Gospel according to Saint Mark 12,1-12
Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes and the elders in parables. «A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a hole for the wine press and built a watch tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenants and went abroad.
»In due time he sent a servant to receive from the tenants his share of the fruit. But they seized the servant, struck him and sent him back empty-handed. Again the man sent another servant. They also struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. He sent another and they killed him. In the same way they treated many others; some they struck and others they killed. One was still left, his beloved son. And so, last of all, he sent him to the tenants, for he said: ‘They will respect my son’. But those tenants said to one another: ‘This is the one who is to inherit the vineyard. Let’s kill him and the property will be ours’. So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
»Now, what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others». And Jesus added, «Have you not read this text of the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the keystone. This was the Lord’s doing; and we marvel at it’».
They wanted to arrest him for they realized that Jesus meant this parable for them, but they were afraid of the crowd. So they left him and went away.
