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Matthew 21

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And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples,

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Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me.

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And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.

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All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,

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Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.

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And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,

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And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.

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And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.

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And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.

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And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?

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And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.

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And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,

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And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

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And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.

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And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,

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And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?

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And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.

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Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.

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And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.

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And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!

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Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

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And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

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And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?

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And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things.

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The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?

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But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.

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And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.

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But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.

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He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.

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And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.

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Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

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For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.

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Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:

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And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.

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And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.

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Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.

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But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.

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But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.

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And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.

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When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?

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They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.

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Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

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Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.

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And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

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And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.

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But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.

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Matthew 21

The triumphal entry into Jerusalem — on a donkey, fulfilling Zechariah 9:9, with crowds spreading cloaks and branches and shouting Hosanna to the Son of David — is immediately followed by the temple cleansing, in which Jesus drives out those buying and selling, quoting Isaiah 56:7 (my house will be called a house of prayer) against Jeremiah 7:11 (you have made it a den of robbers). The blind and lame are healed in the temple; children cry Hosanna; the chief priests and scribes are indignant. The cursing of the fruitless fig tree (withered by the next morning) interprets what Jesus has just done to the temple establishment. The question about Jesus' authority is answered with a counter-question about John's baptism that silences his questioners. The two sons parable and the wicked tenants parable both make the same point: tax collectors and prostitutes enter the kingdom before the religious leaders; the vineyard will be given to others who produce its fruit. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone — the Jewish leaders know Jesus is speaking about them.

Matthew 21:1

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples. The triumphal entry begins with the approach to Jerusalem from the east — from Jericho up through the Mount of Olives to Bethphage. The Mount of Olives is the location from which the divine king was expected to approach Jerusalem according to Zechariah 14:4. The sending of the two disciples to prepare the entry communicates the deliberate, prepared character of the entry: Jesus is not swept into Jerusalem by the crowd's enthusiasm but orchestrates his entry.

Matthew 21:2

Saying to them: go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. The specific instructions — a donkey tied, and a colt with her — communicates Jesus' foreknowledge and the deliberate fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9. The two animals correspond to the Hebrew poetry of Zechariah where the parallelism describes one animal: a donkey, even a colt, the foal of a donkey. Matthew's literal reading of the parallelism produces two animals; Jesus rides the colt.

Matthew 21:3

If anyone says anything to you, you shall say: the Lord needs them, and he will send them at once. The simple authorization — the Lord needs them — is sufficient to secure the animals. The immediate sending communicates the pre-arranged character of the entry: someone who knew what the disciples would say was waiting. The lordship that the entry enacts is anticipated in the language of authorization.

Matthew 21:4

This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying. The fulfillment citation from Zechariah 9:9 grounds the triumphal entry in the prophetic expectation of the messianic king. The fulfillment pattern that has structured Matthew's Gospel from the birth narrative reaches its climax in the passion week's events.

Matthew 21:5

Say to the daughter of Zion: behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. The Zechariah 9:9 citation frames the entry: the king who comes to Zion is humble, mounted on a donkey. The humility of the mode of entry — a donkey, not a war horse — communicates the character of the messianic king whose triumph comes through suffering rather than military conquest. The king who rode a donkey had come in peace; the king who rode a war horse had come in conquest.

Matthew 21:6

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. The compliance formula: the disciples went and did as Jesus directed. The disciples who directed the two blind men of Jericho to Jesus (Matthew 20:32) now direct the animals to Jesus. The doing as directed is the disciples' faithfulness that prepares the entry.

Matthew 21:7

They brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. The disciples put their cloaks on the animals — the same gesture that will mark the crowd's reception in the following verse — and Jesus sits on them (on the cloaks placed on the animals). The cloaks-on-the-animals gesture parallels the anointing of Jehu as king in 2 Kings 9:13, where the people spread their cloaks under him.

