Mark 12:1-9

1Then Jesus began to speak again to the important Jews. He told them stories. He said, ‘There was a man who made a garden. He planted vines to grow grapes there. He built a wall around the garden. He dug a hole in the ground where he could make the grapes into wine. He also built a tall building to watch over the garden. He found some farmers who would work in the garden for him. Then he went away to another country.

2At 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.

3But the farmers took hold of the servant and they hit him with sticks. They sent him away with nothing.

4So the man sent another servant to the farmers. They also hit this servant on the head, and they did other bad things to him.

5The man then sent another servant, but the farmers killed this servant. He sent many other servants to them. The farmers hit some of these servants with sticks and they killed other servants.

6The man had only one person that he could still send. This was his own son. The man loved him very much. So, last of all, he sent his son to the farmers. He thought, “The farmers will surely respect my son.”

7But those farmers said to each other, “This is the son of our master. The garden will belong to him when his father dies. We should kill the son and then the garden will be ours.”

8So the farmers took the son and they killed him. Then they threw his dead body out of the garden.’

9Jesus then asked, ‘What will the master of the garden do then? I tell you, he will come and he will kill those farmers. Then he will give the garden to other people to take care of it.