Matthew 21:28–46

The Parable of the Two Sons

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 collectors^r and the prostitutes^s are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. ³²For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness,^t and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors^u and the prostitutes^v did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent^w and believe him.

The Parable of the Tenants

21:33–46pp—Mk 12:1–12; Lk 20:9–19

³³“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted^x 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 servants^a 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 servants^c to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. ³⁷Last 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 him^e 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.”

⁴²Jesus 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 you^j and given to a people who will produce its fruit. ⁴⁴Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”^ik

⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. ⁴⁶They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.^l