How easily rebellious human beings misread the patience of God, and they do it to their peril. They judge God by themselves, and cannot conceive the lengths to which God’s patience will go. They do not understand his purpose for the world. They say, he is never going to judge the world or he would have done so by now. Since he is obviously indifferent to what goes on in the world, we can do as we like. They consider impossible that he could judge the world after all this time and after so many centuries of piled up sins. How could he keep track of all these things? They do not grasp the infinite power and justice of God.
We get used to arguing against our consciences and silencing them. It becomes a matter of habit to us. We learn not to be disturbed by concerns about judgment. Thus we build up to even greater sins in the future. This was the worst evil that the tenants did, but it was not their first outrage. Early evils had prepared the way for this last evil. No wonder God finally judged the nation in such a decisive way.
God did send his Son, his only Son. Why? To suffer and die; to be the Saviour of the world. Even now the vineyard owner was willing to deal with the tenants, and even when Christ came, the Jews could have received him as their rightful Lord. But what happened when Jewish leaders saw him? In the parable the tenants recognised the owner’s son. The scribes and Pharisees did know who Christ was. They said, this is the heir; this is the Messiah, but they hated him so much because he taught the need for repentance before they could enter the kingdom of heaven. They did not want this kind of Messiah. They hated the idea that God would rule over them, and that they were not good enough for God. So they had him crucified on Calvary. They executed him and lost all opportunity to know him. It was given to others. They carried out their final murderous intent. Nevertheless, at the same time God was doing something they did not understand. Through their murderous act, he was dealing with the problem of sin, and making an atonement for his chosen people, in exactly the way law and the prophets had always taught.