Matthew 21:8

Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowd's reception — spreading cloaks and branches on the road — is the royal reception of a king. The branches from the trees echo the Feast of Tabernacles' branch-waving (Leviticus 23:40) and Psalm 118:27 (bind the festal sacrifice with branches). The entire scene is the fulfillment of the Psalm 118 royal entry that the crowd's Hosanna cry will shortly quote.

Matthew 21:9

And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! The Hosanna shout is the Psalm 118:25–26 cry: the people are quoting the psalm of the king's processional entry into the temple. Hosanna is the Hebrew hoshia-na — save now — which had become a liturgical acclamation. The Son of David title is the messianic designation. The blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord is the coronation greeting. The crowds are enacting a messianic coronation.

Matthew 21:10

And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying: who is this? The whole city was stirred up — the same word used for Herod's disturbance at the magi's arrival (Matthew 2:3). The city that rejected the prophets (Matthew 23:37) is stirred by the king's arrival. The who is this question is the crowd's bewilderment at the meaning of the processional they have just witnessed.

Matthew 21:11

And the crowds said: this is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee. The crowd's answer to the who is this question: the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. The prophet designation is significant but insufficient: the crowds identify Jesus as a prophet (like John the Baptist, Elijah, or Jeremiah — Matthew 16:14) but not as the messianic king. The Hosanna-shout was messianic; the who-is-this answer is merely prophetic. The crowds' understanding is partial.

Matthew 21:12

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. The temple cleansing is the messianic action that the triumphal entry anticipated: the king who enters the city enters the temple and exercises his authority over it. The driving out of the money-changers and dove-sellers is not anti-commerce in principle but the prophetic judgment on the commercial enterprise that had displaced the temple's prayer function.

Matthew 21:13

He said to them: it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers. The dual citation: Isaiah 56:7 (my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples) and Jeremiah 7:11 (has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers?). The house of prayer for all peoples is the temple's purpose; the den of robbers is what the commercial system has reduced it to. Jeremiah's den of robbers was in the context of his temple sermon condemning the people who trusted in the temple while violating the covenant — the same dynamic Jesus addresses.

Matthew 21:14

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. The healing in the temple — the blind and the lame who were excluded from the temple (2 Samuel 5:8) now entering and being healed — communicates the radical inclusion that the messianic king brings. The excluded find the cleansed temple welcoming. Isaiah 35:5–6 promised that in the messianic age the blind would see and the lame leap for joy — Jesus fulfills the promise in the very space from which the disabled had been excluded.

Matthew 21:15

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were indignant. The chief priests and scribes who witness the healings and the children's Hosanna-shout are indignant — the same indignation as the ten disciples watching James and John seek status (Matthew 20:24). The children's Hosanna in the temple is the continuation of the messianic acclamation from the triumphal entry.

Matthew 21:16

And they said to him: do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them: yes; have you never read, out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise? The Psalm 8:2 quotation — the praise of God prepared from the mouths of infants — is Jesus' defense of the children's acclamation. The have you never read challenge places the burden on the Scripturally expert chief priests and scribes who should have recognized the psalm. The children's praise is exactly what the psalm promised — and the religious authorities who object to it have missed the Scripture.

Matthew 21:17

And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. The withdrawal to Bethany — where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived (John 11:1) — is the pattern of Jesus' passion week: entering Jerusalem for the day, withdrawing to Bethany for the night. The withdrawal communicates that Jerusalem is not yet the place of residence but of confrontation.

Matthew 21:18

In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry. The hunger of Jesus on the return to Jerusalem is the occasion for the fig tree cursing. The hunger communicates the genuine human need that the incarnate Son of God experiences — and the response to that need will become the teaching about faith and prayer.

Matthew 21:19

And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it: may no fruit ever come from you again! And the fig tree withered at once. The fig tree with leaves but no fruit is the prophetic sign of Israel's religious establishment: outward appearance without the fruit of genuine faith and covenant faithfulness. The immediate withering is the enacted prophecy of judgment. Mark's Gospel has the cursing on one day and the disciples' discovery of the withered tree the next; Matthew compresses the timeline.

