• Parable of the Wedding Feast

  • 1 And Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables, saying,
  • 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.
  • 3 And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been called to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come.
  • 4 Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been called, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”’
  • 5 But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business,
  • 6 and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.
  • 7 But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.
  • 8 Then he *said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were called were not worthy.
  • 9 Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, call to the wedding feast.’
  • 10 And those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.
  • 11 “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes,
  • 12 and he *said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless.
  • 13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
  • 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”

  • Taxes to Caesar

  • 15 Then the Pharisees went and took counsel together about how they might trap Him in what He said.
  • 16 And they *sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any.
  • 17 Therefore, tell us, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a tax to Caesar, or not?”
  • 18 But Jesus, knowing their wickedness, said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?
  • 19 Show Me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought Him a denarius.
  • 20 And He *said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”
  • 21 They *said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He *said to them, “Therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”
  • 22 And hearing this, they marveled, and leaving Him, they went away.

  • The Sadducees and the Resurrection

  • 23 On that day some Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to Jesus and asked Him a question,
  • 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother as next of kin shall marry his wife and raise up a seed for his brother.’
  • 25 Now there were seven brothers with us; and the first married and died, and having no seed, he left his wife to his brother;
  • 26 so also the second, and the third, down to the seventh.
  • 27 And last of all, the woman died.
  • 28 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her.”
  • 29 But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God.
  • 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
  • 31 But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying,
  • 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
  • 33 And when the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

  • The Foremost Commandment

  • 34 But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together.
  • 35 And one of them, a scholar of the Law, asked Him a question, testing Him,
  • 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
  • 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
  • 38 This is the great and foremost commandment.
  • 39 And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
  • 40 On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”
  • 41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,
  • 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They *said to Him, “The son of David.”
  • 43 He *said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying,
  • 44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet”’?
  • 45 Therefore, if David calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?”
  • 46 And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.