Study Desk

"But when the farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the owner's son. This vineyard will be his. If we kill him, it will be ours.'

The Jewish priests and leaders said, "He will surely kill those evil men. Then he will lease the land to other farmers, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time."

"So I tell you that God's kingdom will be taken away from you. It will be given to people who do what God wants in his kingdom.

"God's kingdom is like a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son.

He invited some people to the feast. When it was ready, the king sent his servants to tell the people to come. But they refused to come to the king's feast.

"But when the servants told the people to come, they refused to listen. They all went to do other things. One went to work in his field, and another went to his business.

The king was very angry. He sent his army to kill those who murdered his servants. And the army burned their city.

"After that the king said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready. I invited those people, but they were not good enough to come to my feast.

They said, "Teacher, Moses told us that if a married man dies and had no children, his brother must marry the woman. Then they will have children for the dead brother.

There were seven brothers among us. The first brother married but died. He had no children. So his brother married the woman.

Then Jesus spoke to the people and to his followers. He said,

You guide the people, but you are blind! Think about a man picking a little fly out of his drink and then swallowing a camel! You are like that.

Jesus left the Temple area and was walking away. But his followers came to him to show him the Temple's buildings.

He will use a loud trumpet to send his angels all around the earth. They will gather his chosen people from every part of the earth.

"But what will happen if that servant is evil and thinks his master will not come back soon?

"At that time God's kingdom will also be like a man leaving home to travel to another place for a visit. Before he left, he talked with his servants. He told his servants to take care of his things while he was gone.

But the servant who got one bag of money went away and dug a hole in the ground. Then he hid his master's money in the hole.

"After a long time the master came home. He asked the servants what they did with his money.

"So the master told his other servants, ‘Take the one bag of money from that servant and give it to the servant who has ten bags.

"The Son of Man will come again with divine greatness, and all his angels will come with him. He will sit as king on his great and glorious throne.