Matthew 21:37

But afterward he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But the husbandmen, when they saw the son, said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and take his inheritance.

Mark's account of this has these words, "He had yet one, a beloved son: he sent him last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son." In the light of Mark's words, it appears that the King James Version has the true thought in the words, "Last of all, he sent his son." Certainly, there is a sense of finality that is definitely intended in the sending of the son. There is to be no other after Christ. The rejection of Christ by the human race is not to be followed by other offers of reconciliation. This is surely one of the big revelations from this parable. "Last of all, the Son!"

If Matthew 21:37-38 above are understood to give a true and accurate picture of the inner thoughts and intentions of the Jewish religious hierarchy in Jerusalem (and so they are understood by this writer), it is crystal clear that they recognized him as the Messiah, decided to destroy him, and intended to replace him with their own system and with their own personnel in charge. How could they possibly have done such a thing? First, having no consciousness of sin, and supposing that they were the custodians of salvation from God through the Law, they PREFERRED that type of religion (thinking of course that it would give eternal life) to the humility, self-denial, sobriety, purity, and meekness of the religion Christ taught. Knowing from the very first who he was, they carefully observed his teaching, but they had decided to reject it in favor of what they already had, or supposed they had. There was one fatal flaw in their thinking. They did not recognize Christ as GOD IN HUMAN FORM, to whom the Father hath committed judgment, whose words must be obeyed upon pain of eternal remorse for those who reject them, and who is the only sacrifice for sins ever conceived in the entire universe that was of sufficient merit actually to accomplish forgiveness. Christ warned them, but they did not seem to get the point. He said, "He that rejecteth my word hath one that judgeth him, the word that I speak shall judge men in the last day" (John 12:48).

Therefore, their awful crimes against Jesus were not merely sins against God in the sense that all sins are sins against God; but their sins against Christ were actually sins against the very person of God in Christ, multiplying the condemnation which they merited by their shameful actions.

In the parable, it is seen that Christ appears as the heir of all things. However, Christ, as God, was not the heir of all things, for, as God, he is the Creator of all things. It is as man that Christ is heir of all things. Thus, the Arian heresy finds no support in this parable.

Returning to the incomprehensible truth that the Pharisees deliberately decided to kill Christ in spite of the fact that they knew he was the Messiah, this may seem to be at variance with 1 Corinthians 2:8, "Which none of the rulers of this world hath known: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." However, careful reading of Paul's words shows that what the rulers did not know was the "mystery" of God in Christ! The Pharisees thought he was only the Messiah but did not know that the Messiah was God robing himself in human flesh. That was the mortal error on their part. Even though they did not comprehend his eternal power and Godhead, however, they did recognize him as the true heir of the temple, "a teacher come from God," as Nicodemus confessed (John 3:2), and as a holy and righteous person without any sin whatever. Yet they would kill even one like that rather than give up their lucrative exploitation of the temple which had become, in their eyes, their private domain to be maintained at the cost of any crime, however great, even at the cost of murdering the Messiah whose actions in twice cleansing the temple had demonstrated that his teaching would not allow the continuation of those gross perversions on which their profits depended. Here then, without any doubt, is the commercially motivated reason why they took such diabolical action against the Christ. It is impossible to gloss over their conduct or to find any extenuation of their frightful guilt. They knew he was Christ, but alas, they did not know that he was God in Christ! Thus, their crucifixion of Christ was a crime against God himself.