Chronological
The parable of the wedding feast
22 Jesus spoke to them once again in parables.
2 “The kingdom of heaven,” he said, “is like a king who made a wedding feast for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call the invited guests to the wedding, and they didn’t want to come.
4 “Again he sent other slaves, with these instructions: ‘Say to the guests, Look! I’ve got my dinner ready; my bulls and fatted calves have been killed; everything is prepared. Come to the wedding!’
5 “But they didn’t take any notice. They went off, one to his own farm, another to see to his business. 6 The others laid hands on his slaves, abused them and killed them. 7 (The king was angry, and sent his soldiers to destroy those murderers and burn down their city.) 8 Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but the guests didn’t deserve it. 9 So go to the roads leading out of town, and invite everyone you find to the wedding.’ 10 The slaves went off into the streets and rounded up everyone they found, bad and good alike. And the wedding was filled with partygoers.
11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who wasn’t wearing a wedding suit.
12 “ ‘My friend,’ he said to him, ‘how did you get in here without a wedding suit?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Tie him up, hands and feet, and throw him into the darkness outside, where people weep and grind their teeth.’
14 “Many are called, you see, but few are chosen.”
Paying taxes to Caesar
15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might trap him into saying the wrong thing. 16 They sent their followers to him, with the Herodians.
“Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are truthful, and that you teach God’s way truthfully. You don’t care what anyone thinks about you, because you don’t try to flatter people or favor them. 17 So tell us what you think. Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, or not?”
18 Jesus knew their evil intentions.
“Why are you trying to trick me, you hypocrites?” he said. 19 “Show me the tribute coin.” They brought him a dinar.
20 “This . . . image,” said Jesus, “and this . . . inscription. Who do they belong to?”
21 “Caesar,” they said.
“Well then,” said Jesus, “you’d better give Caesar back what belongs to Caesar! And—give God what belongs to God!”
22 When they heard that they were astonished. They left him and went away.
The question of the resurrection
23 The same day some Sadducees came to him. (The Sadducees deny the resurrection.) Their question was this.
24 “Teacher,” they began, “Moses said, ‘If a man dies without children, his brother should marry his widow and raise up seed for his brother.’ 25 Well now, there were seven brothers living among us. The first got married, and then died, and since he didn’t have children he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened with the second and the third, and so on with all seven. 27 Last of all the woman died. 28 So: in the resurrection, whose wife will she be, of all the seven? All of them had married her, after all.”
29 This was Jesus’ answer to them: “You are quite mistaken,” he said, “because you don’t know your Bibles or God’s power. 30 In the resurrection, you see, people don’t marry or get married off; they are like angels in heaven. 31 But as for the resurrection of the dead, did you never read what was said to you by God, in these words: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He isn’t God of the dead, but of the living.”
33 The crowds heard this, and they were astonished at his teaching.
The Great Commandment, and David’s Master
34 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they got together in a group. 35 One of them, a lawyer, put him on the spot with this question.
36 “Teacher,” he said, “which is the most important commandment in the law?”
37 “You must love the Lord your God,” replied Jesus, “with all your heart, with all your life, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first commandment, and it’s the one that really matters. 39 The second is similar, and it’s this: You must love your neighbor as yourself. 40 The entire law hangs on these two commandments—and that goes for the prophets, too.”
41 While the Pharisees were gathered there, Jesus asked them, 42 “What’s your view of the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
“David’s,” they said to him.
43 “Why then,” said Jesus, “does David (speaking by the spirit) call him ‘Master,’ when he says,
44 The Master says to my master,
sit here at my right hand,
until I place your enemies
down beneath your feet.
45 “If David calls him ‘Master,’ how can he be his son?”
46 Nobody was able to answer him a single word. From that day on nobody dared ask him anything any more.
The parable of the tenants
12 Jesus began to speak to them with parables.
“Once upon a time,” he began, “there was a man who planted a vineyard. He built a fence around it, dug out a wine-press, built a watchtower, and then let it out to tenant farmers. He himself went abroad. 2 When the time came he sent a slave to the farmers to collect from them his portion of the vineyard’s produce. 3 They seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
4 “So again he sent another slave to them. This one they beat about the head, and treated shamefully. 5 He sent another, and they killed him. He sent several more; they beat some and killed others.
