Jesus tells one of his most violent parables: tenants seize a vineyard, attack the servants sent to them, and finally kill the landowner’s son. But who actually calls for vengeance at the end of the story? Peter Walsh and Elizabeth Garnsey explore the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, its roots in the Hebrew Scriptures, the danger of treating God as something religion can own or control, and why this passage should never become a story about Christianity replacing Judaism. Ultimately, the parable turns the question back on us: If the vineyard has been entrusted to our care, what kind of tenants are we?
