“Another Parable” Orange Congregational Church UCC, October 4, 2026, (Matthew 21:33-46) Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
To set the scene for our Gospel story, Jesus is telling another parable. We remember from last Sunday that Jesus entered the temple and the chief priests and elders came to Jesus to question his teachings and authority. We contemplated the parable of the two sons. A father approached his two sons and asked them to work in the vineyard. One son said that he didn’t want to work in the vineyard and then changed his mind and got to work. The other son said that he would work in the vineyard, only he didn’t follow through. In the end, it was the son who did the work who “did his father’s will” according to Jesus.[1] Let our yes mean yes. We can show up and be present for one another because there is real power in our presence.
Then Jesus begins telling another parable, the parable of the wicked tenants. Jesus sets the scene by saying that there was a landowner who planted a vineyard. The landowner secured his vineyard. He put a fence around the vineyard, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. The landowner brought in tenant farmers to rent the vineyard and went away. Come harvest time, the landowner sent servants to the tenant farmers to collect his produce. But the farmers grabbed his servants—some of them they beat, some they killed, and some they stoned to death. So the landowner sent another group of servants, even more numerous than the first group. The tenants treated those servants the same way. Finally, the landowner sent his son, thinking that surely the tenants would treat his son with respect. Except that’s not what happens. The tenant farmers are after the son’s inheritance, so they grab the son, throw him out of the vineyard, and kill him.
Jesus finishes telling this parable, turns to those in power, and asks, “Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”[2] Their response is, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”[3] Jesus tells all with ears to hear and hearts to understand about how the stone that the builders reject has become the cornerstone. God’s kingdom will be given to people who produce the fruits of the kingdom. And in the end, whoever falls on this stone will be crushed.
Matthew tells us that when the chief priests and Pharisees hear the parable, they understand that Jesus is talking about them and want to arrest Jesus. Keep in mind that we are in Matthew Chapter 21. These teachings take place in the Temple on the Tuesday of Holy Week. In just a few days after teaching this parable about the son thrown out of the vineyard and killed, Jesus will be killed. For now Matthew tells us that the leaders fear the crowds (your ordinary people who were listening to Jesus and thought that he was a prophet). The leaders fear them, so hold off on arresting Jesus.
This is not an easy parable. It is worth clarifying a few things, especially to better understand what it can mean for us today. We can recall New Testament Professor Arland Hultgren’s definition that “a parable is a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between God’s kingdom, actions, or expectations and something in this world, real or imagined.”[4] Jesus famously taught using parables.
The parable of the wicked tenants is another tricky parable. It would make a complicated bedtime story to tell our children. Moreover with the disturbing news this week coming out of Cornell University, it is hard to hear as this story Jesus tells depicts violence against defenseless people. Versions of the parable of the tenant farmers (also known as the parable of the wicked tenants) are found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and the Gospel of Thomas. This is not a random parable. There are several versions of this same story that Jesus tells about a vineyard owner and wicked tenants and servants abused and killed and then the vineyard owner’s son killed.
Now if we interpret the story symbolically, we could understand that the vineyard owner is God. The servants sent and mistreated are the prophets. The tenant farmers are the religious leaders in Jerusalem. The son is Jesus. And the vineyard itself is the people of Israel—your average person. It is helpful to view this parable as an allegory, a story that uses characters and settings and events to help us understand a deeper meaning. The punishment that may come at the end is due to the leaders (the tenants) rejecting the prophets (the servants) and Jesus (the son). In effect, the leaders could be punished for rejecting everyone God was sending to help the vineyard bear fruit. We could even understand this as pointing to Jerusalem destroyed in 70 C.E. and that was the “punishment” referenced here. There are multiple ways to make sense of this parable.
Though it is really important to note that the problem in the parable as Jesus tells it is the tenant farmers not the vineyard. That is important to clarify because otherwise this parable could be interpreted in a way that justifies Christian supersessionism (the idea that Christianity has replaced Judaism). So the vineyard is not the problem. The vineyard is not destroyed. The vineyard would be given new leadership, to bear fruit.
In the future, as Christianity would one day become a separate religion it was remarkable that the early community accepted Jews and Gentiles. As we hear this parable, we can remember that Jesus was Jewish and the crowds who are sitting there in the temple hearing this parable are Jewish. The Jewish leaders are afraid of the Jewish crowds because they know the wisdom in what Jesus is teaching and think that he is a prophet—in line with other prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah. The religious leaders are understandably upset by getting called out with this parable and want to arrest Jesus. But the people are here for it because Jesus is speaking truth to power.
So why does this matter for us today? Well it turns out that we are responsible for bringing forth good fruit from this vineyard. We are the ones invited to roll up our sleeves and get to work in the vineyard. It would be too easy to say that the tenant farmers were those in religious leadership in Jesus’ day and good thing Jesus came along. So that’s all set! Nothing for us to do here anymore.
While attending the Annual Meeting of the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ recently in Worcester, Massachusetts there was a hymn that we sang tother: “They’ll Know We Are Christians.” It is always a powerful experience worshiping with people across our UCC churches in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island and singing with hundreds of people. The gathering itself serves as a reminder that we are not alone. We do not go about the work of being the church alone. One of the verses from that hymn captures the spirit of what this parable is about: “We will work with each other; we will work side by side. We will work with each other; we will work side by side. And we’ll guard each one’s dignity and save each one’s pride. And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”[5]
How will people know that we are Christians? By our love.
Not our judgment. Not our mean-spiritedness.
Not our spite. Not our holier than thou attitudes. Not our perfection.
They will know we are Christians by our love.
In the words of Jesus, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”[6] We will work with each other. We will work side by side. We guard each person’s dignity and save each person’s pride. This is about how we live in Christian community. This is about how this vineyard bears good fruit. They will know we are Christians by our love. Thanks be to God. Amen.
[1] Matthew 21:31, NRSVUE.
[2] Matthew 21:40.
[3] Matthew 21:41.
[4] Arland J. Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus: A Commentary, pg. 3.
[5] “They’ll Know We Are Christians” words and music by Peter Scholtes.
[6] John 15:12.
