Mat 21:35 And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.
Mat 21:36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.
Mat 21:37 But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.

Why are there three trips to the vineyard? Why do the first three servants in this tale meet three different fates? Christ is telling us something specific but what? After studying Christ's words for so long, this pattern of three is Christ's most common pattern for explaining the world in terms of the physical, mental, and emotional (relationships). Of course, underlying each of these temporal realities is the deeper, eternal reality of the spiritual, which Christ touches upon in this parable later on.

The first servants represent the physical element and so their fates are described in more physical terms. The second group of servants represents the mental so their specific fates are left to the imagination. The third visit, by the son of the landowner, is about relationships, which we will discuss in more detail in the next post.

The three forms of death that meet the first (physical) group of servants falls into the same pattern. The first death is the most physical and the most painful, being flayed alive ("beat" is a mistranslation, see below). The skin symbolizes the physical surface of reality, appearances. The mental death is symbolized by the decision to kill. The death of relationship is stoning which symbolized a rejection of a relationship. Stoning was the specific death chosen for those who were unfaithful in relationships. The very act of casting stones at someone brands them as an outcast, chasing them away from a relationship.

This line touches on an important aspect of Christ's teaching the use of the cycle within another cycle. Christ not only breaks down the temporal world into a process of the physical, mental, and emotional (relationships) but he further dissects each of these realms into components that are themselves physical, mental, and emotional.

The body gives rise to purely physical actions such as the beating of our hearts. It also gives rise to purely physical thoughts such as hunger or sexual desire. It also gives rise to purely physical relationships, such being someone child or parent.

The mind gives rise to physical actions that are driven purely by thought, such a productive work. The mind also creates purely mental constructs, such as mathematics. The mind also defines purely calculated relationships, such as choosing a job or a business partner.

Finally, emotions (relationships) also create actions, such as crying, which are not driven either by the body or the mind. Emotion also drives our happy, sad, angry, or jealous thoughts independent of our physical needs or mental calculations. Finally, emotions also drive our relationships.


"Beat" is from derô, which means "to flay" or "to skin" someone, though in later use it came to mean "to cudgel" or "to thrash."

"Killed" is from apokteinô, which is a stronger form of the verb "to kill" and "to slay."

"Stoned" is from lithoboleô, which means "to pelt with stones."