Woe to Jerusalem

Matthew 23:27-39

27 "How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! You are like white-washed tombs -- beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity. 28 You try to look like upright people outwardly, but inside your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 "How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed and decorate the graves of the godly people your ancestors destroyed. 30 Then you say, 'We never would have joined them in killing the prophets.' 31 "In saying that, you are accusing yourselves of being the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead. Finish what they started. 33 Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell? 34 I will send you prophets and wise men and teachers of religious law. You will kill some by crucifixion and whip others in your synagogues, chasing them from city to city. 35 As a result, you will become guilty of murdering all the godly people from righteous Abel to Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered in the Temple between the altar and the sanctuary. 36 I assure you, all the accumulated judgment of the centuries will break upon the heads of this very generation. 37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me. 38 And now look, your house is left to you, empty and desolate. 39 For I tell you this, you will never see me again until you say, 'Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!' "


John 19:12-15

12 Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders told him, "If you release this man, you are not a friend of Caesar. Anyone who declares himself a king is a rebel against Caesar." 13 When they said this, Pilate brought Jesus out to them again. Then Pilate sat down on the judgment seat on the platform that is called the Stone Pavement (in Hebrew, Gabbatha). 14 It was now about noon of the day of preparation for the Passover. And Pilate said to the people, "Here is your king!" 15 "Away with him," they yelled. "Away with him -- crucify him!" "What? Crucify your king?" Pilate asked. "We have no king but Caesar," the leading priests shouted back.


Luke 20:9-19

9 Then He began to tell the people this parable: "A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time. 10 "Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 "Again he sent another servant; and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 "And again he sent a third; and they wounded him also and cast him out. 13 "Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him.' 14 "But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.' 15 "So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 "He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others." And when they heard it they said, "Certainly not!" 17 Then He looked at them and said, "What then is this that is written: 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone'? 18 "Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder." 19 And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people -- for they knew He had spoken this parable against them.