Jesus told parables or stories to help people understand things about the kingdom of God. This parable is about a man who wanted to plant grapes or a vineyard, so he could make wine
He planted his field with vines and watched them grow.
He built a wall around the fields to protect the plants.
He dug a winepress, a place where he could squash the grapes and get their juice out to make wine.
He also built a tall tower so he could watch over his vineyard and protect his precious vines from animals or thieves.
When he was happy with progress, he hired tenant workers to look after the plants and to make wine. The tenants would sell the wine and give most of the profits to the vineyard owner. The vineyard owner went back home until harvest time.
At harvest time, the vineyard owner sent his servant to the tenants to collect his share of the profits.
But the tenants were bad people and beat up the servant and refused to give up their share of the profits.
The vineyard owner was very upset. He sent other servants to collect his share of the profits, but the tenants hurt those servants too and refused to give up their share of the profits.
The vineyard owner decided in the end to send his only son, saying, they will respect my son and give me my share of the profits.
But the tenants saw the son walking in the distance. They recognised that he was the vineyard owner’s son and said to themselves. ‘Look, the son himself is coming, he is the heir to the vineyard. Lets kill him and take possession of the vineyard for our selves’.
And the tenants killed the son, the vineyard owner’s only son.
Jesus asked those who were listening, what do you think the vineyard owners will do to the tenants? The people answered, ‘he will bring them justice and give the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share of the profits’.
Jesus explained, the Vineyard Owner is God and the profits are the blessings God offers to those who listen and live by faith.
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