This parable taught that Israel's religious leaders who had authority were mismanaging their authority. It also affirmed Jesus' authority, not just as a prophet, but as God's Son. The leaders had expressed fear of death (v. 6). Jesus now revealed that He would die but would experience divine vindication. The parable contains further teaching on the subject of proper stewardship as well (cf. 19:11-27).
20:9-12 Jesus directed his teaching to the people who generally responded positively to His instruction. A positive response to revelation results in more insight. Those in the crowd who did not believe in Jesus would have found this teaching less illuminating.
The owner of the vineyard in the parable represents God, the vineyard is Israel (cf. Ps. 80:8-16; Isa. 5:1-7), and the tenant farmers are Israel's religious leaders. The harvest stands for the inauguration of the kingdom, and the servants represent the prophets. The produce of the vineyard symbolizes the fruits of righteousness that God hoped to find in His people. Luke simplified the story compared with Matthew and Mark's versions probably to stress the main points and to avoid distraction from too much detail.
20:13-14 Luke cast the owner's thought in the form of a soliloquy, which he liked to do (cf. 16:3-4; 18:4-5). This literary device adds pathos to the story. The term "beloved"(Gr. agepeton) son identifies the owner's son as unique from his viewpoint, but it also identified him as God's Son to perceptive listeners and to Luke's readers (cf. 3:22). Evidently the tenants believed they could conceal the murder, and the owner would turn the vineyard over to them having no other heir. This was very bad stewardship of what belonged to the owner.
20:15 Matthew and Luke have the tenants casting the son out of the vineyard and then killing him whereas Mark has them doing these things in the reverse order. Probably they removed him from the vineyard, killed him, and then cast his corpse farther from the vineyard. The order of Matthew and Luke makes the killing the climax, and Mark's point seems to be the insults that the son suffered.
20:16 Only Luke recorded the verbal response of the people to the vineyard owner's action: "may it never be"(Gr. me genoito, cf. Rom. 3:4, 6, 31, et al.). This was a strong statement expressing firm rejection. They understood that Jesus was predicting that God would condemn Israel's leaders and turn the nation over to other people. They foresaw the end of Judaism as they knew it, and this prospect upset them.
20:17 By looking at His hearers Jesus captivated their attention for a very important statement. Jesus' response corrected the crowd's resistance to the idea that God would judge Israel's present leaders and allow Israel to fall under other presumably Gentile leadership. He now changed the figure from a vineyard to a building. Luke recorded Him quoting only Psalm 118:22, not verse 23, which the other evangelists included (cf. 19:38; Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:7). This has the effect of highlighting the stone, namely Jesus, without reference to God.
An apparently insignificant stone that builders discarded as being unfit would become the most important stone of all. Jesus would become the most important feature in what God was building. Luke's original readers would have understood this as a reference to Jesus being the head of the church. The statement was a further indictment against the current builders, Israel's leaders.
20:18 Jesus next referred to other Old Testament passages that also referred to a stone (Dan. 2:34, 44-45; cf. Isa. 8:14-15). They taught that a capstone would be God's agent of judgment. Those who opposed it would only destroy themselves, and it would crush those on whom it fell. The stone in Daniel 2 represents a kingdom. Likewise Jesus as the King of the kingdom of God would serve as God's agent of judgment in the future. However even now Jesus was the stone that would bring judgment on God's enemies.
20:19 The religious leaders understood Jesus' meaning and wanted to silence Him but decided not to do anything publicly then because so many of the people supported Jesus (cf. 19:47-48; 22:2).
