Matthew 22

1Once more Jesus answered them by speaking in parables:

2“The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who arranged a wedding feast for his son.

3He sent out his servants to summon the invited guests to the wedding feast, but they did not want to come.

4Once more he sent other servants, telling them, ‘Say to the invited guests, “Look, my dinner is prepared, my bulls and fattened animals have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast!”’

5But they ignored it and went their way, one to his own field, another to his business dealings.

6The others grabbed his servants, mistreated them, and put them to death.

7The king became angry. He sent his armies, wiped out those murderers, and set their city on fire.

8Then he told his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but the ones who were invited proved unworthy.

9So go out to where the roads leave the city, and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast.’

10Those servants went out onto the roads and brought together everyone they found, bad and good alike, and the wedding hall was full of people reclining at the table.

11When the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes.

12He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here with no wedding clothes?’ But the man had nothing to say.

13Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie up his feet and hands, and throw him out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and grinding of teeth there.’

14For there are many who are called, but few who are chosen.”

15Then the Pharisees went off and made plans to catch him in something he said.

16They sent their disciples to him together with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are honest and that you teach God’s way truthfully. You do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you do not look at people’s outward standing.

17So give us your view: Is it lawful to pay the poll tax to Caesar or not?”

18Jesus recognized their evil intent and said, “Hypocrites, why are you testing me?

19Let me see the coin used to pay the tax.” So they brought him a denarius.

20He said to them, “This image and inscription—whose are they?”

21They told him, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “So pay back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and pay back to God what is God’s.”

22Hearing this, they were amazed, and they left him and departed.

23On that day Sadducees, who claim that there is no resurrection, approached him and put a question to him.

24“Teacher,” they said, “Moses said, ‘If a man dies without children, his brother is to marry the dead man’s wife and produce offspring for his brother.’

25Now there were seven brothers here among us. The first married and died without offspring, so he left his wife to his brother.

26So too the second, and the third, and so on through all seven.

27After all of them, the woman died.

28So at the resurrection, whose wife will she be out of the seven? For she was married to all of them.”

29Jesus answered them, “You are in error, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

30For in the resurrection no one marries or is given in marriage; instead they are like angels in heaven.

31Now concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you never read the words God spoke to you:

32‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead but of the living.”

33The crowds who heard this were amazed at his teaching.

34Once the Pharisees heard that he had left the Sadducees speechless, they met together.

35One of them, an authority on the law, put a question to him to test him:

36“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the most important?”

37He said to him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

38This is the first and most important commandment.

39A second one is similar to it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

40On these two commandments the entire Law hangs, and the Prophets as well.”

41With the Pharisees still gathered there, Jesus asked them a question:

42“What is your view of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They told him, “David’s son.”

43He said to them, “Then how is it that David, by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’ when he says,

44‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’

45So if David calls him ‘Lord,’ in what way is he his son?”

46No one could say a word in answer to him, and from that day on nobody dared to question him any further.