SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 21:33-46
Jesus tells the Parable of the Tenants. A landowner rented out his vineyard. When it was time to collect the rent, he sent his servants to do so. The tenants beat one servant, killed another, and stoned a third. The landowner sent other servants who were treated the same way. Finally, he sent his son who was killed, too. Jesus asks what will the landowner do when he goes to his tenants. The response is he will kill them and rent out the land to others.
Jesus said that the stone that was rejected will be the capstone, quoting Psalm 18:22-23. He says the kingdom of God will be taken from them (the priests and teachers of the law) and given to a people who will produce fruit (Gentiles). The chief priests wanted to arrest Jesus but couldn’t because everyone saw him as a prophet.
BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 22, Day 4: Matthew 21:33-46
10) The landowner is God. The tenants is Israel. The servants are the Old Testament prophets. The heir is Jesus. The vineyard is the land of Israel.
11a) Jesus is the cornerstone of Christianity. Faith in Jesus is the key to the kingdom of heaven. 1 Corinthians 1:23 says Jesus is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. Jesus is the stumbling stone to many to God. Those who reject Jesus will never gain the kingdom of heaven, which is Jesus’s message to the religious leaders. Those who accept Jesus (the Gentiles in Jesus’s parable) will bear fruit and gain heaven.
b) Every way. People reject Jesus’s message in every aspect of their lives, picking and choosing what to believe and what not to believe.
12) It makes life harder, that’s for sure. When people don’t do the right thing.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 22, Day 4: Matthew 21:33-46
The message is one of how without Jesus, you are lost and do harm to others indiscriminately like how the religious leaders are persecuting and will kill Jesus. There are severe consequences for doing so.
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End Notes BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 22, Day 4: Matthew 21:33-46
The belief of the tenants was if they killed the heir, then they would be able to take over the vineyard for themselves. Instead, the owner would judge and destroy them.
The Old Testament uses the vineyard to represent Israel (Deuteronomy 32:32, Psalm 80:8, Jeremiah 2:21, and especially Isaiah 5:1-7).
Note how the owner (God) expects his son (Jesus) to be respected. Instead, the Son is killed. (a foretelling of his own death).
The message to the chief priests is clear — they can expect severe judgment for rejecting Jesus. The leaders have shown no fruit.
Leadership would now be given to the apostles and eventually to the Church (both Jewish and Gentiles).
Jesus asks the leaders if they’ve ever read the Scriptures. They are probably much offended by this since they obviously have.
The leaders answer to Jesus’s question has them condemning themselves.
Jesus is clearly laying out the consequences of rejecting him, and he is telling them that he is the chief cornerstone from Psalm 118.
We see the cornerstone here, too: Daniel 2:34, 44-45 Isaiah 8:13-15 Isaiah 28:16,
Jesus is telling the leaders to expect to lose their leadership to others. You can either be broken by submission to God or broken by judgment.
Jesus shows grace to the leaders by giving them multiple opportunities to come to him. Instead, the reject him and kill him.
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