But when the tenants saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize his inheritance.
All Commentaries on Matthew 21:38 Go To Matthew 21
John Chrysostom
AD 407
What then do they do? While they had time to ask for pardon for their offenses and whereas they ought to have run to him to do so, they persist even more strongly in their former sins. They proceed to add even more to their previous pollutions. They always surpass their former offenses by their later ones. This is what he himself declared when he said, “Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.” For from the first the prophets used to charge them with these things, saying, “Your hands are full of blood,” and “They mingle blood with blood,” and “They build up Zion with blood.” But they failed to learn selfcontrol. They had already received the commandment: “You shall not murder.” They had already had been commanded to abstain from countless other offenses. They had already been urged by many and various means to keep these commandments.Yet, for all that, they did not put aside their evil ways. What did they say when they saw him? “Come, let us kill him.” With what motive and for what reason? What possible charge could they lay against him, either small or great? Is it that he honored you, and being God became a human being for your sakes and worked his countless miracles? Or that he pardoned your sins? Or that he called you into a kingdom? But observe that their disregard for bad was accompanied by great folly, and the cause of his murder was filled with madness. “For let us kill him,” it says, “and the inheritance shall be ours.” The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
