1. One day when Jesus was in the Temple teaching the people and preaching the Good News, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law, together with the elders, came
2. and said to him, “Tell us, what right have you to do these things? Who gave you this right?”
3. Jesus answered them, “Now let me ask you a question. Tell me,
4. did John's right to baptize come from God or from human beings?”
5. They started to argue among themselves, “What shall we say? If we say, ‘From God,’ he will say, ‘Why, then, did you not believe John?’
6. But if we say ‘From human beings,’ this whole crowd here will stone us, because they are convinced that John was a prophet.”
7. So they answered, “We don't know where it came from.”
8. And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you, then, by what right I do these things.”
9. Then Jesus told the people this parable: “There was once a man who planted a vineyard, let it out to tenants, and then left home for a long time.
10. When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest. But the tenants beat the slave and sent him back without a thing.
11. So he sent another slave; but the tenants beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him back without a thing.
12. Then he sent a third slave; the tenants wounded him, too, and threw him out.