Mark 12:1-9

1Jesus began to speak to them [the chief priests, scribes and elders who were questioning Him] in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and put a wall around it, and dug a pit for the wine press and built a tower; and he rented it out to tenant farmers and left the country.

2When the harvest season came he sent a servant to the tenants, in order to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.

3They took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.

4Again he sent them another servant, and they [threw stones and] wounded him in the head, and treated him disgracefully.

5And he sent another, and that one they killed; then many others—some they beat and some they killed.

6He still had one man left to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

7But those tenants said to each other, ‘This man is the heir! Come on, let us kill him [and destroy the evidence], and his inheritance will be ours!’

8So they took him and killed him, and threw his body outside the vineyard.

9What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants, and will give the vineyard to others.