ys distant; and calmly
related in prophetic imagery, as though already fulfilled, how those
evil men cast the well beloved Son out of the vineyard and slew Him.
Unable to evade the searching question as to what the Lord of the
vineyard would naturally and righteously do to the wicked husbandmen,
the Jewish rulers gave the only pertinent answer possible--that He would
surely destroy those wretched sinners, and let out His vineyard to
tenants who were more honest and worthy.

Suddenly changing the figure, "Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read
in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is
become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is
marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God
shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits
thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on
whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder."[1097] There
could be no misapprehension as to the Lord's meaning; the rejected Stone
which was eventually to have chief place, "the head of the corner," in
the edifice of salvation, was Himself, the Messiah. To some that Stone
would be a cause of stumbling; wo unto them, for thereby would they be
broken, and only through repentance and works of righteousness could
they even in part recover; but upon others, those who would persist in
their opposition, the Stone would fall in judgment; and wo, wo to them,
for beneath it they would be destroyed as though ground to powder.[1098]
From them, the leaders, and from the people who followed their unholy
precepts and foul example, the kingdom of God was about to be taken, and
would in time be given to the Gentiles, who, the Lord affirmed, would
prove more worthy than Israel had been. We gather from Luke's account
that in contemplation of this awful penalty, "they," whether priestly
rulers or common people we are not told, exclaimed in despair, "God
forbid!"

As the chief priests and Pharisees realized the completeness of their
discomfiture and the extent of the humiliation to which they had been
subjected in the eyes of the people, they were incensed beyond measure,
and even attempted to lay hold on Jesus there in the temple; but the
sympathies of the multitude were so unmistakably in His favor that the
angry ecclesiasts desisted. The people in general, while not prepared to
openly proclaim Him as the Christ, knew that He was a prophet of