1. Jesus began to speak to the people by using stories. He said, "A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it. He dug a pit for a winepress. He also built a lookout tower. He rented the vineyard out to some farmers. Then he went away on a journey.
2. "At harvest time he sent a servant to the renters. He told the servant to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
3. But they grabbed the servant and beat him up. Then they sent him away with nothing.
4. So the man sent another servant to the renters. They hit this one on the head and treated him badly.
5. The man sent still another servant. The renters killed him. The man sent many others. The renters beat up some of them. They killed the others.
6. "The man had one person left to send. It was his son, and he loved him. He sent him last of all. He said, 'They will respect my son.'
7. "But the renters said to each other, 'This is the one who will receive all the owner's property someday. Come, let's kill him. Then everything will be ours.'
8. So they took him and killed him. They threw him out of the vineyard.
9. "What will the owner of the vineyard do then? He will come and kill those renters. He will give the vineyard to others.
10. "Haven't you read what Scripture says, " 'The stone the builders didn't accept has become the most important stone of all.
11. The Lord has done it. It is wonderful in our eyes'?" (Psalm 118:22,23)
12. Then the religious leaders looked for a way to arrest Jesus. They knew he had told the story against them. But they were afraid of the crowd. So they left him and went away.
13. Later the religious leaders sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus. They wanted to trap him with his own words.
14. They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of honor. You don't let others tell you what to do or say. You don't care how important they are. But you teach the way of God truthfully. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?
15. Should we pay or shouldn't we?" But Jesus knew what they were trying to do. So he asked, "Why are you trying to trap me? Bring me a silver coin. Let me look at it."
16. They brought the coin. He asked them, "Whose picture is this? And whose words?" "Caesar's," they replied.