Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
Matthew 21:43 ESV
In Matthew 21:33-41, Jesus told a parable about a vineyard. A man planted the vineyard and rented it out to tenants. But when the time came to make the rent payment, the tenants instead mistreated and killed the ones sent to collect the rent. Finally, the owner sent his son, whom they also killed.
So, Jesus asked the religious leaders, “What should the vineyard’s owner do?” In response, they said the owner should kill the tenants and rent out the field to those who will give the owner the fruit from the vineyard.
And the verse quoted above is part of Jesus’ response to them. And it was clear then that the parable had been directed at them. The owner of the vineyard was God. The vineyard was Israel, the kingdom of God. And the tenants in the parable equated to the religious leaders specifically, but more generally, to unfaithful Israel.
They had rejected and killed the prophets that God had sent to them, and they were rejecting God’s Son and would end up killing him. So, what would God’s response be to those who rejected his Son?
A New Kingdom People
The vineyard was not torn down and replaced. Instead, it was taken away from those who had previously claimed it. And it was given to those who would be fruitful kingdom participants—who would give the owner what was rightfully his—a people producing the fruit of the kingdom.
Who are these people to whom the kingdom was given? They are Jews and Gentiles alike—all those who give their allegiance to Jesus and honor him as Lord.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:9-10 ESV
