The parable the Lord tells ends with the death of the son, who is cast out of the vineyard by the tenants and killed. It is not difficult to see in this a foreshadowing of what the Jewish leaders would do to Jesus. This marks the end of the story the Lord told them; what follows is a conversation between Jesus and the chief priests and Pharisees.
Matthew 21 (based on ISA)
40 When, then, the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?
41 They say to Him: He will bring those evil men to a wretched end…
killed
After delivering the parable, Jesus turns to the chief priests and Pharisees and asks them what the owner of the vineyard would do to those tenants. They answer, thereby unwittingly predicting their own fate: He will bring those evil men to a wretched end. The word translated here as “kill” or “bring to an end” (Greek: apollumi) is translated elsewhere as “perish” or “be lost” (e.g., Matt. 10:6; John 3:16).
In the next parable, the Lord is even more explicit, saying: “…and he destroys those murderers and burns their city” (Matt. 22:7). That is precisely what happened to the city of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
41 …and he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits at their appointed times.
Israel would be set aside as a people, and salvation would be sent to the nations (Acts 28:28). Through this, the nations came to share in the spiritual blessings of Israel (Rom. 15:27) — of which the vineyard is a depiction. It was given to another people.
Romans 10 (based on ISA)
19 (…) First, Moses says: I will make you jealous of what is not a people; I will make you angry by means of a foolish people.
The jealousy Paul speaks of is not positive. It is not a matter of the nations now possessing something that the Jewish people also desire. It is envy; they are angry and irritated by the idea that a foolish people — who do not have the Law (Rom. 2:14 )— have now taken over their chosen position. Indeed, in the parallel passage in Luke, we read the reaction of His listeners: “May it never happen!” (Luke 20:16), or as the NBG translation puts it: “Never!” That was unthinkable to them.
Matthew 21 (based on ISA)
42 Jesus said to them: Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone (literally: head of the corner, see Statenvertaling); this came about through the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes?
43 Therefore I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that produces its fruit.
another nation
The vineyard was thus to be given to other tenants, and the Kingdom to another nation. Jesus emphatically states that this nation would produce the fruit that Israel had failed to produce.
Paul calls this “not a people.” After all, the ecclesia is not a nation in the way Israel is — with a shared lineage, a land, and national borders. Yet, it is indeed called a people. For God takes “a people for His name from among the nations” (Acts 15:14). This is the nation of which Jesus says that the Kingdom would be given to it and that it would produce the fruits thereof.
Israel Restored
Acts 15 proceeds further. After God has taken a people for His name from among the nations, He will “rebuild the fallen tabernacle of David” (v. 16). Thus, the fact that Israel was set aside and the Kingdom was taken from them does not mean that God has finished with Israel forever. During this hidden period, the Kingdom has been given to a people from the nations, but Scripture also foretells the future restoration of Israel. A time is coming when God will once again show mercy to His people and rebuild the fallen tabernacle of David.