Matthew 21:28–22:14
28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’q
29 “ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectorsr and the prostitutess are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness,t and you did not believe him, but the tax collectorsu and the prostitutesv did. And even after you saw this, you did not repentw and believe him.
21:33–46pp—Mk 12:1–12; Lk 20:9–19
33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who plantedx a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower.y Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place.z 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servantsa to the tenants to collect his fruit.
35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.b 36 Then he sent other servantsc to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir.d Come, let’s kill hime and take his inheritance.’f 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,”g they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants,h who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“ ‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’h?i
43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from youj and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”i k
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.l
The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
22 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is likem a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servantsn to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servantso and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderersp and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street cornersq and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good,r and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friends?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’t
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”u