Dual Panel1JESUS spoke to them again in parables:
2“The kingdom of Heaven is like this. There was a king who arranged a banquet for his son's wedding;
3but when he sent his servants to summon the guests he had invited, they refused to come.
4Then he sent other servants, telling them to say to the guests, ‘Look! I have prepared this banquet for you. My bullocks and fatted beasts have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding.’
5But they took no notice; one went off to his farm, another to his business,
6and the others seized the servants, attacked them brutally, and killed them.
7The king was furious; he sent troops to put those murderers to death and set their town on fire.
8Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready; but the guests I invited did not deserve the honour.
9Go out therefore to the main thoroughfares, and invite everyone you can find to the wedding.’
10The servants went out into the streets, and collected everyone they could find, good and bad alike. So the hall was packed with guests.
11“When the king came in to watch them feasting, he observed a man who was not dressed for a wedding.
12‘My friend,’ said the king, ‘how do you come to be here without wedding clothes?’ But he had nothing to say.
13The king then said to his attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot; fling him out into the dark, the place of wailing and grinding of teeth.’
14For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
15THEN the Pharisees went away and agreed on a plan to trap him in argument.
16They sent some of their followers to him, together with members of Herod's party. “Teacher,” they said, “we know you are a sincere man; you teach in all sincerity the way of life that God requires, courting no man's favour, whoever he may be.
17Give us your ruling on this: are we or are we not permitted to pay taxes to the Roman emperor?”
18Jesus was aware of their malicious intention and said, “You hypocrites! Why are you trying to catch me out?
19Show me the coin used for the tax.” They handed him a silver piece.
20Jesus asked, “Whose head is this, and whose inscription?”
21“Caesar's,” they replied. He said to them, “Then pay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.”
22Taken aback by this reply, they went away and left him alone.
23The same day Sadducees, who maintain that there is no resurrection, came to him and asked:
24“Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow and provide an heir for his brother.
25We know a case involving seven brothers. The first married and died, and as he was without issue his wife was left to his brother.
26The same thing happened with the second, and the third, and so on with all seven.
27Last of all the woman died.
28At the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be, since they had all married her?”
29Jesus answered: “How far you are from the truth! You know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.
30In the resurrection men and women do not marry; they are like angels in heaven.
31“As for the resurrection of the dead, have you never read what God himself said to you:
32‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob’? God is not God of the dead but of the living.”
33When the crowds heard this, they were amazed at his teaching.
34Hearing that he had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees came together in a body,
35and one of them tried to catch him out with this question:
36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
37He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38That is the greatest, the first commandment.
39The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
40Everything in the law and the prophets hangs on these two commandments.”
41Turning to the assembled Pharisees Jesus asked them,
42“What is your opinion about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied.
43“Then how is it”, he asked, “that David by inspiration calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,
44‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’
45If then David calls him ‘Lord’, how can he be David's son?'
46Nobody was able to give him an answer; and from that day no one dared to put any more questions to him.