4 Who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God in heaven or merely some human being?”
5 They talked this over and said to each other, “We can't say God gave John this right. Jesus will ask us why we didn't believe John.
6 And we can't say it was merely some human who gave John the right to baptize. The crowd will stone us to death, because they think John was a prophet.”
7 So they told Jesus, “We don't know who gave John the right to baptize.”
8 Jesus replied, “Then I won't tell you who gave me the right to do what I do.”
9 Jesus told the people this story:A man once planted a vineyard and rented it out. Then he left the country for a long time.
10 When it was time to harvest the crop, he sent a servant to ask the renters for his share of the grapes. But they beat up the servant and sent him away without anything.