Jesus asks the question to make His hearers face the end of the story. The servants have been beaten and the son is dead. What can the owner do now? The question presses for a verdict, and the answer is plain enough that anyone could give it. Gill names the husbandmen as "the chief priests, elders, Scribes, and Pharisees," and says that by killing the son the owner "must be greatly provoked and incensed." The question lets the hearers weigh the sentence on the husbandmen before they see themselves in the story (Luke 20:19).

In Luke, Jesus answers His own question: "He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others" (Luke 20:16). Gill notes that in Luke these "seem to be the words of Christ," while in Matthew the hearers give the answer (Matthew 21:41). The listeners recoiled: "God forbid" (Luke 20:16). Jesus then looked at them and asked about the rejected stone in Scripture (Luke 20:17). The chief priests and scribes "perceived that he had spoken this parable against them" and wanted to seize Him, but feared the people (Luke 20:19).

"God forbid" translates the Greek me genoito, literally "may it not be." The hearers were not disputing that the owner had the right to act. They were recoiling from the outcome. Gill says they spoke this way "perceiving that they were the persons intended."

Gill reads "others" in two ways: the land of Judea passing to the Romans, and the church state with the Gospel passing "to the Gentiles in general." On the words "and killed him," Gill points to Acts 2:23, where Peter tells the crowd in Jerusalem that Jesus was "delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" and that they had "crucified and slain" Him.

Up to this point the parable showed God's patience: servant after servant, then the beloved son. This question turns to God's justice. A God who keeps sending is also a God who will come. Both are true of Him, and the parable will not let either one be forgotten.

The question also shows how Jesus taught His opponents. He did not open with an accusation. He told a story, let His hearers judge it, and only then let them see themselves in it. The leaders understood: "they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them" (Luke 20:19). Even then, the door was not shut. Peter would later preach to the people of Jerusalem about the One they had crucified (Acts 2:23), and many "gladly received his word" (Acts 2:41).