Barbara Nicolosi, the founder of the Act One screenwriting program, has said that one of the primary storytelling principles they teach their students is, "It isn't telling people the truth that saves them; it's getting them to wrestle with the truth that saves them." It seems to me that Luke (20:9-18) describes Jesus, the master storyteller, doing just that with the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders who have come to interrogate him. After telling the parable of the tenants, Jesus asks them, "What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to the tenants?" It is a rhetorical question. He doesn't wait for them to answer. "He will come and kill those men, and turn the vineyard over to other tenants."
When the people heard this, Luke tells us, they cried out, "Surely not!! Jesus has them struggling with a profound truth embedded in the very scriptures these learned men have studied since their youth, in Psalm 118, but they were unable to discern its real meaning. Jesus is grateful that his Father hides from the learned what is revealed to children.
