In the story, obviously this son is a representation of Jesus Christ Himself and so communicates the purpose of God the Father sending His Son to the earth:  “They will reverence my son.”  They don’t reverence the son in the story and this is why they deserve punishment.  Jesus says in verse 9:

What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.

The “lord of the vineyard” in the story represents God the Father.  I understand this to be a message to Israel, but it is one to anyone does not respond to the God the Son with reverence.  Should not all of us assume “reverence” is a necessary aspect of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?

.The Greek word translated “reverence,” a verb, is entrepo, which according to BDAG means “to show deference to a person in recognition of special status,” including with that the following references:  Mattthew 21:37, Mark 12:6, Luke 18:2, 4, 20:13,m and Hebrews 12:9.  BDAG provides another translation of the word in other contexts, which means “to cause to turn (in shame), to shame.”  Examples given are 1 Corinthians 4:14, 2 Thessalonians 3:14, and Titus 2:8.

In the story Jesus told, the husbandmen should have been ashamed of themselves for what they did to the representatives of the lord, whom we know represent the Old Testament prophets.  Feeling shame can be a part of this reverence unto the Son.  Not reverencing the Son is not reverencing the Father.  This is how someone could take believing in God.  If someone does not believe in the Son, He does not believe in God.

How can someone reverence if there isn’t such a thing as reverence or no way to reverence?  Going along with the BDAG meaning “recognition of special status.”  How does someone recognize someone for having special status?  Is there a way to do that?  Is there a way not to do that?  A culture where nothing is sacred anymore won’t know how to reverence anything, let alone God.  This, of course, completely messes up its people’s values, because they won’t know how or whom to give special status.

Churches today very often do not reverence the Son with their music.  Their music isn’t sacred.  It is worldly, fleshly, and lustful.  The husbandmen thought the lord, the vineyard, the representatives in the story, and the Son were all about themselves.  Because of how important they thought they were, they couldn’t reverence the Son.

This reverence of the Son relates to repentance.  It relates to true faith in Jesus Christ.  When churches won’t reverence the Son, they are also undermining the gospel.  People cannot imagine or know the true Son of God, when churches do not treat Him with reverence.