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Matthew 21–22 series · Part 2 of 3

The Wicked Tenants

The vineyard, the Son, and the fruit God expects.

Read Matthew 21:33–46 (ESV) (opens in a new tab)

Central question

Are we faithfully serving what belongs to God, or beginning to treat it as though it belongs to us?

We Never Left the Vineyard

Read Matthew 21:33 (ESV) (opens in a new tab)

Jesus begins:

“There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard...”

This immediately follows the parable of the two sons.

The first father had sons who were supposed to work in his vineyard.

Now an owner builds a vineyard and leases it to tenants.

The imagery continues.

Everything Belongs to the Owner

The owner:

The tenants did not create the vineyard.

They did not own it.

They were entrusted with it.

Eventually the owner sends servants to receive:

his fruit.

The Servants Are Rejected

Read Matthew 21:34–36 (ESV) (opens in a new tab)

The tenants:

The owner sends more.

They receive the same treatment.

The pattern would have been recognizable within Israel’s history.

God repeatedly sent His servants and prophets to His people.

Those messengers were repeatedly rejected.

Then the Owner Sends His Son

Read Matthew 21:37–39 (ESV) (opens in a new tab)

Finally the owner says:

“They will respect my son.”

But the tenants say:

“This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.”

Here the corruption reaches its deepest point.

The tenants are no longer behaving like stewards.

They are acting like owners.

They want what belongs to the son.

Jesus Makes the Leaders Pronounce the Verdict

Read Matthew 21:40–41 (ESV) (opens in a new tab)

Jesus asks what the owner should do.

The leaders answer that he should judge the wicked tenants and give the vineyard to others who will give him the fruits in their seasons.

They have pronounced the judgment themselves.

The Rejected Stone

Read Matthew 21:42 (ESV) (opens in a new tab)

Jesus quotes:

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

The Son rejected by the tenants is also the stone rejected by the builders.

The people responsible for recognizing what God is building reject the very One upon whom God intends to build.

The Kingdom and Its Fruit

Read Matthew 21:43 (ESV) (opens in a new tab)

Jesus says:

“The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.”

This brings the first two parables together.

The first asked:

Did you actually do the Father’s will?

The second asks:

Where is the fruit?

Outward religious position cannot substitute for either.

Outward Religion Can Hide Something Else

This is where Jesus’ earlier warning in the Sermon on the Mount becomes important.

Read Matthew 7:15–20 (ESV) (opens in a new tab)

Jesus warns:

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

The outward appearance communicates one identity.

The inward reality communicates another.

They look like members of God’s flock.

Internally, they are wolves.

And Jesus says:

“You will recognize them by their fruits.”

That directly connects with the vineyard.

Fruit reveals what words and appearances can conceal.

The Wolves of Zephaniah

This image also appears in the prophets.

Read Zephaniah 3:1–4 (ESV) (opens in a new tab)

Zephaniah describes Jerusalem’s corrupt leadership.

Its officials are corrupt.

Its prophets are reckless.

Its priests profane what is holy.

And its judges are described as:

“evening wolves.”

This is part of the prophetic world behind Jesus’ confrontation with corrupt religious leadership.

The problem is not a lack of religion.

The problem is religion severed from genuine faithfulness to God.

Knowing Torah and Walking Torah

This distinction helps us understand the Jewish concept of **halakhah**.

The root carries the idea of:

walking.

Halakhah concerns the way God’s instruction is actually walked out.

A person can therefore:

know God’s commandments intellectually

without

walking faithfully before God.

That distinction is crucial.

The religious leaders knew Scripture.

Yet Jesus repeatedly attacks the way they actually walk.

Jesus Corrects the Way God’s People Walk

Much of Jesus’ ministry involves correcting corrupted religious practice.

Why?

Because a fundamentally corrupted walk reveals a fundamentally corrupted understanding of God.

Jesus again says in Matthew 7:

A good tree produces good fruit.

A bad tree produces bad fruit.

Read Matthew 7:21–23 (ESV) (opens in a new tab)

People can even say:

“Lord, Lord...”

and point toward impressive religious works.

Yet Jesus says:

“I never knew you.”

Religious activity does not automatically prove genuine relationship or obedience.

“The Way”

The earliest followers of Jesus eventually become known as:

“The Way.”

Read Acts 9:1–2 (ESV) (opens in a new tab)

That description fits naturally within this biblical concept of walking.

Following Christ is not merely possessing correct information.

It is:

a way of life.

It is walking faithfully with the Lord.

People Can Appear to Serve God While Disobeying Him

This is the danger exposed by the religious leaders.

People can:

while inwardly maintaining something fundamentally incompatible with genuine devotion to God.

That is why the fruit matters.

External religion may conceal an internal reality.

The Root of Corrupt Religious Service

The problem is ultimately deeper than isolated rule-breaking.

Something has become disordered in the relationship between the servant and the Owner.

The tenants begin behaving as though the vineyard belongs to them.

And when allegiance becomes corrupted, it eventually corrupts:

The external corruption reveals something deeper inside.

That deeper issue is what Jesus will expose in the third parable.

The Leaders Realize Jesus Is Talking About Them

Read Matthew 21:45–46 (ESV) (opens in a new tab)

The chief priests and Pharisees perceive that Jesus is speaking about them.

They want to arrest Him.

But they fear the crowds.

Mark’s parallel account adds:

“They perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.”

— Mark 12:12

This becomes important as we enter Matthew 22.

The immediate audience appears to shift.

But the subject has not disappeared.

The corrupt leadership remains behind the imagery of what Jesus says next.

Personal Application

Ask

What has God entrusted to us that we sometimes begin treating as though it belongs to us?

How can ministry, leadership, knowledge, or even religious service slowly become about ourselves rather than the Owner?

What kind of fruit should genuinely knowing God produce?

Can someone possess religious knowledge and still walk contrary to the God they claim to know?

Closing Thought

The first parable exposed words without obedience.

The second exposes stewardship without faithfulness.

The tenants were given something that belonged to the Owner.

Instead of producing His fruit, they rejected His messengers and eventually killed His Son.

Jesus exposes the danger of looking like God’s servants while inwardly serving another purpose.

But that raises an even deeper question.

Why does that happen?

What causes someone to say the right things, occupy the right religious position, and still produce the wrong fruit?

Jesus’ third parable reaches beneath the behavior.

It reaches the question of:

allegiance.

Transition to Study Three

Next time, Jesus leaves the vineyard.

The setting changes completely.

We move from a vineyard to the wedding feast of a king’s son.

But Jesus has not abandoned the argument.

We have already asked:

Will you obey the Father?

Then:

Will you give the Owner His fruit?

Now Jesus takes us to the deepest question underneath both:

Whom do you actually belong to?