41Now when Jesus approached and saw the city, he wept over it, 42saying, “If you had only known on this day, even you, the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. 44They will demolish you—you and your children within your walls—and they will not leave within you one stone on top of another because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”
45Then Jesus entered the temple courts and began to drive out those who were selling things there, 46saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of robbers!”
47Jesus was teaching daily in the temple courts. The chief priests and the experts in the law and the prominent leaders among the people were seeking to assassinate him, 48but they could not find a way to do it, for all the people hung on his words.
1Now one day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the gospel, the chief priests and the experts in the law with the elders came up 2and said to him, “Tell us: By what authority are you doing these things? Or who is it who gave you this authority?” 3He answered them, “I will also ask you a question, and you tell me: 4John’s baptism—was it from heaven or from people?” 5So they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ 6But if we say, ‘From people,’ all the people will stone us because they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7So they replied that they did not know where it came from. 8Then Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by whose authority I do these things.”
9Then he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and went on a journey for a long time. 10When harvest time came, he sent a slave to the tenants so that they would give him his portion of the crop. However, the tenants beat his slave and sent him away empty-handed. 11So he sent another slave. They beat this one too, treated him outrageously, and sent him away empty-handed. 12So he sent still a third. They even wounded this one and threw him out. 13Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What should I do? I will send my one dear son; perhaps they will respect him.’ 14But when the tenants saw him, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir; let’s kill him so the inheritance will be ours!’ 15So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When the people heard this, they said, “May this never happen!” 17But Jesus looked straight at them and said, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’? 18Everyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and the one on whom it falls will be crushed.” 19Then the experts in the law and the chief priests wanted to arrest him that very hour because they realized he had told this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.