What a difference a few wee words can make. The first two words are the Hebrew ben and
eben. The former means ‘son’ and the latter, ‘stone.’ And so, when Jesus quotes Psalm 118:
22-23 he is pointing to himself, the Son: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the
cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes” (quoted in Matthew
21:42).
And so, in this week’s parable, Jesus is not only the son of the owner of the vineyard (God
being the owner, and Israel being the vineyard), but the rejected one who will become the
cornerstone (foundation) or capstone (the one holding all things together). He is also the stone
over which others will trip and fall and break upon – an allusion to Isaiah 8:14-15, in which God
is such a stone – “ He [God] will become a sanctuary, a stone one strikes against; for both
houses of Israel he will become a rock one stumbles over, a trap and a snare for the
inhabitants of Jerusalem”.
The third word is the Hebrew, hallel. This word refers to Psalms of praise, sung at Passover;
of which Psalm 118 is a prime example. In fact, Psalm 118 has been heard a little earlier in
Matthew’s Gospel: at verse 26, where a portion was sung by the crowds during the triumphal
Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem (“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD” quoted
in Matthew 21:9). And Jesus likely heard Psalm 118 again, soon after this encounter, as he
sang it with his disciples, as he celebrated the Passover with them in the Upper Room, on the
night of his betrayal.
The fourth word is the Greek ethnos. When Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of
God will be taken away from you and given to a people [ethnos] that produces the fruits of the
kingdom” (vs. 43), he is not necessarily saying ‘a people,’ but rather a ‘group of people.’ And
that latter translation would make sense since Jesus is engaged in a chapter-long debate with
the religious leaders in Jerusalem. Following his triumphal entry into Jerusalem Jesus
cleanses the temple, curses a fig tree which does not produce fruit, and then verbally spars
with the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees. This is an intra-Jewish debate between Jews
who reject/do not recognize him, and those who accept/recognize him. This is not Jesus
rejecting Israel in favor of Gentiles, but rather Matthew’s way of differentiating between Jews
and the Jewish-Christians who comprise his own community.
The last words are these: “So they seized him [the son], threw him out of the vineyard, and
killed him” (vs. 39). Matthew takes care with the order of these words. The son is not killed
where he stands, and then thrown out of the vineyard; he is thrown out and then killed. This
accords with Jesus’ crucifixion, in which he carries his cross to a hill outside the city walls, and
where he is executed. As Isaiah 5:7 puts it, “For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house
of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished garden; he expected justice but saw
bloodshed; righteousness but heard a cry!”
