What is going on in Matthew 21 and Mark 12?

score:8

Accepted answer

The answer to the question is obvious; asking it is rhetorical: of course the owner will seek retribution for the wrong done to him and his son by those he trusted.

The purpose of the story - regardless of who fills in this answer - is made clear by the quote from Psalms that follows, and so it is explained (Matt, Mark) that his audience sees immediately that he was comparing them to the caretakers. By asking the question before driving the point home, He allowed them to condemn themselves.

Note that in Matthew, this was the second of two back-to-back parables in which He chides them for failing to do the job His father had entrusted them with, both employing the same tactic of asking a question intended to draw the condemnation from the lips of those being condemned by the comparison.

Upvote:1

It's not a negative response in the Matthew version; he's drawing a parallel. They explain what the owner would do, and he changes the subject, quoting a scripture, to equate the two. The murdered son is the rejected stone, and the Jewish leaders are the vinedressers/builders. He says, in effect, "it was prophesied that the Builders would reject the true stone, and now here you are fulfilling the prophecy. But that will come with very bad consequences attached, because fulfilling the prophecy means killing the boss's son, and you know exactly what happens to people who do that, don't you?"

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