Matthew 21:23–46

Authority Challenged

^23aWhen 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?”

²⁴Jesus 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.”

²⁷And 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.

Parable of Two Sons

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.

Parable of the Landowner

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?”

⁴¹They 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.”

⁴²Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures,

‘^aThe stone which the builders rejected,

This became the chief corner stone;

This came about from the Lord,

And it is marvelous in our eyes’?

⁴³“Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a ¹people, producing the fruit of it.

⁴⁴“And ^ahe who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”

⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them.

⁴⁶When they sought to seize Him, they ^afeared the ¹people, because they considered Him to be a ^bprophet.