Luke 20:9-16

9Then Jesus began to tell this story to the people. He said, ‘A man planted vines in his garden to grow grapes there. He found some farmers to work in the garden for him. Then he went away to another country and he stayed there for a long time.

10At the time for the harvest, the man sent a servant to speak to the farmers. He wanted them to give him some fruit from the garden. But the farmers hit the servant with sticks and they sent him away with nothing.

11The master sent another servant to go to the farmers. They hit him with sticks too, and they did other bad things to him. They also sent him away with nothing.

12The master then sent a third servant to the farmers. They hurt him badly too, and they threw him out of the garden.

13Then the master of the garden said to himself, “I know what I will do. I will send my own son to go to them. I love him very much. Perhaps they will respect him.”

14But the farmers saw him coming. They said to each other, “This is the son of our master. When our master dies, the garden will belong to his son. So we should kill the son and then the garden will be ours.”

15So they threw the son out of the garden and they killed him.’ Jesus went on to ask, ‘Then what will the master of the garden do to those farmers?

16I tell you, he will come to those farmers and he will kill them. Then he will give the garden to other people to take care of it.’ When the people heard this, they replied, ‘That must never happen!’