Then the chief priests, teachers of the law, and elders looked for a way to arrest Jesus, because they knew he’d told the story against them. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.
“You are being given the chance to understand the secrets of God’s kingdom. But to outsiders, I speak in stories. That way, “ ‘They’ll see, but they won’t know what they’re seeing; they’ll hear, but they won’t understand what they’re hearing.’
Then Jesus began to speak to the people using stories. He said, “A man planted a vineyard, put up a wall around it, dug a pit for a winepress, and built a lookout tower. Then he rented the vineyard out to some farmers and moved to another place.