So centuries later, in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, Jesus also recalled that pattern of rejection and looked ahead to its imminent culmination in the rejection and murder of himself, God’s beloved Son (Matthew 21:33-45).

Similarly St Stephen, three years later, summed up that whole long tragedy when he faced and denounced the Supreme Jewish Council in words which precipitated his own martyrdom, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised (i.e. heathen) in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.  As your fathers did, so do you.  Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute?  And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered…” (RSV, Acts 7:51,52, our emphasis).

Thus the Crucifixion of the Son of God was the climax to which the consistent rejection of the men of God had been steadily and inevitably leading.