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The Parable of the Vineyard and the Politics of Justice

The Parable of the Vineyard and the Politics of Justice

Last updated on: September 30, 2026 at 10:44 am by Herb Montgomery

The Parable of the Vineyard and the Politics of Justice 2026-09-30T10:44:00-04:00 Herb Montgomery

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The Vineyard Parable and the Politics of Justice

Photo Credit: Lukáš Kulla

Our reading this week is from the gospel of Matthew.

“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

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This is Part 1 of the series Who Owns the Vineyard? Jesus and the Politics of Justice

“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

the Lord has done this,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. (Matthew 21:33-46)

Our reading this week is often referred to as the parable of the wicked tenants. The story has traditionally been read as an early Christian story about God, Israel, and the rejection of Jesus. This interpretation has been the soil from which harmful fruits such as supersessionism and antisemitism have grown. I want to offer a different lens this week. When we listen to this parable through the lens of justice, we encounter a powerful critique of any system in which those entrusted with resources become convinced that those resources belong to them. Seen through that lens, the story is about land, labor, power, violence, exploitation, and accountability.

The vineyard represents something valuable. The landowner carefully prepares it, protects it, and establishes the conditions for it to produce fruit. He then places tenants in charge. Their responsibility is not simply to possess the vineyard but to cultivate it and share its harvest. Their authority is therefore stewardship, not ownership.

The tragedy begins when the tenants confuse stewardship with possession. When the harvest comes, they refuse to give the landowner his share and use violence against those sent to collect it. They beat, stone, or kill servant after servant. Finally, the tenants even murder the son because they believe eliminating the heir will allow them to claim the vineyard for themselves.

Socially and politically, this is a story about what happens when people who hold power become accountable to no one. They can begin to believe that their position gives them the right to control the resources, determine who benefits from them, and silence anyone who challenges their authority. Eventually, such exploitation requires violence because maintaining an unjust arrangement depends upon preventing others from questioning it.

This makes the parable especially relevant to the politics of economic justice. The harvest does not belong exclusively to those who happen to control the vineyard. The tenants have a responsibility to return what is owed and participate in a larger relationship of mutual obligation. The story challenges the common assumption that possessing power or controlling property automatically gives someone an unlimited claim to its benefits.

There is also a connection between the vineyard and the concern for land and its produce throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. In that tradition, land is never merely a commodity but is instead connected to community, survival, livelihood, and human flourishing. The prophets repeatedly condemn those who accumulate land and wealth while others suffer. Isaiah, for example, condemned those who “join house to house” and “add field to field” until others have no place to live (see Isaiah 5:8). Jesus’ parable stands within this prophetic tradition.

The tenants’ violence also exposes another reality of injustice: systems of privilege and concentrated power can generate violence when those benefiting from an unjust arrangement refuse accountability. The servants and the son become threats not because they have done something wrong, but because they challenge the tenants’ control.

Yet there is an important tension in the ending of this story. And we’ll pick up there in Part 2.

Begin each day being inspired toward love, compassion, justice and action. Free.

General Christian

Politics and Religion

About Herb Montgomery

Herb Montgomery, director of Renewed Heart Ministries, is an author and adult religious educator helping Christians explore the intersection of their faith with love, compassion, action, and societal justice. You can read more about the author here.

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September 23, 2026

Respectability Isn't Righteousness: The Parable of Two Sons

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September 30, 2026 The Stones the Builders Reject

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