“And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard.”
At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard — the harvest-time servant collection is the first in the series of missions that will be rejected. The servants represent the prophets: Israel's history is the history of God sending prophets to call his people to fidelity and the people rejecting, mistreating, and killing the prophets (cf. Nehemiah 9:26, Jeremiah 7:25–26, 2 Chronicles 36:15–16).
Church Fathers on Mark 12:2
After the Lord had closed the mouths of His tempters by a wise question, He next shews their wickedness in a parable.
God the Father is called a man by a human conception. The vineyard is the house of Israel; the hedge is the guardianship of Angels; the winefat is the law, the tower is the temple, and the husbandmen, the priests.
Or else, the hedge is the wall of the city, the winefat is the altar, or those winefats, by which three psalms receive their name.
Read all 22 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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