Matthew
22
- Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:
- "The kingdom of heaven is like a king
who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
- He sent his servants to those who had been
invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
- "Then he sent some more servants and
said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My
oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come
to the wedding banquet.'
- "But they paid no attention and went
off--one to his field, another to his business.
- The rest seized his servants, mistreated
them and killed them.
- The king was enraged. He sent his army and
destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
- "Then he said to his servants, 'The
wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.
- Go to the street corners and invite to the
banquet anyone you find.'
- So the servants went out into the streets
and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding
hall was filled with guests.
- "But when the king came in to see the
guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
- 'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in
here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless.
- "Then the king told the attendants,
'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
- "For many are invited, but few are
chosen."
- Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans
to trap him in his words.
- They sent their disciples to him along with
the Herodians. "Teacher," they said, "we know you are a man
of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are.
- Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it
right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
- But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said,
"You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?
- Show me the coin used for paying the tax."
They brought him a denarius,
- and he asked them, "Whose portrait
is this? And whose inscription?"
- "Caesar's," they replied. Then
he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is
God's."
- When they heard this, they were amazed.
So they left him and went away.
- That same day the Sadducees, who say there
is no resurrection, came to him with a question.
- "Teacher," they said, "Moses
told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry
the widow and have children for him.
- Now there were seven brothers among us.
The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his
wife to his brother.
- The same thing happened to the second and
third brother, right on down to the seventh.
- Finally, the woman died.
- Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife
will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"
- Jesus replied, "You are in error because
you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
- At the resurrection people will neither
marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
- But about the resurrection of the dead--have
you not read what God said to you,
- 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."
- When the crowds heard this, they were astonished
at his teaching.
- Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
the Pharisees got together.
- One of them, an expert in the law, tested
him with this question:
- "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment
in the Law?"
- Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
- This is the first and greatest commandment.
- And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor
as yourself.'
- All the Law and the Prophets hang on these
two commandments."
- While the Pharisees were gathered together,
Jesus asked them,
- "What do you think about the Christ?
Whose son is he?" "The son of David," they replied.
- He said to them, "How is it then that
David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him 'Lord'? For he says,
- "'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit
at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet." '
- If then David calls him 'Lord,' how can
he be his son?"
- No one could say a word in reply, and from
that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.
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