Luke 20:1-16

Contemporary English Version

A Question about Jesus' Authority

(Matthew 21.23-27; Mark 11.27-33)

20 One day, Jesus was teaching in the temple and telling the good news. So the chief priests, the teachers, and the nation's leaders ² asked him, “What right do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?”

³ Jesus replied, “I want to ask you a question. ⁴ Who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God in heaven or merely some human being?”

⁵ They talked this over and said to each other, “We can't say God gave John this right. Jesus will ask us why we didn't believe John. ⁶ And we can't say it was merely some human who gave John the right to baptize. The crowd will stone us to death, because they think John was a prophet.”

⁷ So they told Jesus, “We don't know who gave John the right to baptize.”

⁸ Jesus replied, “Then I won't tell you who gave me the right to do what I do.”

Renters of a Vineyard

(Matthew 21.33-46; Mark 12.1-12)

^9 (A) Jesus told the people this story:

A man once planted a vineyard and rented it out. Then he left the country for a long time. ¹⁰ When it was time to harvest the crop, he sent a servant to ask the renters for his share of the grapes. But they beat up the servant and sent him away without anything. ¹¹ So the owner sent another servant. The renters also beat him up. They insulted him terribly and sent him away without a thing. ¹² The owner sent a third servant. He was also beaten terribly and thrown out of the vineyard.

¹³ The owner then said to himself, “What am I going to do? I know what. I'll send my son, the one I love so much. They will surely respect him!”

¹⁴ When the renters saw the owner's son, they said to one another, “Someday he will own the vineyard. Let's kill him! Then we can have it all for ourselves.” ¹⁵ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Jesus asked, “What do you think the owner of the vineyard will do? ¹⁶ I'll tell you what. He will come and kill those renters and let someone else have his vineyard.”

When the people heard this, they said, “This must never happen!”