Matthew 21:20

When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying: how did the fig tree wither at once? The disciples' amazement at the immediate withering is the occasion for the teaching on faith and prayer that follows. The how did it wither at once is the question that opens the space for Jesus' answer about mountain-moving faith.

Matthew 21:21

And Jesus answered them: truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, it will happen. The faith without doubt that moves mountains is the teaching that Matthew 17:20 established (mustard-seed faith moves mountains) now applied to the disciples who witnessed the fig tree. The mountain that can be cast into the sea is the mountain before them — possibly the Mount of Olives, whose overthrow was associated with the messianic age in Zechariah 14:4.

Matthew 21:22

And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith. The prayer-promise connected to the faith-teaching: whatever is asked in faith-filled prayer will be received. The if you have faith qualifies the whatever: the faith that prays in alignment with the Father's will is the faith that receives what it asks. The fig tree's withering is the acted prayer of the one whose faith commanded it — and the disciples who share that faith can make similar requests.

Matthew 21:23

And when he came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said: by what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority? The authority question from the chief priests and elders is the first of the controversy dialogues that dominate the Jerusalem ministry. The temple cleansing and the healings have provoked the religious leadership's demand for authority: by what authority do you do these things?

Matthew 21:24

Jesus answered them: I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The counter-question is the rabbinic tactic of answering a question with a question. Jesus' counter-question will force the religious leaders into an impossible position: they must answer about John's baptism, and whatever they answer will be damaging to them.

Matthew 21:25

The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man? And they discussed it among themselves, saying: if we say, from heaven, he will say to us, why then did you not believe him? The either/or about John's baptism creates the dilemma: if from heaven, they should have believed John; if from men, they risk the crowd's response (all held John to be a prophet). The discussion among themselves — not with Jesus — communicates the political calculation rather than honest inquiry.

Matthew 21:26

But if we say, from man, we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet. The crowd's identification of John as a prophet is the political obstacle to the from man answer. The fear of the crowd that prevents honest answering is the same political calculation that prevented Herod from executing John directly (Matthew 14:5). Political power defers to popular opinion rather than seeking truth.

Matthew 21:27

So they answered Jesus: we do not know. And he said to them: neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. The we do not know is the politically calculated non-answer — they know, but they will not say. Jesus' corresponding refusal to answer is not evasion but justice: the question deserves an honest answer, and when the questioner will not engage honestly, there is no obligation to answer. The authority question is not really a request for information but a demand for leverage.

Matthew 21:28

What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said: son, go and work in the vineyard today. The Parable of the Two Sons — the first of three parables of judgment in the temple confrontation — is the illustration of the authority question's answer. The father who asks both sons to work in the vineyard receives different responses from each.

Matthew 21:29

And he answered: I will not, but afterward he changed his mind and went. The first son who refuses and then repents is the image of the tax collectors and prostitutes: those who initially rejected the covenant but repented at John's preaching.

Matthew 21:30

And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered: I go, sir, but did not go. The second son who says yes and does not go is the image of the religious leaders: those who profess covenant faithfulness but reject the repentance that John called for.

Matthew 21:31

Which of the two did the will of his father? They said: the first. And Jesus said to them: truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. The religious leaders' correct answer — the first — is turned against them: the tax collectors and prostitutes who initially refused but repented at John's preaching are entering the kingdom before the chief priests and elders who said yes but did not go. The before you is not an exclusion but a priority: the religious establishment is last; the repentant sinners are first.

Matthew 21:32

For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. The application of the two-sons parable to John's ministry: the chief priests and elders who received John's message did not believe it; the tax collectors and prostitutes who were not expected to believe it did. The even when you saw it — even when they witnessed the transformation in the lives of those who responded to John — they still did not change their minds. The sealed heart that refuses the evidence is the fully-hardened heart.

