Who said Jesus may do these things?
1One day Jesus was in the temple teaching people. He told them the Good_News about God who is King. The chief_priests and family leaders came to Him 2and they asked Him: ‘Why do You think You may do these things? Who said You may do these things?’ 3Jesus said to them: ‘I will ask you one question. 4John the Baptist came and he baptised people. Who sent him to do it? Was it God who sent him, or did the people send him?’
5The chief_priests and family leaders talked to each other and said: ‘If we say it was God who sent him, then Jesus will ask us: “Why didn't you believe what John said?” 6But we are afraid that the people will kill us with stones if we say it was the people who sent John to baptise, because everyone said John was a prophet.’
7Then the teachers_of_the_Laws said to Jesus: ‘We don't know who sent John.’ 8Then Jesus said to them: ‘Then I will not tell you who told Me that I may do these things.’
The parable of the vineyard
9Jesus told the people this parable. He said:
‘A man planted a lot of vines on his farm. Then he rented out the vineyard to other farmers and he went away for a long time. 10When it was time to pick the grapes, he sent a slave to the farmers who rented his vineyard and he asked them to give him the grapes that they had to give him. The men grabbed his slave. They beat him and chased him away and they gave him no grapes. 11The owner of the vineyard sent another slave to them. The men took him and they beat him and they did very bad things to him and they gave him no grapes. 12The owner of the vineyard then sent a 3rd slave to them but the men beat him and they threw him out of the vineyard.
13Then the owner of the vineyard said: “What can I do? I will send my son that I love very much. I think they will respect my son.” 14When the men saw it was the owner's son, they said to each other: “This son will inherit all the owner's money and things one day. Let us kill him, then we will get everything.”
15They threw the owner's son out of the vineyard and they killed him. What do you think? What will the owner of the vineyard do? 16He will come and kill all those bad farmers and he will give the vineyard to other farmers.’
When the people heard this, they said: ‘We hope that this will never happen.’ 17Jesus looked at them for a long time and He said: ‘If you say that this must never happen, what do these words in the book of Psalms mean?
“The stone that the builders
did not want to use
is now the most important stone in the building.
18Everyone who falls over this stone
will die and break his legs.
And if this stone falls on anyone,
the stone will kill him.” ’
19The teachers_of_the_Laws and the chief_priests then tried to arrest Jesus immediately. They knew that He told this parable to show that they were the same as the bad farmers. But they were afraid of the people and they did not arrest Jesus.
Must people pay tax?
20The leaders_of_the_Jews looked for the right time to arrest Jesus. They sent people who were spies to Jesus. These spies told Jesus that they wanted to learn more from Him, but the leaders wanted Jesus to say something wrong against the Roman ruler so that they could punish Him. 21The spies then asked Jesus: ‘Teacher, we know that You always speak the truth when You teach the people what God wants them to do. You respect everyone and You do not think one person is more important than the other. 22Now tell us: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar? Must we pay taxes to him or not?’
23Jesus knew what they wanted to do and He said to them: 24‘Bring Me a silver_coin.’ They gave Him a silver_coin and then Jesus asked them: ‘Whose head and whose name is on this money?’ They answered Him: ‘It is Caesar's head and his name.’
25Jesus said to them: ‘That is right. Then you must give to Caesar what belongs to him, but you must also give to God what belongs to Him.’
26The spies were amazed when Jesus said this. They could not make Jesus say anything wrong in front of the people. Then they stopped talking to Him.
People who have died will live again
27A few Sadducees came to Jesus. The Sadducees did not believe that people who died would live again. They said to Jesus: 28‘Teacher, Moses wrote in his laws what we must do. He said: “When a man dies and his wife still lives and they had no children, then his brother must marry_the_widow of his dead brother. And when the widow then has children, they will be the children of the brother who died.”
29Now, there were 7 brothers. The oldest brother married a woman but he died and they did not have any children. 30The 2nd brother then married the widow of the oldest brother but he also died and they did not have any children. 31The same happened with the 3rd brother. He also married her and he died. It happened to all 7 brothers. All of them married this woman but they did not have any children. 32Later, the woman also died. 33Now we ask You: Whose wife will this woman be when all the dead people rise and live again? Because all of these 7 brothers were married to her.’
34Jesus said to them: ‘In this_life people get married. 35But when God is King, He will give life to all the people who have believed in Him and have died. Then people will not be married and they will not get married. 36They will be like the angels_in_heaven who do not die and who live with God in heaven. They will be children of God because God gave them life and He made them live again.
37Moses also said that people who have died will rise and live again. He wrote about it when he spoke about the burning bush. There God said to Moses: “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God_of_Jacob.” 38God is not the God of dead people. He is the God of people who live.’ 39Some of the teachers_of_the_Laws said to Jesus: ‘Teacher, that is right. You have given a very good answer.’
40From that day on the people were afraid to ask Jesus any more questions.
Is Christ the Son of David?
41Jesus asked them: ‘Why do people say the Christ is the Son of David? 42David says in the book of Psalms:
“The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit down here next to Me,
in the most important place.
43I will make your enemies bow before You.
You will put your feet on them.”
44David said the Christ is his Lord. Now, how can the Christ be the Son of David if He is the Lord?’
Jesus warns the people against the teachers_of_the_Laws
45Jesus said to his disciples and all the people who could hear Him: 46‘You must beware of the teachers_of_the_Laws. They walk where all the people can see them, they have long clothes and they want everyone to greet them and to respect them. They want to sit where the most important people sit in the synagogues and at the feasts. 47But these teachers_of_the_Laws are people who cheat widows and take their houses. They pray in front of many people for a long time so that other people must see them and think they are good people. God will punish them very hard.’
