Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 362
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IMMERSE
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MESSIAH
21:33–22:5
you didn’t believe him, while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even
when you saw this happening, you refused to believe him and repent of
your sins.
“Now listen to another story. A certain landowner planted a vineyard,
built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a
lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved
to another country. At the time of the grape harvest, he sent his servants
to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers grabbed his servants, beat
one, killed one, and stoned another. So the landowner sent a larger group
of his servants to collect for him, but the results were the same.
“Finally, the owner sent his son, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my
son.’
“But when the tenant farmers saw his son coming, they said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Come on, let’s kill him and get
the estate for ourselves!’ So they grabbed him, dragged him out of the
vineyard, and murdered him.
“When the owner of the vineyard returns,” Jesus asked, “what do you
think he will do to those farmers?”
The religious leaders replied, “He will put the wicked men to a horrible
death and lease the vineyard to others who will give him his share of the
crop after each harvest.”
Then Jesus asked them, “Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures?
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing,
and it is wonderful to see.’
I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a
nation that will produce the proper fruit. Anyone who stumbles over that
stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone it falls on.”
When the leading priests and Pharisees heard this parable, they realized
he was telling the story against them—they were the wicked farmers. They
wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds, who considered
Jesus to be a prophet.
Jesus also told them other parables. He said, “The Kingdom of Heaven can
be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for
his son. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those
who were invited. But they all refused to come!
“So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared.
The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready.
Come to the banquet!’ But the guests he had invited ignored them and
