²⁷Jesus and his disciples arrived again in Jerusalem. He was walking in the temple courtyards. Then the chief priests came to him. The teachers of the law and the elders came too.

²⁸“By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “Who gave you authority to do this?”

²⁹Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. ³⁰Was John’s baptism from heaven? Or did it come from men? Tell me!”

³¹They talked to each other about it. They said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ ³²But what if we say, ‘From men’?” They were afraid of the people. Everyone believed that John really was a prophet.

³³So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

Jesus said, “Then I won’t tell you by what authority I am doing these things either.”

The Story of the Renters

12Jesus began to speak to the people by using stories. He said, “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it. He dug a pit for a winepress. He also built a lookout tower. He rented the vineyard out to some farmers. Then he went away on a journey.

²“At harvest time he sent a servant to the renters. He told the servant to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. ³But they grabbed the servant and beat him up. Then they sent him away with nothing. ⁴So the man sent another servant to the renters. They hit this one on the head and treated him badly. ⁵The man sent still another servant. The renters killed him. The man sent many others. The renters beat up some of them. They killed the others.

⁶“The man had one person left to send. It was his son, and he loved him. He sent him last of all. He said, ‘They will respect my son.’

⁷“But the renters said to each other, ‘This is the one who will receive all the owner’s property someday. Come, let’s kill him. Then everything will be ours.’ ⁸So they took him and killed him. They threw him out of the vineyard.

⁹“What will the owner of the vineyard do then? He will come and kill those renters. He will give the vineyard to others.

¹⁰“Haven’t you read what Scripture says,

“ ‘The stone the builders didn’t accept

has become the most important stone of all.

¹¹The Lord has done it.

It is wonderful in our eyes’?”

¹²Then the religious leaders looked for a way to arrest Jesus. They knew he had told the story against them. But they were afraid of the crowd. So they left him and went away.

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