Luke 20:19

realized that Jesus had spoken this parable against them: The story provoked the religious leaders to act it out by arresting and killing Jesus.

This story adapts Isaiah’s Song of the Vineyard (Isaiah 5:1–7) to describe the rejection of Jesus by Israel’s leaders. In Isaiah’s story, the vineyard owner represents God, and the vineyard represents Israel, which failed to produce good fruit and would be judged.

Jesus added new characters to the story. The tenant farmers represent Israel’s unrighteous leaders, the servants represent the Old Testament prophets who were repeatedly rejected, and the son represents Jesus. God would judge Israel’s leaders for rejecting and killing his Son.

In this series of controversies between Jesus and the religious leaders of Jerusalem, they repeatedly questioned and challenged him, and he repeatedly outmatched them with his spiritual wisdom, insight, and authority.