Luke 20

1One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came up to him with the elders.

2They said to him, “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things. Or who is it that gave you this authority?”

3He answered them, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me:

4Was John’s baptism from heaven, or from people?”

5They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’

6But if we say, ‘From people,’ all the people will stone us, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.”

7So they answered that they did not know where it was from.

8Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

9Then he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it out to tenant farmers, and went away for a long time.

10At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed.

11So he sent another servant, but they beat him too, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed.

12Then he sent a third, but they wounded this one too and threw him out.

13Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What should I do? I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him.’

14But when the tenants saw him, they talked it over among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours.’

15So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

16He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “May it never happen!”

17But Jesus looked straight at them and said, “Then what does this Scripture mean: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?

18Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and anyone it falls on will be crushed.”

19The scribes and the chief priests wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they were afraid of the people, because they knew he had told this parable against them.

20So they watched him closely and sent spies who pretended to be sincere, in order to catch him in something he said, so that they could hand him over to the power and authority of the governor.

21They asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and you do not show favoritism but teach the way of God in truth.

22Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

23But he saw through their trickery and said to them,

24“Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.”

25He said to them, “Then give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.”

26They were not able to catch him in what he said in front of the people. Amazed at his answer, they fell silent.

27Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him,

28“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.

29Now there were seven brothers. The first married a wife and died childless.

30Then the second

31and the third married her, and in the same way all seven died and left no children.

32Finally the woman died too.

33So in the resurrection, whose wife will the woman be? For all seven were married to her.”

34Jesus said to them, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage.

35But those who are considered worthy to attain that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.

36In fact, they can no longer die, because they are like the angels. They are children of God, since they are children of the resurrection.

37But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’

38He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

39Some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.”

40For they no longer dared to ask him anything.

41Then he said to them, “How can people say that the Messiah is the son of David?

42For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand

43until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” ’

44So David calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?”

45While all the people were listening, he said to his disciples,

46“Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.

47They devour widows’ houses and make long prayers for show. They will receive the greater condemnation.”