6 “He had one more to send: his beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking ‘They will respect my son.’
7 “But the tenant farmers said to themselves, ‘This is the heir! Come on—let’s kill him, and we’ll get the inheritance!’ 8 So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9 “So what will the vineyard owner do? He will come and destroy those tenants, and give the vineyard to others. 10 Or haven’t you read the scripture which says,
There is the stone the builders refused;
now it’s in place at the top of the corner.
11 This was the way the Lord planned it;
we were astonished to see it.”
12 They tried to find a way of arresting him, because they realized he had directed the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd. They left him and went away.
On paying taxes to Caesar
13 They sent some Pharisees to Jesus, and some Herodians, to try to trick him into saying the wrong thing.
14 “Teacher,” they said, “we know you are a man of integrity; you don’t regard anybody as special. You don’t bother about the outward show people put up; you teach God’s way truly.
“Well then: is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? Should we pay it, or shouldn’t we?”
15 He knew the game they were playing. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he said. “Bring me a tribute-coin; let me look at it.”
16 They brought one to him.
“This image,” he asked, “whose is it? And whose is this superscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
17 “Well then,” said Jesus, “give Caesar back what belongs to Caesar—and give God back what belongs to God!”
They were astonished at him.
Marriage and the resurrection
18 Some Sadducees approached Jesus (Sadducees, by the way, deny the resurrection).
19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that ‘if a man’s brother dies, and leaves a wife but no child, the brother should take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’ 20 Well now: there were once seven brothers. The first married a wife, and died without children. 21 The second married the widow, and died without children. The third did so as well, 22 and so did all seven, still without leaving children. Finally the woman died too. 23 So: when they rise again in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven had her, after all.”
24 “Where you’re going wrong,” replied Jesus, “is that you don’t know the scriptures, or God’s power. 25 When people rise from the dead, they don’t marry, nor do people give them in marriage. They are like angels in heaven.
26 “However, to show that the dead are indeed to be raised, surely you’ve read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, what God says to Moses? ‘I am Abraham’s God, Isaac’s God and Jacob’s God’? 27 He isn’t the God of the dead, but of the living. You are completely mistaken.”
The most important commandment
28 One of the legal experts came up, and overheard the discussion. Realizing that Jesus had given a splendid answer, he put a question of his own.
“Which commandment,” he asked, “is the first one of all?”
29 “The first one,” replied Jesus, “is this: ‘Listen, Israel: the Lord your God, the Lord is one; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your understanding, and with all your strength.’ 31 And this is the second one: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these ones.”
32 “Well said, Teacher,” answered the lawyer. “You are right in saying that ‘he is one and that there is no other beside him,’ 33 and that ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the intelligence, and with all the strength’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself’ is worth far more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 Jesus saw that his answer came out of deep understanding.
“You are not far from God’s kingdom,” he said to him.
After that, nobody dared put any more questions to him.
David’s son and the widow’s mite
35 By way of response to it all, Jesus began to teach in the Temple.
“Why do the experts say,” he asked, “that the Messiah is the son of David? 36 David himself, inspired by the holy spirit, said:
The Lord said to my Lord:
sit at my right hand,
until I place your enemies
right underneath your feet.
37 “David himself calls him ‘Lord’; how then can he be his son?”
The whole crowd listened to him with delight.
38 During his teaching, he said, “Beware of the lawyers! They like to walk about in long robes, and to be greeted in the market-places. 39 They take the chief seats in the synagogue, and the best places at dinner parties. 40 They devour the property of widows, and make long prayers without meaning them. They will receive all the more condemnation.”
41 As he sat opposite the Temple treasury, he watched the crowd putting money into the alms boxes. Lots of rich people put in substantial amounts. 42 Then there came a single poor widow, who put in two tiny coins, together worth a single penny.
43 Jesus called his disciples.
“I’m telling you the truth,” he said. “This poor widow just put more into the treasury than everybody else. 44 You see, all the others were contributing out of their wealth; but she put in everything she had, out of her poverty. It was her whole livelihood.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.