Matthew 21:33

Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country. The Parable of the Wicked Tenants — the second parable of judgment — is drawn from Isaiah 5:1–7, the Song of the Vineyard in which the vineyard is Israel. The tenants are the religious leadership; the servants are the prophets; the son is Jesus.

Matthew 21:34

When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. The landowner's messengers sent for the fruit communicates the prophetic tradition: God sent the prophets to call Israel to the covenant faithfulness (fruit) that the vineyard was designed to produce.

Matthew 21:35

And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. The tenants' treatment of the servants — beating, killing, stoning — is the history of Israel's treatment of the prophets. Matthew 23:37 will address Jerusalem's killing of the prophets directly. The pattern of rejection is consistent: the messengers who call for the covenant's fruit are mistreated.

Matthew 21:36

Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. The second sending of more servants communicates the persistence of the divine pursuit: despite the mistreatment of the first messengers, more are sent. The tenants' consistent treatment of all the servants communicates the settled character of the opposition.

Matthew 21:37

Finally he sent his son to them, saying: they will respect my son. The father's final decision — sending the son — communicates both the escalation of the appeal and the father's hope that the son's status will produce the respect that the servants' status did not. The they will respect my son is the father's hope; the tenants' response will reveal whether the hope is realized.

Matthew 21:38

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves: this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance. The tenants' reasoning: if they kill the heir, the inheritance becomes available to them. The logic of the murder is the logic of the religious establishment's reasoning about Jesus: removing him removes the challenge to their authority. The this is the heir and their recognition of what Jesus represents — the rightful claim to Israel's covenant leadership — is the parable's most pointed element.

Matthew 21:39

And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. The killing of the son outside the vineyard — cast out and killed — anticipates the crucifixion outside the city wall (Hebrews 13:12: Jesus suffered outside the gate). The parable's enacted narrative of the son's death is the most explicit passion prediction in parabolic form.

Matthew 21:40

When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? Jesus' question to the religious leaders forces them to pronounce their own judgment: when the vineyard owner comes, what will he do to those who killed his son?

Matthew 21:41

They said to him: he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons. The religious leaders' answer is the correct judicial response — and they do not recognize that they have pronounced their own judgment. The other tenants who will give the fruits are the Gentile communities and the restored Israel that will receive the kingdom and produce its fruit.

Matthew 21:42

Jesus said to them: have you never read in the Scriptures: the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? The Psalm 118:22–23 quotation — the rejected stone that becomes the cornerstone — is the Scripture that interprets the parable's outcome. The builders who rejected the stone are the religious leaders who are about to reject Jesus. The Lord's doing that makes the rejected stone the cornerstone is the resurrection and exaltation that transforms the crucified one into the foundation of the new community.

Matthew 21:43

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. The explicit application of the parable to the religious leaders: the kingdom will be taken from those who did not produce its fruits and given to a people who will. The taken away and given is the judgment and restoration that the parable's vineyard imagery has been building toward.

Matthew 21:44

And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. The stone that crushes those who fall against it is the dual image of Isaiah 8:14 (a stone of stumbling) and Daniel 2:44–45 (the kingdom-stone that breaks all other kingdoms). The rejected stone is both the foundation of the new community and the destruction of those who reject it.

Matthew 21:45

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. The religious leaders' perception that the parables were about them is the recognition that they cannot act on: they are the tenants who killed the servants and the son, and the parable has announced their judgment. The perception without repentance is the hardening that the parables communicate.

Matthew 21:46

And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet. The fear of the crowds prevents the arrest that the chief priests and Pharisees want: the political calculation that governs their every move is still governing. The crowds who hold Jesus to be a prophet (verse 11) are the same crowds who prevent the religious establishment from acting against him in the open. The public constraints will require the private conspiracy of chapter 26.