Matthew 22:1-22

New Century Version

A Story About a Wedding Feast

22 Jesus again used stories to teach them. He said, ² “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son. ³ The king invited some people to the feast. When the feast was ready, the king sent his servants to tell the people, but they refused to come.

⁴ “Then the king sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited that my feast is ready. I have killed my best bulls and calves for the dinner, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’

⁵ “But the people refused to listen to the servants and left to do other things. One went to work in his field, and another went to his business. ⁶ Some of the other people grabbed the servants, beat them, and killed them. ⁷ The king was furious and sent his army to kill the murderers and burn their city.

⁸ “After that, the king said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready. I invited those people, but they were not worthy to come. ⁹ So go to the street corners and invite everyone you find to come to my feast.’ ¹⁰ So the servants went into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹ “When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man who was not dressed for a wedding. ¹² The king said, ‘Friend, how were you allowed to come in here? You are not dressed for a wedding.’ But the man said nothing. ¹³ So the king told some servants, ‘Tie this man’s hands and feet. Throw him out into the darkness, where people will cry and grind their teeth with pain.’

¹⁴ “Yes, many are invited, but only a few are chosen.”

Is It Right to Pay Taxes or Not?

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees left that place and made plans to trap Jesus in saying something wrong. ¹⁶ They sent some of their own followers and some people from the group called Herodians.^[a] They said, “Teacher, we know that you are an honest man and that you teach the truth about God’s way. You are not afraid of what other people think about you, because you pay no attention to who they are. ¹⁷ So tell us what you think. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

¹⁸ But knowing that these leaders were trying to trick him, Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Why are you trying to trap me? ¹⁹ Show me a coin used for paying the tax.” So the men showed him a coin.^{[b] 20} Then Jesus asked, “Whose image and name are on the coin?”

²¹ The men answered, “Caesar’s.”

Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”

²² When the men heard what Jesus said, they were amazed and left him and went away.