Luke 20:9-19

Jesus taught the people using this story: “A man once planted a vineyard, then leased it out to tenants. Then he left to go abroad and was away for a long time. At harvest time, the owner sent one of his servants to the tenants to collect the landowner’s share of the harvest, but the tenants sent him away, beaten and empty-handed. So the owner dispatched another one of his servants to collect his portion, but the tenants treated him the same way. They cursed him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. Then the owner sent a third servant, but they brutalized him also with the same treatment. Finally the owner of the vineyard said to his son, ‘Perhaps if I send you, my own cherished son, they will be ashamed of what they’ve done.’ “But when the tenants saw the son coming, they schemed among themselves. ‘This is the heir of the vineyard! If we kill him, the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw the son off the property and killed him. “I ask you, what do you think the owner of the vineyard will do to his son’s murderers? He will come back and destroy them and give his vineyard to another.” When the people heard this story, they all agreed, “This should never happen!” Jesus looked straight at the people and their leaders and said, “What do you think this verse means? ‘The worthless, rejected stone has become the cornerstone, the most important stone of all.’ Everyone who falls in humility upon that stone will be broken. But if that stone falls on you, it will grind you to pieces!” When the high priests and experts of the law realized that this story was about them, they wanted to have Jesus arrested that very moment, but they were afraid of all the people.