The Parable of the Wedding Banquet^(A)

22 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ² “The kingdom of heaven is like^(B) a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants^(C) to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

⁴ “Then he sent some more servants^(D) 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.’

⁵ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶ The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers^(E) and burned their city.

⁸ “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go to the street corners^(F) and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good,^(G) and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend^(H)?’ The man was speechless.

¹³ “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.’^(I)

¹⁴ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”^(J)

Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar^(K)

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. ¹⁶ They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians.^(L) “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. ¹⁷ Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax^[a](M) to Caesar or not?”

¹⁸ But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? ¹⁹ Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, ²⁰ and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

²¹ “Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s,^(N) and to God what is God’s.”

²² When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.^(O)

Marriage at the Resurrection^(P)

²³ That same day the Sadducees,^(Q) who say there is no resurrection,^(R) came to him with a question. ²⁴ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.^{(S) 25} 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. ²⁶ The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. ²⁷ Finally, the woman died. ²⁸ Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

²⁹ Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures^(T) or the power of God. ³⁰ At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage;^(U) they will be like the angels in heaven. ³¹ But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’^[b]?^(V) He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

³³ When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.^(W)

The Greatest Commandment^(X)

³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,^(Y) the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law,^(Z) tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{[c](AA) 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[d](AB) 40} All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”^(AC)

Whose Son Is the Messiah?^(AD)

⁴¹ While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, ⁴² “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,”^(AE) they replied.

⁴³ He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,

⁴⁵ If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” ⁴⁶ No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.^(AG)

The Vine and the Branches

15 “I am^(A) the true vine,^(B) and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,^(C) while every branch that does bear fruit^(D) he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.^{(E) 4} Remain in me, as I also remain in you.^(F) No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit;^(G) apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.^{(H) 7} If you remain in me^(I) and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.^{(J) 8} This is to my Father’s glory,^(K) that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.^(L)

⁹ “As the Father has loved me,^(M) so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands,^(N) you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.^{(O) 12} My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.^{(P) 13} Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.^{(Q) 14} You are my friends^(R) if you do what I command.^{(S) 15} I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.^{(T) 16} You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you^(U) so that you might go and bear fruit^(V)—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.^{(W) 17} This is my command: Love each other.^(X)

The World Hates the Disciples

¹⁸ “If the world hates you,^(Y) keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you^(Z) out of the world. That is why the world hates you.^{(AA) 20} Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’^[b](AB) If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.^(AC) If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹ They will treat you this way because of my name,^(AD) for they do not know the one who sent me.^{(AE) 22} If I had not come and spoken to them,^(AF) they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.^{(AG) 23} Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works no one else did,^(AH) they would not be guilty of sin.^(AI) As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law:^(AJ) ‘They hated me without reason.’^[c](AK)

The Work of the Holy Spirit

²⁶ “When the Advocate^(AL) comes, whom I will send to you from the Father^(AM)—the Spirit of truth^(AN) who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.^{(AO) 27} And you also must testify,^(AP) for you have been with me from the beginning.^(AQ)