Jesus told a parable about the Jewish religious leaders rejecting him as Messiah.

Matthew 21:33-46

33 “Listen to another parable that I will tell you. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He built a fence around it. He dug a hole in the ground inside the fence. He placed in the hole a stone tank to collect the juice that would be pressed out of the grapes. He also built a tower inside that fence that someone would sit in to guard that vineyard. He arranged for some men to care for the vineyard and to give him some of the grapes in return. Then he went away to another country. 34 When it was time to harvest the grapes, the landowner sent some of his servants to the men who were taking care of the vineyard to get his share of the grapes that the vineyard had produced. 35 But the renters seized the servants. They beat one of them, they killed another one, and killed another one of them by throwing stones at him. 36 So the landowner sent more servants than he had sent the first time. The renters treated those servants the same way that they had treated the other servants. 37 Later, knowing this, the landowner sent his son to the renters to get his share of the grapes. When he sent him, he said to himself, ‘They will certainly respect my son and give him some of the grapes.’ 38 But when the renters saw his son arriving, they said to each other, ‘This is the man who will inherit this vineyard! Let’s kill him and divide the property among ourselves.’ 39 So they grabbed him, dragged him outside the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now I ask you, when the landowner returns to his vineyard, what do you think he will do to those renters?” 41 The chief priests and elders replied, “He will thoroughly destroy those wicked renters! Then he will rent the vineyard to others. They will give him his share of the grapes when they are ripe.” 42 Jesus said to them, “That is right, so you need to think carefully about these words which you have read [RHQ] in the Scriptures:

The builders rejected a certain stone. But others put that same stone in its proper place, and it has become the most important stone of the building [MET]. The Lord has done this, and we marvel as we look at it.

43 So, because you reject me, I am going to tell you this: God will no longer let you Jews be the people over whom he rules. Instead, he will let non-Jews be the people over whom he rules, and they will do [IDM] what he asks them to do. 44 The important stone in the building represents me, the Messiah, and those who reject me are like people who fall on this stone. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken into pieces {This cornerstone will break into pieces anyone who falls on it}, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

45 When the chief priests and the elders who were Pharisees heard this parable, they realized that he was accusing them because they did not believe that he was the Messiah. 46 They wanted to seize him, but they did not do so because they were afraid of what the crowds would do if they did that, because the crowds considered that Jesus was a prophet.