The parable of the wedding banquet

¹Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ² ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants 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 and said, “Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, 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, ill-treated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers 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 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, 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?” 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.”

¹⁴ ‘For many are invited, but few are chosen.’

Paying the poll-tax to Caesar

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. ‘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 poll-tax^[a] 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, and to God what is God’s.’

²² When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

Marriage at the resurrection

²³ That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, 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. 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 or the power of God. ³⁰ At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; 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]? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.’

³³ When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

The greatest commandment

³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, 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] 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”^{[d] 40} All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’

Whose son is the Messiah?

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,’ 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.