Mark 11:27–12:12

The Authority of Jesus Challenged

²⁷Again they entered Jerusalem. As Jesus was walking through the Temple area, the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders came up to him. ²⁸They demanded, “By what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right to do them?”

²⁹“I’ll tell you by what authority I do these things if you answer one question,” Jesus replied. ³⁰“Did John’s authority to baptize come from heaven, or was it merely human? Answer me!”

³¹They talked it over among themselves. “If we say it was from heaven, he will ask why we didn’t believe John. ³²But do we dare say it was merely human?” For they were afraid of what the people would do, because everyone believed that John was a prophet. ³³So they finally replied, “We don’t know.”

And Jesus responded, “Then I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Chapter 12

Parable of the Evil Farmers

Then Jesus began teaching them with stories: “A man planted a vineyard. He built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country. ²At the time of the grape harvest, he sent one of his servants to collect his share of the crop. ³But the farmers grabbed the servant, beat him up, and sent him back empty-handed. ⁴The owner then sent another servant, but they insulted him and beat him over the head. ⁵The next servant he sent was killed. Others he sent were either beaten or killed, ⁶until there was only one left—his son whom he loved dearly. The owner finally sent him, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’

⁷“But the tenant farmers said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ ⁸So they grabbed him and murdered him and threw his body out of the vineyard.

⁹“What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do?” Jesus asked. “I’ll tell you—he will come and kill those farmers and lease the vineyard to others. ¹⁰Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures?

‘The stone that the builders rejected

has now become the cornerstone.

¹¹This is the Lord’s doing,

and it is wonderful to see.’^*”

¹²The religious leaders wanted to arrest Jesus because they realized he was telling the story against them—they were the wicked farmers. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.