Talk about your basic horrible decisions. What were the vineyard tenants thinking? When the owner of vineyard sends his servants to collect what is rightfully his, the tenants beat one, kill another and stone the third. When the next set of servants arrive, they continue with the basic trajectory of decisions that they somehow think will turn out well. When the landowner’s son arrives, they murder him. How is it they think this is going to work out for them? As I said, talk about your basic horrible decisions.Jesus is speaking to the chief priest, elders and scribes about horrible decisions they are making as they are not reflective about what folks like the prophet Isaiah have warned them about. Their predecessors corrupted true worship, thought they were the owners of the vineyard and became obsessed with their position, privilege and powers – forgetting they were just the current stewards of the covenant between God and the people. They killed the messengers the prophets who warned them and the covenant people ended up exiled in Babylon, Jerusalem destroyed. Talk about your basic horrible decisions.
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“So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner.” If we are honest about it, we empathize with those folks who worked hard all day. At one level we agree that they received what they were promised, but…there is that voice within that says, “it isn’t fair.” The workers’ notion of what is fair gets challenged pretty quickly when the landowner asks them: “Are you envious because I am generous?” 
Gardens are a necessity. Vineyards are a sign of abundance beyond the necessary. As terrible a gardener as I am, I can get a crop of vegetables in several weeks’ time. Not so with a vineyard. Vineyards take a long time and hard work to develop. Try googling “starting a vineyard;” the results might surprise you. After you buy the land (and not just any location will do), it costs $20,000 a year per acre to cultivate a vineyard, and there is no cash flow for 3 to 5 years while you wait for the grapes to be good enough for the harvest. There is a lot of patient, intensive work and commitment. Vegetable gardens are near-term cash crop; you can change it up every year. Vineyards are a long-term investment with one fruit produced for one’s lifetime. 
As mentioned in a previous post, this expression ethnos might point to new people of God arising out of Jesus’ ministry and characterized by faith in him. We previously saw such a motif outlined in 8:11–12 and in the rabble of tax-collectors and prostitutes who “go ahead of” the chief priests and elders into the kingdom of God (vv. 31–32). The term ethnos, “nation,” calls for some such understanding, takes us beyond a change of leadership to a reconstruction of the people of God whom the current leaders have represented. 
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