God Sends His Son^(A)

³³ “Listen to this story: There was a man who owned a vineyard. He put a wall around the field and dug a hole for a winepress. Then he built a tower. He leased the land to some farmers and then left on a trip. ³⁴ Later, it was time for the grapes to be picked. So the man sent his servants to the farmers to get his share of the grapes.

³⁵ “But the farmers grabbed the servants and beat one. They killed another one and then stoned to death a third servant. ³⁶ So the man sent some other servants to the farmers. He sent more servants than he sent the first time. But the farmers did the same thing to them that they did the first time. ³⁷ So the man decided to send his son to the farmers. He said, ‘The farmers will respect my son.’

³⁸ “But when the farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the owner’s son. This vineyard will be his. If we kill him, it will be ours.’ ³⁹ So the farmers took the son, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

⁴⁰ “So what will the owner of the vineyard do to these farmers when he comes?”

⁴¹ The Jewish priests and leaders said, “He will surely kill those evil men. Then he will lease the land to other farmers, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

⁴² Jesus said to them, “Surely you have read this in the Scriptures:

⁴³ “So I tell you that God’s kingdom will be taken away from you. It will be given to people who do what God wants in his kingdom. ⁴⁴ Whoever falls on this stone will be broken. And it will crush anyone it falls on.”^[a]

⁴⁵ When the leading priests and the Pharisees heard these stories, they knew that Jesus was talking about them. ⁴⁶ They wanted to find a way to arrest Jesus. But they were afraid to do anything, because the people believed that Jesus was a prophet.

God Sends His Son^(A)

12 Jesus used stories to teach the people. He said, “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around the field and dug a hole for a winepress. Then he built a tower. He leased the land to some farmers and left for a trip.

² “Later, it was time for the grapes to be picked. So the man sent a servant to the farmers to get his share of the grapes. ³ But the farmers grabbed the servant and beat him. They sent him away with nothing. ⁴ Then the man sent another servant to the farmers. They hit this servant on the head, showing no respect for him. ⁵ So the man sent another servant. The farmers killed this servant. The man sent many other servants to the farmers. The farmers beat some of them and killed the others.

⁶ “The man had only one person left to send to the farmers. It was his son. He loved his son, but he decided to send him. He said, ‘The farmers will respect my son.’

⁷ “But the farmers said to each other, ‘This is the owner’s son, and this vineyard will be his. If we kill him, it will be ours.’ ⁸ So they took the son, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

⁹ “So what will the man who owns the vineyard do? He will go and kill those farmers. Then he will lease the land to others. ¹⁰ Surely you have read this in the Scriptures:

¹² When these Jewish leaders heard this story, they knew it was about them. They wanted to find a way to arrest Jesus, but they were afraid of what the crowd would do. So they left him and went away.