In this parable we find Jesus rubbing salt into wounds by telling a story in which tenant farmers are the bad guys. The very existence of tenant farmers and absentee landlords in Israel at the time was a festering wound because families were supposed to farm their own land. The division of land described in the book of Joshua was, along with inheritance laws, understood to ensure that each family could farm their own patch of land in perpetuity.

The connection between family and land had been eroded over the centuries, and one challenge in the first century was the crippling impact of Roman taxes and Temple taxes. Many families could not afford these taxes and so sank further and further into debt until they lost their land. When their land was bought up by a very small group of increasingly wealthy people, the family that had owned the land for centuries might, if they were fortunate, then become tenant farmers on land that had belonged to their family for centuries. And they would be expected to hand over so much produce and money to their landlord that they would often be left without enough to live on.

So, when you read this parable with that background in mind, you might find you have just a little more sympathy for the tenants.