Church Fathers Commentary Luke 20:9-18

"And he began to speak unto the people this parable: A man planted a vineyard, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into another country for a long time. And at the season he sent unto the husbandmen a servant, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty. And he sent yet another servant: and him also they beat, and handled him shamefully, and sent him away empty. And he sent yet a third: and him also they wounded, and cast him forth. And the lord of the vineyard said, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; it may be they will reverence him. But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned one with another, saying, This is the heir; let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. And they cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do unto them? He will come and destroy these husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid. But he looked upon them, and said, What then is this that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner? Every one that falleth on that stone shall be broken to pieces; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will scatter him as dust." — Luke 20:9-18 (ASV)

Eusebius of Caesarea: With the rulers of the Jewish people now assembled in the temple, Christ told a parable, symbolically foretelling the things they were about to do to Him and the rejection that was in store for them.

St. Augustine of Hippo: For the sake of brevity, Matthew has omitted what Luke included: namely, that the parable was spoken not only to the rulers who asked about His authority, but also to the people.

St. Ambrose of Milan: While many derive different meanings from the term "vineyard," Isaiah clearly states that the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house of Israel. Who else but God planted this vineyard?

The Venerable Bede: The man who plants the vineyard is the same one who, according to another parable, hired laborers for his vineyard.

Eusebius of Caesarea: However, the parable that Isaiah gives denounces the vineyard itself, whereas our Savior's parable is not directed against the vineyard, but against its cultivators. About them it is added, And he let it out to husbandmen—that is, to the elders of the people, the chief priests, the teachers, and all the nobles.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Alternatively, each one of the people is the vineyard, and each is also the husbandman, for every one of us takes care of himself. After committing the vineyard to the husbandmen, he went away; that is, he left them to be guided by their own judgment. This is why the text says, And went into a far country for a long time.

St. Ambrose of Milan: This is not to say that our Lord journeys from place to place, since He is always present everywhere. Rather, He is more present to those who love Him, while He removes Himself from those who do not regard Him. He was absent for a long time so that His coming to require His fruit would not seem too early. For the greater the indulgence, the less excusable the obstinacy.

St. Cyril of Alexandria: Alternatively, God removed Himself from the vineyard for many years. Since the time He was seen to descend in the likeness of fire on Mount Sinai, He no longer granted them His visible presence. During this time, however, He continually sent His prophets and righteous men to give warning, as the parable continues: And at the time of the vintage he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard.

Theophylact of Ohrid: He says "of the fruit of the vineyard" because He wished to receive not the whole fruit, but only a part. For what does God gain from us, except the knowledge of Him, which is also our profit?

The Venerable Bede: It is rightly written "fruit," not "increase," for there was no increase in this vineyard. The first servant sent was Moses, who for forty years sought from the husbandmen the fruit of the law which he had given. But he was angry with them, for they provoked his spirit. This is why it says, But they beat him, and sent him away empty.

St. Ambrose of Milan: And so He sent many others, whom the Jews sent back to him disgraced and empty, since they could reap nothing from them. As the parable continues, And again he sent another servant.

The Venerable Bede: The other servant represents David, who was sent after the giving of the law to stir up the husbandmen to good works through the music of his psalms. But they, on the contrary, declared, What portion have we in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. This is why the parable says, And they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty.

But God does not stop here, for the parable continues, And again he sent a third. By this we must understand the company of prophets who constantly visited the people with their testimony. But which of the prophets did they not persecute? As the parable says, And they wounded him also, and cast him out.

Our Lord elsewhere shows that these three successions of servants symbolically represent all the teachers under the law, when He says, For all those things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms, concerning me.

Theophylact of Ohrid: After the prophets had suffered all these things, the Son is sent, as the parable continues: Then said the Lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? The Lord of the vineyard speaks with doubt not because of ignorance—for what is there that the Lord does not know?—but He is said to hesitate so that the free will of man may be preserved.

St. Cyril of Alexandria: The Lord of the vineyard also ponders what He should do, not because He needs ministers, but because, having tried every means of human help without His people being healed in any way, He now adds something greater. As He goes on to say, I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Now, He said this not because He was ignorant that they would treat Him worse than they did the prophets, but because the Son ought to be reverenced by them. If they were still to be rebellious and slay Him, this would crown their iniquity. Therefore, so that no one could say that the divine presence was the necessary cause of their disobedience, He purposely uses this doubtful manner of speaking.

St. Ambrose of Milan: When the only-begotten Son was sent to them, the unbelieving Jews, wishing to get rid of the Heir, put Him to death by crucifying Him and rejected Him by denying Him. Christ is the Heir and also the Testator. He is the Heir because He survives His own death; and from the testament that He Himself bequeathed, He reaps, as it were, the inherited profits in our spiritual progress.

The Venerable Bede: But our Lord most clearly proves that the Jewish rulers crucified the Son of God not from ignorance but from envy. For they knew it was He to whom it was said, I will give you the heathen for your inheritance. And they cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. This is because Jesus, so that He might sanctify the people by His blood, suffered outside the gate.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Since we have already assumed the vineyard to be the people, not Jerusalem, it can perhaps be more accurately said that the people indeed killed Him “outside the vineyard.” That is, our Lord suffered apart from the hands of the people, because in truth the people did not inflict death upon Him with their own hands, but delivered Him over to Pilate and the Gentiles.

However, some have understood the vineyard to be the Scripture. By not believing it, they killed the Lord. In this sense, our Lord is said to have suffered “outside the vineyard”—that is, outside of Scripture.

