Perspective: The parable tells of God and the human race, using a metaphor to describe that relationship: the vineyard. From the “Song of the Vineyard” in Isaiah, it is a “divine love-song” in which God sees his people as his own vineyard, into which God has put great effort. From Genesis to Revelation, the symbol of the vineyard is mentioned over a hundred times.
Jesus, his death drawing nearer, aims at the smugness of the leaders of Israel, and draws attention to himself more boldly than before. He refers to himself as the keystone of the entire structure of the relations between God and the human race.
Jesus’ audience has no way yet of knowing his surprise climax to this perspective, which is that they, the religious leaders and their followers with whom he is now coming in contact, are the ones who will drag him outside the city and put him to death. Part of the story too is that we are the new Israel, the Church, God’s vineyard now.