Matthew 21:45

And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.

With the two parables recorded in this chapter, Christ finally got through to the Pharisaical intelligence! Before that time, it appears that they regarded his parables as too homely and simple to be worthy of their lordly attention. Apparently they discounted them as having no pertinent application to things they were interested in. But at last, under the hammer blows of logical truth, their crust of indifference was shattered. With a genius surpassing that of any mortal, Christ wove eternal truth into the fabric of the parables. He held the completed picture up before his enemies, as one might hold up a mirror; and at last, confronted with a likeness of themselves as plain as any photograph, they got the point! Their fury was unbounded. No longer would they seek any accommodation with him. They probably would have rushed upon him to kill him then and there, but the Master had too carefully laid the plan for that to happen. The popular support of Christ was so great that they simply dared not to touch him in front of the people. Two courses were open to them: (1) They could secretly assassinate him, or (2) they could contrive his legal condemnation and death. The Providence from on high had closed the first alternative, although they did not know it; and without doubt that would have been their favorite method of disposing of him. God's plan called for the tribunals; and the manner in which they found themselves maneuvered into doing it God's way is recorded in Matthew 26:4,14. See further notes on this phenomenon on those references.