The Tenants

Jesus told these stories to the chief priests and elders of the people of the day who had been following him (Matthew 21:33-44).

"There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a vine press in it and built a watchtower. Then He rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. When the harvest time appeared, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

"The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then He sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his only son to them. 'They will respect my son,' he said.

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and take his inheritance, 'So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to these tenants?"

"He will bring those wretches to a wretched end," They replied. "And he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time."

Jesus said to them, "Have you never read the Scriptures: 'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone;' the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes?

"Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to peaces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."