Matthew 22
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- Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:
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- "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
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- He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
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- "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.'
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- "But they paid no attention and went off--one to his field, another to his business.
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- The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
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- The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
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- "Then he said to his servants, `The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.
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- Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.'
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- 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.
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- "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
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- `Friend,' he asked, `how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless.
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- "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.'
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- "For many are invited, but few are chosen."
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- Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.
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- 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.
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- Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
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- But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?
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- Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius,
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- and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"
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- "Caesar's," they replied. Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
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- When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
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- That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.
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- "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.
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- 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.
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- The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh.
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- Finally, the woman died.
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- Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"
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- Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
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- At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
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- But about the resurrection of the dead--have you not read what God said to you,
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- `I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' [1] ? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."
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- When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
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- Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
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- One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
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- "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
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- Jesus replied: "`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' [2]
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- This is the first and greatest commandment.
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- And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.' [3]
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- All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
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- While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
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- "What do you think about the Christ [4] ? Whose son is he?" "The son of David," they replied.
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- He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him `Lord'? For he says,
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- "`The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet."' [5]
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- If then David calls him `Lord,' how can he be his son?"
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- No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.
