Mark 11:28-33
“By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “Who gave you authority to do this?”
Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. Was John’s baptism from heaven? Or did it come from human authority? Tell me!”
They talked to each other about it. They said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But what if we say, ‘From human authority’?” They were afraid of the people. Everyone believed that John really was a prophet.
So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”
Jesus said, “Then I won’t tell you by what authority I am doing these things either.”
Mark 12:1-12
The Story of the Renters
Jesus began to speak to the people using stories. He said, “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it. He dug a pit for a winepress. He also built a lookout tower. He rented the vineyard out to some farmers. Then he went to another place. At harvest time he sent a servant to the renters. He told the servant to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. But they grabbed the servant and beat him up. Then they sent him away with nothing. So the man sent another servant to the renters. They hit this one on the head and treated him badly. The man sent still another servant. The renters killed him. The man sent many others. The renters beat up some of them. They killed the others.
“The man had one person left to send. It was his son, and he loved him. He sent him last of all. He said, ‘They will respect my son.’
“But the renters said to each other, ‘This is the one who will receive all the owner’s property someday. Come, let’s kill him. Then everything will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him. They threw him out of the vineyard.
“What will the owner of the vineyard do then? He will come and kill those renters. He will give the vineyard to others. Haven’t you read what this part of Scripture says,
“ ‘The stone the builders didn’t accept
has become the most important stone of all.
The Lord has done it.
It is wonderful in our eyes’?” (Psalm 118:22,23)
Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest Jesus. They knew he had told the story against them. But they were afraid of the crowd. So they left him and went away.
