Who Owns the Vineyard? Jesus and the Politics of Justice
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Who Owns the Vineyard? Jesus and the Politics of Justice
Herb Montgomery | October 2, 2026
If you’d like to listen to this week’s article in podcast version click on the image below:
Our reading this week is from the gospel of Matthew.
“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. (Matthew 21:33-46)
Our reading this week is often referred to as the parable of the wicked tenants. The story has traditionally been read as an early Christian story about God, Israel, and the rejection of Jesus. This interpretation has been the soil from which harmful fruits such as supersessionism and antisemitism have grown. I want to offer a different lens this week. When we listen to this parable through the lens of justice, we encounter a powerful critique of any system in which those entrusted with resources become convinced that those resources belong to them. Seen through that lens, the story is about land, labor, power, violence, exploitation, and accountability.
The vineyard represents something valuable. The landowner carefully prepares it, protects it, and establishes the conditions for it to produce fruit. He then places tenants in charge. Their responsibility is not simply to possess the vineyard but to cultivate it and share its harvest. Their authority is therefore stewardship, not ownership.
The tragedy begins when the tenants confuse stewardship with possession. When the harvest comes, they refuse to give the landowner his share and use violence against those sent to collect it. They beat, stone, or kill servant after servant. Finally, the tenants even murder the son because they believe eliminating the heir will allow them to claim the vineyard for themselves.
Socially and politically, this is a story about what happens when people who hold power become accountable to no one. They can begin to believe that their position gives them the right to control the resources, determine who benefits from them, and silence anyone who challenges their authority. Eventually, such exploitation requires violence because maintaining an unjust arrangement depends upon preventing others from questioning it.
This makes the parable especially relevant to the politics of economic justice. The harvest does not belong exclusively to those who happen to control the vineyard. The tenants have a responsibility to return what is owed and participate in a larger relationship of mutual obligation. The story challenges the common assumption that possessing power or controlling property automatically gives someone an unlimited claim to its benefits.
There is also a connection between the vineyard and the concern for land and its produce throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. In that tradition, land is never merely a commodity but is instead connected to community, survival, livelihood, and human flourishing. The prophets repeatedly condemn those who accumulate land and wealth while others suffer. Isaiah, for example, condemned those who “join house to house” and “add field to field” until others have no place to live (see Isaiah 5:8). Jesus’ parable stands within this prophetic tradition.
The tenants’ violence also exposes another reality of injustice: systems of privilege and concentrated power can generate violence when those benefiting from an unjust arrangement refuse accountability. The servants and the son become threats not because they have done something wrong, but because they challenge the tenants’ control.
Yet there is an important tension in the ending of this story. The leaders in Jesus’ community respond to his question by declaring that the wicked tenants deserve a “wretched end.” Jesus uses their answer to expose their own judgment.
People who recognize injustice can easily become convinced that justice requires the destruction of those they identify as the unjust. A justice-oriented reading should resist turning this parable into permission for vengeance. Accountability is necessary, but justice is not simply revenge. The goal of justice is to end exploitation, protect those being harmed, restore what has been taken, and transform relationships and systems so that they no longer produce oppression.
Jesus’ concluding image points toward a transfer of stewardship: the vineyard will be entrusted to tenants who will produce its fruit. The central question, then, is not merely “Who owns the vineyard?” but “Who is willing to use what has been entrusted to them for the flourishing of others?”
The parable ultimately challenges every institution, government, church, economic system, and community that possesses power or resources. What we have is not simply ours to hoard. We are stewards, and resources mean responsibility. The true test of leadership is whether the vineyard produces fruit that is shared rather than concentrated in the hands of a few.
Jesus’ vision of justice calls us away from domination and toward responsible stewardship, away from exploitation and toward shared flourishing, and away from protecting privilege toward creating communities where everyone has a meaningful place at the table.
After telling his story, Jesus shares an adage about a stone rejected by the builders that becomes the cornerstone. Jesus is confronting political authorities who believe that they are the rightful guardians of God’s purposes. His metaphor challenges systems then and now that decide who is valuable, who belongs, whose voice matters, and who gets to determine the future. Let me explain.
A cornerstone is foundational. To say that the rejected stone becomes the cornerstone is to imagine God overturning the judgments of those who hold power. The people dismissed, excluded, marginalized, or treated as expendable can become central to the work of creating a more just community, and what the powerful regard as insignificant may be precisely what God chooses to build upon.
