Parable of the Landowner

Balian of Ibelin: What becomes of us?
Imad: As you deserve. You reap what you sow. You have heard of this, no?
--Kingdom of Heaven

Today we ponder the Parable of the Landowner (Matthew 21:33-43)--perhaps the most jarring of all parables when the light switches on.

Meeting with political, religious, and intellectual elite, Jesus presents the following parable:

A landowner builds a vineyard and leases it to tenants. He then travels out of town. Because he is still away at harvest time, the landowner sends some servants to the vineyard to obtain his produce. Rather than paying what they owe, the tenants kill the servants.

The landowner then sends more servants, but the tenants kill them as well. 

Finally, the landowner sends his own son, reasoning that he will be respected and the tenants will turn over what is his. Instead, the tenants see this as an opportunity to expropriate the landowner's property by killing the one who was to inherit the vineyard. So they murdered the son.

Christ then turns to the elite and asks them what the landowner should do to those tenants upon his return to the vineyard. 

Paraphrasing their response: "He should kill every one of those sons of bitches and find new tenants who will be loyal and productive."

I wonder if the elitists stopped right there...and saw the light.