On one of those days, as he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the Good News, the priests and scribes came to him with the elders. They asked him, “Tell us: by what authority do you do these things? Or who is giving you this authority?”

He answered them, “I also will ask you one question. Tell me: the baptism of John, was it from heaven, or from men?”

They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” They answered that they didn’t know where it was from.

Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

He began to tell the people this parable. “A man planted a vineyard, and rented it out to some farmers, and went into another country for a long time. At the proper season, he sent a servant to the farmers to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him, and sent him away empty. He sent yet another servant, and they also beat him, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. He sent yet a third, and they also wounded him, and threw him out. The lord of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be that seeing him, they will respect him.’

“But when the farmers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ They threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy these farmers, and will give the vineyard to others.”

When they heard it, they said, “May it never be!”

But he looked at them, and said, “Then what is this that is written,

‘The stone which the builders rejected,

the same was made the chief cornerstone?’

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces,

but it will crush whomever it falls on to dust.”

The chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on him that very hour, but they feared the people—for they knew he had spoken this parable against them. They watched him, and sent out spies, who pretended to be righteous, that they might trap him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the power and authority of the governor. They asked him, “Teacher, we know that you say and teach what is right, and aren’t partial to anyone, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, “Why do you test me? Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”

They answered, “Caesar’s.”

He said to them, “Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

They weren’t able to trap him in his words before the people. They marveled at his answer, and were silent.