This is the second parable that Jesus proposes to the religious leaders of his time when asked about his authority (cf. Matthew 21:23). Briefly, the parable is about a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and hired tenants to look after it. When harvest time came, he sent his servants in two groups one following another, to get his share of the vineyard's fruits. The tenants rejected the emissaries, even killing some of them. Finally, the landowner sent his own son thinking that he will be respected. The tenants however had their eye on the son's "inheritance" -- the vineyard itself -- and they wanted to take it for themselves. When the son came, they took him out of the vineyard and killed him. Jesus concluded the parable with a question: "What will the owner of the vineyard (literally, "the Lord of the vineyard") do to the tenants when he comes?" His interlocutors answered: "He will destroy them and he will give the vineyard to other tenants who in turn will give him the fruit at the proper season."
The reply was expected. Jesus had worked out his parable to get the reply he wanted (but see also the Lucan version, Luke 20:9-19 where Jesus had to answer his own question).The landowner in the story had been very patient to the point of appearing weak. Anyone with money and power would have swiftly reacted after the first group of servants were rejected. The owner however even sent his own son inspite of the violence already shown by the tenants to his servants. Those listening sympathized with the landowner against the wicked tenants. But before they could think that it was just another moral question, Jesus raises the issue by quoting from Psalm 118 (verses 22-23) while drawing the lesson for the day from his hearer's response.
Have you not read in Scriptures:
The stone rejected by the builders
has become the cornerstone.
By the Lord has this been done
and it is wonderful to our eyes.?
Therefore, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will make it bear fruit.
Jesus used their own answer to the question of the parable to refer them to something that will happen after his resurrection: God's reign among the Gentiles. The "stone rejected" is He Himself, who will be become the cornerstone of a new edifice, the Church.
Matthew then continues his account: "Hearing the parables, the archpriests and the Pharisees understood that he was speaking about them." If the religious leaders understood that they were the ones from whom the kingdom of God will be taken away, then they also understood that they were the tenants of the vineyard who refuse to give the fruit to its owner. If they saw that, that they would also have understood that the "vineyard" referred to is the Israel they know, the Israel which the priests sanctify by the blood of sacrifices and which the Pharisees guide along the ways of the Torah. It is an Israel, however, that has not been bearing fruit. It was like the fig tree that Jesus cursed because it had no fruit (cf. Matthew 21:18-19).
Their reaction was to arrest Jesus, but they were afraid of the crowd that was also there, and who regarded Jesus as a prophet. They will however have their moment later on, in a garden near some vineyards, in the darkness when the crowds are away, to arrest Jesus, bring him out and have him killed.
The liturgy presents this section of Matthew on the Second Week of Lent (Friday) pairing it with the account of Jacob's sons selling Joseph into slavery (cf. Genesis 37). Here the emphasis is on the quotation about the rejected stone which became the cornerstone of a new edifice. Joseph, rejected by his brothers, became the savior of his family.
In Psalm 118, the original reference of the rejected stone is unclear: it can refer to the victorious king who returns triumphant from battle or -- if the king speaks in behalf of Israel (cf. v.2 "House of Israel") -- Israel itself which, by the victory, is seen as having become an important nation ("a cornerstone") among the nations.
In this psalm, the references to suffering before victory (vv. 10-14.18), the declaration of life over death (v. 17) and its connection to Jesus' entrance to Jerusalem (see Matthew 21:9 and parallels) has made it an important psalm for the development of early church christology. References to the stone rejected at first but which finally becomes the cornerstone is found quoted or alluded to in other NT literature: Acts 4:11, 1 Peter 2:7-8, 1 Cor. 3:11 and Eph. 2:20.
