Matthew 21:28–46

The Parable of the Two Sons

²⁸“Now what do you think? A man had two sons. He approached^h the first and^* said, ‘Son, go work in the vineyard today.’ ²⁹And he answered and^* said, ‘I do not want to!’ But later he changed his mind and^* went. ³⁰And he approached the secondⁱ and^* said the same thing. So he answered and^* said, ‘I will, sir,’ and he did not go. ³¹Which of the two did the will of his^j father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going ahead of you into the kingdom of God! ³²For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did believe him. And when^* you saw it,^* you did not even change your minds later so as to believe in him.

The Parable of the Tenant Farmers in the Vineyard

³³“Listen to another parable: There was a man—a master of a house—who planted a vineyard, and put a fence around it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower, and leased it to tenant farmers, and went on a journey. ³⁴And when the season of fruit drew near, he sent his slaves to the tenant farmers to collect his fruit. ³⁵And the tenant farmers seized his slaves, one of whom they beat, and one of whom they killed, and one of whom they stoned. ³⁶Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first ones, and they did the same thing to them. ³⁷So finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸But when^* the tenant farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance!’ ³⁹And they seized him and^* threw him^* out of the vineyard and killed him.^{* 40}Now when the master of the vineyard arrives, what will he do to those tenant farmers?” ⁴¹They said to him, “He will destroy those evil men completely and lease the vineyard to other tenant farmers who will give him the fruits in their season.” ⁴²Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures,

‘The stone which the builders rejected,

this has become the cornerstone.^k

This came about from the Lord,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?^l

⁴³For this reason, I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and will be given to a people^m who produce its fruits. ⁴⁴And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and the one on whom it falls—it will crush him!” ⁴⁵And when^* the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them, ⁴⁶and although they^* wanted to arrest him, they were afraid of the crowds, because they looked upon him as a prophet.