; 6:20; 2 Tim. 1:13–14; 2:2).

But as planned from the beginning, God’s displacement of Israel is not permanent. “I say then,” Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome, “God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew” (Rom. 11:1–2a; cf. vv. 13–15, 23–30 and the exposition of chapter 11 in Romans 9–16, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody, 1994]). There will come a time when “all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26), and again made stewards of God’s truth. In the tribulation, there will be one hundred forty-four thousand Jewish evangelists (Rev. 7:2–8; 14:1–5). The earthly messianic kingdom that the Jewish people expected, and fervently hoped Jesus would establish at His first coming, will be established after His second coming (cf. Isa. 55:3; 56:6–8; 60:1–22; Mic. 4:1–2; Zech. 8:1–8, 14–15, 20–23).

THE EXTENSION

But Jesus looked at them and said, “What then is this that is written: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone’? (20:17)

Jesus transitioned directly from the analogy into the reality of Old Testament prophecy. The death of the son cannot be the end of the story. In response to the crowd’s horrified response, “May it never be!” Jesus looked intently at them (the Greek verb literally means “to fix one’s gaze on something”) and said, “What then is this that is written” (in the Old Testament Scriptures [Matt. 21:42]). The reference He quoted, “The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone” (Ps. 118:22; cf. Dan. 2:34), would have been familiar to them.

And with that reference the imagery of a murdered son had shifted to that of a rejected stone. The chief corner stone was the most important part of a stone building, because it properly set every angle for construction. Builders knew that without an absolutely perfect cornerstone, the entire building would drift out of plumb. In the historical context of Psalm 118, the stone rejected by the builders represented Israel, ignored and assaulted by the nations and empires of the world. But that rejected nation will yet become God’s cornerstone nation, and the rejected Messiah will be the redeemer and the cornerstone.

The stone which the builders rejected, but then became the chief corner stone, specifically refers to Jesus Christ, as Peter boldly declared to the Sanhedrin,

The stone rejected by the Jewish leadership and the nation became the most important stone in the eternal kingdom of God, supporting the whole structure and symmetry of God’s glorious kingdom of salvation.

THE APPLICATION

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.” (20:18)

The section concludes with a serious warning against rejecting the Savior. Everyone who falls on that stone—that is, who stumbles over Christ in unbelief and rejection (cf. Isa. 8:14–15; Rom. 9:32; 1 Cor. 1:23; 1 Peter 2:6–8)—will be broken to pieces. On the other hand, those on whom He falls in judgment will be scattered like dust. In either case the end result is the same: utter, complete, and terrifying destruction.

This is a message of love and warning, though delivering it brought the Lord not joy, but rather intense sorrow moving Him to tears (cf. Luke 19:41). Predictably, but tragically, the leaders rejected His warning and redoubled their efforts to kill Him (Luke 20:19). That same warning applies to everyone: either submit to Christ as Lord and Savior, or be crushed by Him in judgment. Rejecting Jesus Christ is the most tragic choice anyone can ever make. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).