
As I said, not too subtle! Jesus has been talking to us on Sundays about His passion and death. He is asking his apostles to be quiet about it “until He is risen from the dead”. The reference to his death here is very obvious. The coming suffering and death of Jesus is very much on His mind.
The punch line of the parable is that the “kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.”
With the glory comes the Cross. We cannot have one without the other. The owner of the vineyard wants us to produce fruit. The stone rejected by the builders becomes the keystone (cornerstone?).
This is the Lord’s doing and who can explain it.