Luke 20:1–18

The Question about Jesus’ Authority

20One day when Jesus was in the Temple teaching the people and preaching the Good News, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law, together with the elders, came ²and said to him, “Tell us, what right have you to do these things? Who gave you this right?”

³Jesus answered them, “Now let me ask you a question. Tell me, ⁴did John’s right to baptize come from God or from human beings?”

⁵They started to argue among themselves, “What shall we say? If we say, ‘From God,’ he will say, ‘Why, then, did you not believe John?’ ⁶But if we say ‘From human beings,’ this whole crowd here will stone us, because they are convinced that John was a prophet.” ⁷So they answered, “We don’t know where it came from.”

⁸And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you, then, by what right I do these things.”

The Parable of the Tenants in the Vineyard

^9*Then Jesus told the people this parable: “There was once a man who planted a vineyard, let it out to tenants, and then left home for a long time. ¹⁰When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest. But the tenants beat the slave and sent him back without a thing. ¹¹So he sent another slave; but the tenants beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him back without a thing. ¹²Then he sent a third slave; the tenants wounded him, too, and threw him out. ¹³Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my own dear son; surely they will respect him!’ ¹⁴But when the tenants saw him, they said to one another, ‘This is the owner’s son. Let’s kill him, and his property will be ours!’ ¹⁵So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to the tenants?” Jesus asked. ¹⁶“He will come and kill those men, and hand the vineyard over to other tenants.” When the people heard this, they said, “Surely not!”

^17*Jesus looked at them and asked, “What, then, does this scripture mean?

‘The stone which the builders rejected as worthless

turned out to be the most important of all.’

¹⁸Everyone who falls on that stone will be cut to pieces; and if that stone falls on someone, it will crush him to dust.”