A Christian friend wrote;

I was wondering what a Muslims response is to The Parable of The Wicked Vinedressers (related to Jesus/Son of God). The parable goes: "Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now when vinage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. And last of all he sent his son to them, saying, "They will respect my son. But when the wine dressers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come let us kill him and seize his inheritance.' So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him." (Matt. 21:33-39)

If the parable were up for interpretation I would assume the characters represent the following, landowner= God, vineyard= Earth, vinedressers= man (humans), servants= prophets of God, son= Jesus. There is a clear distinction between the importance of the son and of the servants. I am quite curious as to a Muslim interpretation, or rather an interpretation that is in disagreement with this one.

1. The Landowner did not send his son to be sacrificed, he sent his son to get his fruit (Matt 21:34)

The Land owner did not expect the vinedressers to kill his son, the intension to send out his son was not to be killed. The land owner says;

"they will respect my son" (Matt 21:37), they won't kill him.

An Important note here is that in the King James Version, they implant the words "last of all"

While in Revised Standard Version, the Words _last of all_ is not there, instead it reads "*Afterward* he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' " (Matthew 21:37)

Therefore this contradicts the Christian point of view that Jesus was sent specifically to be killed for sins, while the Land owner's intension was to send the son to reap (fruit {worship} from the earth), not to be killed.

The second reason why this parable is more fitting to Islam then Christianity is because the very next verses after Matthew 21:39 says:

(Matthew 21:40) When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?"

(Matthew 21:41) They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons."

This symbolizes that Truly the intension of the land owner was not to have his son killed.

Since the Romans and the Jewish Priests did not die wretchedly, this may be another sign that Jesus did not die on the cross.

And Lastly, as a result, the the land owner is going to go to Another People.

If the Land owner is God, then this is a symbol according to (Matthew 21:41) is that God will choose other tenants other then the ones in Israel.

Which is very symbolic and in line with the teachings of the OT because God often says, you are my chosen people (children of Israel) IF! IF! IF! you remain Righteous.

Therefore the Parable is saying New Tenants will reap the fruit, Muslims.

According to the Revised Standard Edition, it does not indicate that the landowener's son was the only son, the land owner may have more children, he is obviously not going to quit the job, he is going to continue to reap fruit with new people so maybe he has more sons?

As you know, many Prophets were called "Son of God"

As we see, Prophet Muhammad according to the Language style of the Bible can be considered a son of God.

Of course the Qur'an is more Clear that God has no human companions.

Therefore to summarize, God did not send Jesus to be Sacrificed, and Jesus was not killed (because the Romans were not brutally murdered), and the Landowner is going to New People (Muslims)

As Prophet Muhammad (God's Last son according to the language in the Bible) stayed alive without being killed and did the Will of God (brought worship {fruit} to God).

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