This is one of the recurring patterns of Jesus’ ministry. He repeatedly moves toward people pushed to the edges of society rather than toward those already occupying positions of privilege. He welcomes those considered outsiders, touches those considered untouchable, listens to those whose voices are ignored, and challenges structures that protect status and privilege. The kingdom Jesus spoke of, therefore, cannot be reduced to a private spiritual experience. It has social consequences for how communities distribute dignity, resources, power, belonging, and opportunity.
Jesus declares that “the kingdom” will be taken from those who have failed to produce its fruit and given to a people who will. The “fruit” of this kingdom is not simply religious conformity. Throughout the Gospels, the fruit of the kingdom is revealed through justice, mercy, compassion, liberation, reconciliation, and care for those who are vulnerable.
Jesus’ warning remains relevant whenever institutions become more concerned with preserving their authority than producing the fruit of justice. No institution is entitled to existence simply based on claims of justice. Justification for institutions depend upon whether they actually produce the fruit of justice.
This metaphor calls us to look again at those our societies reject. We might ask “Who belongs at the center?” but could go further to ask “Whose exclusion has helped us maintain the center?” The kingdom Jesus announces begins to emerge when rejected people are no longer pushed to the margins but are recognized as essential participants in building a world characterized by justice, dignity, compassion, and shared flourishing.
Lastly, Jesus’ words about the stone carry a warning about the consequences of resisting justice. The new cornerstone represents the rejected, the vulnerable, excluded, and marginalized people whom systems of power cast aside. Those who build their lives and institutions upon domination may believe they are secure, but eventually their injustice confronts them. To fall upon that stone is to encounter a truth that can no longer be ignored; to have the stone fall upon you is to experience the consequences of maintaining oppressive systems. Jesus’ message challenges communities to stop protecting unjust structures and instead build a just society.
Our reading ends with the political and religious leaders recognizing that Jesus’ parables exposed their abuse of authority, and hesitating to arrest him because they feared the people. Their restraint was not necessarily a change of heart; it was a recognition that public support limited their oppressive overreach. Jesus’ prophetic voice had become a voice that the people valued and defended. Today, too, justice movements depend upon collective power not only from courageous individuals but also from communities willing to stand together.
But we all know Jesus’ story. The leaders plotting against him eventually found a work around, and they did eventually arrest Jesus, in secret, and at night. In this week’s reading, though, we are reminded of how popular Jesus’ prophetic ministry was with the people. The people who recognized Jesus’ “gospel” was for them valued and defended him and created an early obstacle for the elites and in positions of power trying to silencing his voice.
Discussion Group Questions
1. Share something that spoke to you from this week’s podcast episode with your discussion group.
2. How does our reading this week inform your own justice work, today? Share and discuss with your group.
3. What can you do this week, big or small, to continue setting in motion the work of shaping our world into a safe, compassionate, just home for everyone?
Thanks for checking in with us, today.
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My latest book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political and Economic Teachings of the Gospels is available now on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and also on Audible in audio book format.
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Right where you are, keep living in love, choosing compassion, taking action, and working toward justice.
I love each of you dearly,
I’ll see you next week.
New Episode of The Social Jesus Podcast
A podcast where we talk about the intersection of faith and social justice and what a first century, prophet of the poor from Galilee might have to offer us today in our work of love, compassion and justice.
This week:
Season 3 Episode 41: Who Owns the Vineyard? Jesus and the Politics of Justice
Matthew 21:33-46
Socially and politically, this is a story about what happens when people who hold power become accountable to no one. They can begin to believe that their position gives them the right to control the resources, determine who benefits from them, and silence anyone who challenges their authority. Eventually, such exploitation requires violence because maintaining an unjust arrangement depends upon preventing others from questioning it.
Available on major podcast carriers and at:
Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels.
by Herb Montgomery
Available now on Amazon!
In Finding Jesus, author Herb Montgomery delves into the profound and often overlooked political dimensions of the gospels. Through meticulous analysis of biblical texts, historical context, and social discourse, this thought-provoking book unveils the gospels’ socio-political, economic teachings as rooted in a profound concern for justice, compassion, and the well-being of the marginalized. The book navigates the intersections between faith and societal justice, presenting a compelling argument for a more socially engaged and transformative Christianity.
Finding Jesus is not just a scholarly exploration; it is a call to action. It challenges readers to reevaluate their understanding of Christianity’s role in public life and to consider how the radical teachings of the gospels can inspire a renewed commitment to justice, equality, and compassion. This book is a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the social implications of Christian faith and a blueprint for building a more just and inclusive society.
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