Matthew 22
The
Parable of the Wedding Banquet
“JESUS 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 butchered, 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, mistreated 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 Imperial 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 imperial tax 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’?
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.’
38 This
is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself.’
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,
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 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.”
