³³“Listen to another illustration. A landowner planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, made a winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to vineyard workers and went on a trip.

³⁴“When the grapes were getting ripe, he sent his servants to the workers to collect his share of the produce. ³⁵The workers took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned a third to death. ³⁶So the landowner sent more servants. But the workers treated them the same way.

³⁷“Finally, he sent his son to them. He thought, ‘They will respect my son.’

³⁸“When the workers saw his son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him and get his inheritance.’ ³⁹So they grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

⁴⁰“Now, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those workers?”

⁴¹They answered, “He will destroy those evil people. Then he will lease the vineyard to other workers who will give him his share of the produce when it is ready.”

⁴²Jesus asked them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone.

The Lord is responsible for this,

and it is amazing for us to see’?

⁴³That is why I can guarantee that God’s kingdom will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce what God wants. ⁴⁴Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken. If the stone falls on anyone, it will crush that person.”^a

⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his illustrations, they knew that he was talking about them. ⁴⁶They wanted to arrest him but were afraid of the crowds, who thought he was a prophet.

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Footnotes

a 22:44 Or “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.”