What is the context?
Jesus tells the leaders another vineyard story. Its planting, wall, winepress, and tower recall Isaiah 5:1–7, where Israel is God's vineyard and He seeks justice and righteousness. Here the owner entrusts the vineyard to tenants and sends servants to collect his share of the fruit.
The tenants attack the servants and finally kill the owner's son, hoping to take his inheritance. Jesus asks what the owner will do, and His hearers answer that he will judge the tenants and entrust the vineyard to others who give him its fruit.
Jesus then quotes Psalm 118:22–23: the rejected stone becomes the cornerstone through the Lord's doing. The warning about rejecting the son is followed by a promise that rejection will not have the last word. God gives the rejected stone its place.
The people who receive the kingdom are described by their fruit. People is ἔθνος, ethnos (ETH-noss), a people or nation. Thayer's entry lists uses for the Jewish people as well as other nations. Here the emphasis is on a people producing what God seeks.
The stone also carries a warning of judgment, with both falling on it and its falling on someone described as destructive. By the end, the chief priests and Pharisees understand that Jesus is speaking about them. They want to arrest Him but fear the crowds.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Christians commonly understand the owner as God, the servants as His messengers, and the son as Jesus, with judgment falling on those who reject Him. Wesley on 21:33–44 connects the cornerstone with the church gathered around Christ, while the US Catholic bishops' note on 21:43 identifies the fruit-bearing people as believing Israelites and Gentiles.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
The New Testament directly identifies the rejected cornerstone with Jesus. In Acts 4:10–12, Peter proclaims His resurrection, applies the same psalm to Him, and announces salvation in His name. The rejection described in the parable leads into the saving work God brings through His risen Son.
1 Peter 2:4–10 develops the building picture further. Those who come to Christ, the living stone, are themselves built into a spiritual house and become a people who proclaim God's goodness. Ephesians 2:19–22 likewise places Christ at the foundation of God's household as its cornerstone. God gathers His people around the One others rejected, so that their shared life bears witness to Him.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.