Mark 11:27-12:12

Jesus’ Authority Questioned

²⁷They came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him, ²⁸and began saying to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?” ²⁹And Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. ³⁰Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.” ³¹They began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ ³²But shall we say, ‘From men’?”—they were afraid of the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet. ³³Answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

12. Parable of the Vine-growers

¹And He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and put a wall around it, and dug a vat under the wine press and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. ²At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. ³They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. ⁵And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. ⁶He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ ⁸They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰Have you not even read this Scripture:

‘The stone which the builders rejected,
This became the chief corner stone;
¹¹This came about from the Lord,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

¹²And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so they left Him and went away.