The Song About the Lord’s Vineyard

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

³³ “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. He leased it out to some tenant farmers and went away on a journey. ³⁴ When the time approached to harvest the fruit, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. ³⁵ The tenant farmers seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. ³⁶ Then the landowner sent even more servants than the first time. The tenant farmers treated them the same way. ³⁷ Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. ³⁸ But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance!’ ³⁹ They took him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰ So when the landowner comes, what will he do to those tenant farmers?”

⁴¹ They told him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end. Then he will lease out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his fruit when it is due.”

⁴² Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

⁴³ “That is why I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruit. ⁴⁴ Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was talking about them. ⁴⁶ Although they were looking for a way to arrest him, they were afraid of the crowds because the people regarded him as a prophet.

Press On

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus also took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it yet, but there is one thing I do: Forgetting the things that are behind and straining toward the things that are ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ Therefore, let all of us who are mature continue to think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this to you too. ¹⁶ Only let us think the same thing and^[a] walk in line with what we already have attained.

¹⁷ Brothers, join together in imitating me and in paying attention to those who are walking according to the pattern we gave you. ¹⁸ To be sure, many walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. I told you about them often, and now I am saying it while weeping. ¹⁹ Their end is destruction, their god is their appetite,^[b] and their glory is in their shame. They are thinking only about earthly things. ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. We are eagerly waiting for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹ By the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, he will transform our humble bodies to be like his glorious body.