The Venerable Bede: Or was He cast out of the vineyard and slain because He was first driven out of the hearts of the unbelievers and then fastened to the cross?

St. John Chrysostom: It was not by accident but as part of the divine plan that Christ came after the prophets. God does not do all things at once, but in His great mercy accommodates Himself to humanity. For if they despised His Son coming after His servants, they would have been even less likely to listen to Him had He come before. For those who did not listen to the lesser commands, how would they have listened to the greater ones?

St. Ambrose of Milan: He rightly asks them a question so that they might condemn themselves by their own words, as the text says: What then will the Lord of the vineyard do to them?

St. Basil the Great: This is what happens to those who are condemned, who have nothing to say in response to the plain evidence of justice. But it is a characteristic of divine mercy not to inflict punishment in secret, but to foretell it with warnings, so that it might call people to repentance. And so it says here, He shall come and destroy those husbandmen.

St. Ambrose of Milan: He says, "the Lord of the vineyard will come," because the Father's majesty is also present in the Son, or because in the last times He will be more graciously present by His Spirit in the hearts of people.

St. Cyril of Alexandria: The Jewish rulers were therefore shut out because they resisted their Lord’s will and made the vineyard entrusted to them barren. The cultivation of the vineyard was then given to the Priests of the New Testament. At this point, as soon as the Scribes and Pharisees understood the point of the parable, they objected, saying, God forbid. However, they did not escape in any way, because of their obstinacy and disobedience to the faith of Christ.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Now, Matthew seems to relate the parable differently, saying that when our Savior asked, What will he do then to the husbandmen? the Jews answered, he will miserably destroy them. But there is no contradiction between the two accounts. The Jews at first gave that answer, but then, realizing the parable was aimed at them, they said, God forbid, as Luke relates here.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Alternatively, in the crowd we are discussing, there were those who deceitfully asked our Lord by what authority He acted, and there were also those who, not deceitfully but faithfully, cried aloud, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Therefore, some in the crowd would have said, He will miserably destroy those husbandmen, and let out his vineyard to others. This response can rightly be considered the words of our Lord Himself, either because of its truth or because of the unity of the members with the Head. At the same time, others would have said to those who gave this answer, God forbid, because they understood the parable was spoken against them.

The passage continues: And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?

The Venerable Bede: It is as if He said: How can the prophecy be fulfilled, unless Christ, being rejected and killed by you, is preached to the Gentiles, who will believe in Him? In this way, as the cornerstone, He may build one temple to Himself from both nations.

Eusebius of Caesarea: Christ is called a stone on account of His earthly body—cut out with hands, as in the vision of Daniel—because of His birth from the Virgin. But the stone is neither silver nor gold, because He is not a glorious King, but a man, lowly and despised, which is why the builders rejected Him.

Theophylact of Ohrid: For the rulers of the people rejected Him when they said, This man is not of God. But He was so useful and so precious that He was made the head of the corner.

St. Cyril of Alexandria: Holy Scripture compares the gathering of the two nations, Jew and Gentile, into one faith to a corner. For the Savior has joined both peoples into one new man, reconciling them in one body to the Father. Therefore, that stone is a saving help to the corner it creates, but to the Jews who resist this spiritual union, it brings destruction.

Theophylact of Ohrid: He mentions two kinds of condemnation or destruction for them. The first is a destruction of their souls, which they suffer by being offended in Christ. He alludes to this when He says, Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be shaken to pieces.

The second is their captivity and extermination, which the Stone they despised brought upon them. He points to this when He says, But upon whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder, or winnow him. For the Jews were winnowed throughout the whole world like chaff from the threshing floor. And mark the order of things: first comes the wickedness committed against Him, then follows the just vengeance of God.

The Venerable Bede: Alternatively, the one who is a sinner, yet believes in Christ, indeed falls upon the stone and is shaken, for he is preserved for salvation through repentance. But “upon whomsoever it shall fall”—that is, the one upon whom the stone itself has come down because he denied it—it will grind him to powder, so that not even a broken piece of a pot will be left in which to drink a little water.

Or, by those who “fall upon Him,” He means those who only despise Him and therefore do not yet utterly perish, but are shaken so violently that they cannot walk upright. But as for those “upon whom it falls,” He will come to them in judgment with everlasting punishment. Therefore, it will grind them to powder, so that they may be like the dust which the wind scatters from the face of the earth.

St. Ambrose of Milan: The vineyard is also a symbol for us. For the husbandman is the Almighty Father, the vine is Christ, and we are the branches. The people of Christ are rightly called a vine, either because it bears on its front the sign of the cross, because its fruits are gathered at the end of the year, or because to all people—poor and rich, servants and masters alike—there is an equal allotment in the Church without distinction.

And as the vine is joined to the trees, so is the body to the soul. Loving this vineyard, the husbandman is accustomed to dig around it and prune it, lest it grow too lush in the shade of its own leaves and its unfruitful boasting of words hinder the ripening of its true character. Here must be the vintage of the whole world, for here is the vineyard of the whole world.

The Venerable Bede: Or, understanding it in a moral sense, a vineyard is leased to every one of the faithful to cultivate, in that the mystery of baptism is entrusted to them to work out. A first, second, and third servant are sent when the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets are read. But the servant who is sent is said to be treated shamefully or beaten when the word that is heard is despised or blasphemed.

The person who, by sin, tramples underfoot the Son of God kills the heir who is sent, as much as is in his power to do so. When the wicked husbandmen are destroyed, the vineyard is given to another; that is, the humble are enriched with the gift of grace that the proud person rejected.