The parable of the big feast
1Jesus used parables again to teach the people. He said:
2‘Where God in heaven rules, it is like when a king gave a big feast when his son got married. 3He invited a lot of people to the wedding and then he sent his servants to tell the people they must come. But the people did not want to come. 4The king sent other servants and said to them: “Tell the guests that I have invited: “‘Everything is ready for my wedding feast. I have prepared lots of food, cattle and calves and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast now.”’ ”
5But the guests who were invited did not want to come. They went away. One man went to his field and another man went to his place of work. 6Other people grabbed his servants. They beat them and killed them.
7The king became angry and he sent his soldiers to kill those bad people and he burnt their town. 8Then the king said to his servants: “Everything is ready for the wedding feast, but the people that I have invited were not good enough to come to my feast. 9Now go to the street corners and invite everyone to come to my wedding feast.” 10The servants went out into the streets and they invited everyone they could find, bad people and good people. The wedding hall was full of people who came to eat.
11When the king came into the hall to greet all the people, he saw there was someone who did not have on the right clothes for a wedding. 12The king asked him: “Friend, how did you get in here? You do not have on the right clothes for a wedding feast.” But the man could not say why he did not have the right clothes. 13Then the king said to his servants: “Tie his hands and feet and throw him into the dark place. There the people will cry and bite hard on their teeth in pain.” 14Because God called many people, but He chose only a few of them to belong to Him.’
Must people pay tax?
15The Pharisees made plans because they wanted to trap Jesus to say something wrong. 16They sent some of their followers with Herodians to Jesus and they asked Him: ‘Teacher, we know You always speak the truth. You teach the people what God wants them to do and what You teach them is true. You are not afraid of what people say of You. You respect everyone and You do not think one person is more important than another person. 17Now tell us: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar? Must we pay taxes to him or not?’
18Jesus knew what they wanted to do and He said: ‘You hypocrites. Why do you want Me to say something wrong? Why do you want to trap Me? 19Bring Me a silver_coin that people use to pay their taxes.’ They gave Him a silver_coin 20and Jesus asked them: ‘Whose head and whose name is on this money?’ 21They answered Him: ‘It is Caesar's head and his name.’ Then Jesus said to them: ‘You must pay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and you must pay to God what belongs to God.’
22When they heard what Jesus said, they were amazed and they went away from Him.
People who have died will live again
23Later that day a few Sadducees came to Jesus. The Sadducees did not believe that people who died would live again. They said to Jesus: 24‘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 has children, then they are the children of the brother who died.”
25There were 7 brothers. The oldest brother married a woman, but he died and they did not have any children. The 2nd brother then married the widow of the oldest brother, but he also died and they did not have any children. 26The 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. 27Later, the woman also died. 28Now we ask You: Whose wife will she be when all the dead people live again? Because all of these 7 brothers were married to her.’
29Jesus said to them: ‘You are very wrong because you do not know the Old_Testament and the power of God 30When people live again, they will not be married and they will not marry. They will be like the angels_in_heaven. 31You asked if people who died will live again. But did you not read it in the laws of Moses? God said to Moses: 32“I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” God is not the God of dead people. He is the God of people who live.’
33When they heard this, all the people were amazed at what Jesus taught them.
The most important law in the Old_Testament
34The Pharisees heard that Jesus had given the Sadducees a good answer and they came together. 35One of them was a teacher_of_the_Laws. He wanted to test Jesus and he asked Him: 36‘Teacher, what is the most important commandment in the Old_Testament?’ 37Jesus said to him: ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your life and with all your mind. 38This is the first and most important commandment.
39The 2nd important commandment is: You must love the people near you as you love yourself. There is no other commandment that is more important. 40These 2 laws say what all the laws of Moses and the books of the prophets teach us.’
Is Christ the Son of David?
41When the Pharisees came together, Jesus asked them: 42‘What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He? Who is his Father?’ They said: ‘He is the Son of David.’
43Jesus said to them: ‘But if He is the Son of David, why did the Holy_Spirit say to David that he must say the Christ is his Lord? 44David listened to the Holy_Spirit and he said:
“The Lord said to my Lord,
sit down here next to Me,
on the most important place.
I will make your enemies bow before you
and you will put your feet on them.”
45If David said the Christ is his Lord, how can the Christ be the Son of David?’ 46No one could answer Jesus and from that day on they were too afraid to ask Him any more questions.
