Matthew 21:23–41
23 aWhen He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him bwhile He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?”
24 Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one 1thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.
25 “The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?” And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’
26 “But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the 1people; for they all regard John as aa prophet.”
27 And answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
28 “But what do you think? A man had two 1sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘2Son, go work today in the avineyard.’
29 “And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went.
30 “The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go.
31 “Which of the two did the will of his father?” They * said, “The first.” Jesus * said to them, “Truly I say to you that athe tax collectors and prostitutes 1will get into the kingdom of God before you.
32 “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but athe tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.
33 “Listen to another parable. aThere was a 1landowner who bplanted a cvineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to 2vine-growers and dwent on a journey.
34 “When the 1harvest time approached, he asent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce.
35 “The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third.
36 “Again he asent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them.
37 “But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
38 “But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’
39 “They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 “Therefore when the 1owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?”
41 They * said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and awill rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”