Christians: Please interpret the Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers?

The Vineyard is the religion of God.

The wicked tenants are the scribes and the Pharisees

The Landholder is God the Father

The Son is Jesus Christ

The tenants represent the Jews who thought they would dispense with Jesus and remain in charge of the worship of God once they had sent Him to be crucified.

The vineyard is the kingdom of God. The wicked tenants are the usurpers, those who claim authority in the kingdom but lack real authority. In Jesus' day, they were the Pharisees. In our day, they are the clergy of the fallen-away denominations--Episcopalians, Evangelical Lutherans, Presbyterian USA, and United Church of Christ--the denominations that reject the ethics of Christianity, especially on the litmus-test issues of abortion and homosexuality.

The landholder is God the Father, and the Son is Jesus, the Son of God. The tenants imagined that they could make up their own rules, as did Adam and Eve in the Garden. That, of course, is an error.

As in Jesus' parable, God's people will overthrow the usurpers and reinstate the rule of God.

Cheers,

Bruce

The vineyard: Israel of God.

The wicked tenants: The Pharisees, and their forefathers.

Who is the landholder? God

Who is the son? Jesus

Why would the tenants think that they would receive the inheritance if they killed the heir? Because the Pharisees didn't recognise the Heir (they missed the day of their visitation). Furthermore they believed that they were the sons of God, and that through Abraham (who they thought was their father), they would receive the inheritance.

My translation uses the term "cultivators" instead of wicked vinedressers but means the same

Jesus shows that the failure of those religious leaders is not simply in neglecting to serve God, but they are actually evil, wicked men. “There was a man, a householder,” Jesus relates, “who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and erected a tower, and let it out to cultivators, and travelled abroad. When the season of the fruits came around, he dispatched his slaves to the cultivators to get his fruits. However, the cultivators took his slaves, and one they beat up, another they killed, another they stoned. Again he dispatched other slaves, more than the first, but they did the same to these.”

The “slaves” are the prophets that the “householder,” Jehovah God, sent to “the cultivators” of his “vineyard.” These cultivators are leading representatives of the nation of Israel, which nation the Bible identifies as God’s “vineyard.”

Since “the cultivators” mistreat and kill the “slaves,” Jesus explains: “Lastly [the owner of the vineyard] dispatched his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ On seeing the son the cultivators said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance!’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.”

Now, addressing the religious leaders, Jesus asks: “When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those cultivators?”

“Because they are evil,” the religious leaders answer, “he will bring an evil destruction upon them and will let out the vineyard to other cultivators, who will render him the fruits when they become due.”

They thus unwittingly proclaim judgment upon themselves, since they are included among the Israelite “cultivators” of Jehovah’s national “vineyard” of Israel. The fruitage that Jehovah expects from such cultivators is faith in his Son, the true Messiah. For their failing to provide such fruitage, Jesus warns: “Did you never read in the Scriptures [at Psalm 118:22, 23], ‘The stone that the builders rejected is the one that has become the chief cornerstone. From Jehovah this has come to be, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? This is why I say to you, The kingdom of God will be taken from you and be given to a nation producing its fruits. Also, the person falling upon this stone will be shattered. As for anyone upon whom it falls, it will pulverize him.”

The scribes and chief priests now recognize that Jesus is speaking about them, and they want to kill him, the rightful “heir.” So the privilege of being rulers in God’s Kingdom will be taken from them as a nation, and a new nation of ‘vineyard cultivators’ will be created, one that will produce suitable fruits.

Because the religious leaders fear the crowds, who consider Jesus a prophet, they do not try to kill him on this occasion. Matthew 21:28-46; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-19; Isaiah 5:1-7.

A little further

The murderous cultivators (Mt 21:33-44; Mr 12:1-11; Lu 20:9-18). Spoken in the temple in Jerusalem, just three days before Jesus, God’s Son, was killed. This illustration, too, was in answer to the question about the source of Jesus’ authority. (Mr 11:27-33) Immediately after the illustration, the Gospel accounts state that the religious leaders realized that he was speaking about them.—Mt 21:45; Mr 12:12; Lu 20:19.

The fence around the vineyard might have been of stone (Pr 24:30, 31) or it might have been a hedge. (Isa 5:5) The wine vat was frequently excavated in the rock and consisted of two levels, the juice flowing from the upper one to the lower. The tower was a lookout place for the guard, who was to keep out thieves and animals. In some cases, the cultivators employed received a certain portion of the fruits. In other cases, the cultivators paid rent in money or agreed to give the owner a definite amount of the produce, the latter apparently being the case in the illustration. By murdering the son, the heir, they may have thought to seize the vineyard as their own, since the one who planted it was out of the country. In Isaiah 5:1-7 “the vineyard of Jehovah” is said to be “the house of Israel.” As shown by the Gospel writers, Jesus quoted Psalm 118:22, 23 as a key to understanding the illustration.

I agree with Guru Hank, except I would add that it goes all the way back into the OT times, when old Israel killed all the prophets which God sent to them. In mat 23 Jesus told us that it was old Jerusalem which has killed all the prophets, which was God's servants, and then would kill all the new ones that Jesus would send them.

Sure, they hated it then, when Jesus pinpointed them as the murderers of God's vineyard, and of course they still do, hence the denial of this truth.

But they proved it was right, by crucifying the son, Jesus and then murdering the NT Saints.

Now they wish to kill the knowledge of the truth. They thought that by killing Jesus, they could stop the new move of God, which Jesus was teaching = grace, for the entire world.

But see, Jesus succeeded anyway, for God was with him.

the "vineyard" is the humankind/world,

the "wicked tenants" are the unrighteous/bad clerics,

the "landholder" is the true God Father,

the "son" is the Lord Jesus Christ,

usually the unrighteous/bad clerics are proud and think that (can) have all universe as gods/lords of it

the world

humanity

God

jesus

right of possession