Mark 11:27–12:12

THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS CHALLENGED

²⁷They^t came again to Jerusalem.^u As he was walking in the temple,^v the chief priests, the scribes,^w and the elders^x came ²⁸and asked him, “By what authority^y are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do these things?”

²⁹Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question;^z then answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. ³⁰Was John’s baptism^aa from heaven or of human origin? Answer me.”

³¹They discussed it among themselves: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe^ab him?’ ³²But if we say, ‘Of human origin’ ”—they were afraid of the crowd, because everyone thought that John was truly a prophet.^{ac 33}So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

THE PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD OWNER

12He began to speak to them in parables:^ad “A man planted a vineyard,^ae put a fence around it, dug out a pit for a winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went away. ²At harvest time he sent^af a servant^ag to the farmers to collect some of the fruit^ah of the vineyard from them. ³But they took him, beat^ai him, and sent him away empty-handed.^{aj 4}Again he sent another servant to them, and they^A hit him on the head and treated him shamefully.^{B 5}Then he sent another, and they killed that one. He also sent many others; some they beat, and others they killed. ⁶He still had one to send, a beloved^ak son. Finally^al he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷But those tenant farmers said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹What then will the owner^Cam of the vineyard do? He will come and kill the farmers and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰Haven’t you read this Scripture:^an

The^ao stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone.^ap

¹¹This came about from the Lord^aq

and is wonderful in our eyes?”^D

¹²They were looking for a way to arrest him but feared the crowd because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. So they left him and went away.