Jesus tells a story about wicked farmers
33 Then Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, ‘Listen to another story that I will tell you. There was a man who had his own farm. He planted vines in a vineyard to grow grapes there. He built a wall around the vineyard. He dug a hole in the ground for a winepress to make wine. He also built a tower to watch over the garden.
The man then found some farmers to work in the vineyard for him. Then he went away to another country. 34 When it was nearly time for the harvest, the master sent his servants to speak to the farmers. He wanted them to give him his fruit from the vines. 35 But the farmers took hold of the servants. They hit one of them with sticks. They killed another one. They threw stones at another servant and killed him. 36 So the master sent other servants to go to the farmers. He sent more servants than the first time. But the farmers did the same thing to those servants too. 37 After that, the master sent his own son to the farmers. He thought, “The farmers will surely respect my son.”
38 The farmers saw the master's son coming. They said to each other, “This is the master's own son. The farm will belong to him when his father dies. So we should kill the son and then the farm will belong to us.” 39 So the farmers took hold of the son. They threw him out of the vineyard and they killed him.’
40 Jesus then said, ‘One day, the master will return to his vineyard. What do you think he will do then to those farmers?’
41 The Jewish leaders said to Jesus, ‘The master will completely destroy those wicked people. Then he will give the vineyard to other farmers to take care of it. Those new farmers will give the master the fruit that he should have at the time of harvest.’
42 Jesus said to them, ‘I am sure that you have read this in the Bible:
“The builders refused to use a certain stone.
They thought that it had no value.
But now that stone has become the most important stone at the corner of the building.
The Lord God did this.
We can see that he did something great.”
21:42See Psalm 118:22-23. God had chosen Jesus to do his work. But the Jewish leaders would not agree with that. 43 I tell you this. Because you do not believe in me, God will take his kingdom away from you. He will give it to people who show that they obey him.
44 When a person falls onto that stone, it will break his body into pieces. When that stone falls on top of someone, it will destroy him completely.’
45 The leaders of the priests and the Pharisees heard what Jesus said in his stories. They knew that he was speaking against them. 46 They wanted to take hold of him and put him in prison. But they did not try to do it because they were afraid of the people. The people thought that Jesus was a prophet from God.
