The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
9He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, leased it to some tenant farmers, and went away on a journey for a long time. 10When it was the right time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenant farmers beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed. 11The man went ahead and sent yet another servant, but they also beat him, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12He then sent yet a third. They also wounded him and threw him out. 13The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What should I do? I will send my son, whom I love. Perhaps they will respect him.’
14“But when the tenant farmers saw him, they talked it over with one another. They said, ‘This is the heir. Let's kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours.’ 15They threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. So what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16He will come and destroy those tenant farmers and give the vineyard to others.”
When they heard this, they said, “May it never be!”
17But he looked at them and said, “Then what about this that is written:
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.[] 18“Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush the one on whom it falls.”
19That very hour the chief priests and the experts in the law began looking for a way to lay hands on him, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.