Rejected Stone

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: 
"Hear another parable.
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it,
dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.
Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
When vintage time drew near,
he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.
But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat,
another they killed, and a third they stoned.
Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones,
but they treated them in the same way.
Finally, he sent his son to them,
thinking, 'They will respect my son.'
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another,
'This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.'
They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?"
They answered him,
"He will put those wretched men to a wretched death
and lease his vineyard to other tenants
who will give him the produce at the proper times."
Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures:

The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?

Therefore, I say to you,
the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people that will produce its fruit."
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables,
they knew that he was speaking about them.
And although they were attempting to arrest him,
they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.

Fear was not an emotion that ruled the life of Jesus.  Had this been so He would not have been able to talk to the powerful men, the movers, and the shakers, as He had done here.  He recounted the history of the Jews and how they treated the prophets that Yahweh sent them.  

If there was one thing that the management of the temple did not need it was a Messiah. They were occupied by Rome and the Romans did not like the idea of a Messiah coming to free Israel from the snare of Roman rule.  The leadership was intent on remaining leaders and the leadership that they provided for the people was geared to keeping the Romans at bay and their world subject to as little change as possible. 

Jesus, on the other hand, was not here to preserve the status quo.  He was here to sow the seeds of God's kingdom and bring about a revolution in how mankind and God carried on business.  The Pharisees and Sadducees were not in the market for a revolution and they certainly did not think that a carpenters son from Galilee would be the one who would be bringing any change anyway.  

Jesus forecast the end of the story because he told them that the landowner sent his only son and he too was rejected by the leaders. The leadership took umbrage at their being the fall guys in this parable and looked for some way to arrest Him but Jesus was too popular with the crowd and they feared a riot if they were to arrest him in public so they would have to bide their time and wait for a man that could operate in the darkness and deliver the goods to them privately and with as little publicity as possible.  Enter a man named Judas from Iscariot.  To be continued...

Remember man thou art dust to dust thou shalt return.  Please remember our beloved dead, the Poor Souls in Purgatory in your prayers today.