Parable of the Wedding Banquet

1. And Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables, saying.
2. “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who made a wedding feast for his son.
3. And he sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, and they did not want to come.
4. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who were invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatlings are slaughtered, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’
5. And they did not care, and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business.
6. And the rest, seizing his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
7. But the king, being angry, sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.
9. Go therefore to the highways, and as many as you find, call to the wedding feast.’
10. And those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11. But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who was not wearing a wedding garment.
12. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.
13. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14. For many are called, but few are chosen.

Paying Taxes to Caesar

15. Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle him in his words.
16. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that you are true, and teach the way of God in truth, and do not care about anyone, for you do not regard the face of men.
17. Tell us therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?’
18. But Jesus, knowing their wickedness, said, ‘Why do you test me, hypocrites?
19. Show me the coin of the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius.
20. And he said to them, ‘Whose image and inscription is this?’
21. They said to him, ‘Caesar’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’
22. And when they heard it, they marveled and left him, and went away.

The Sadducees and the Resurrection

23. On that day, the Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, came to him and asked,
24. saying, ‘Teacher, Moses said, “If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up offspring to his brother.”
25. Now there were seven brothers among us. And the first took a wife and died, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.
26. Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh.
27. And last of all the woman died also.
28. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of them will she be? For all seven had her as wife.’
29. But Jesus answered and said to them, ‘You are mistaken, not knowing 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 concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying,
32. “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.’
33. And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

The Greatest Commandment

34. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
35. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him, testing him, saying,
36. ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?’
37. Jesus 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 first and great commandment.
39. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
40. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.’

Jesus Questions the Pharisees

41. Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
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, ‘How then 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 under your feet”?
45. If then David calls him Lord, how is he his Son?’
46. And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.