The parable of the vineyard
1Jesus talked to the people and He told them parables. He said:
‘A man had a lot of vines on his farm. He was the owner. He built a wall around the vineyard and he built a wine-press. He also built a high watchtower so that someone could look after the vineyard. Then he rented out the vineyard to other farmers and he went away.
2When 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. 3The farmers grabbed his slave. They beat him and chased him away. They gave him no grapes.
4The owner of the vineyard sent another slave to them. The farmers took him and they beat him on his head and they did very bad things to him. 5Then the owner of the vineyard sent another slave and the farmers killed him. The owner sent many other slaves but the farmers beat the slaves and they killed some of them.
6The owner had only one son. He loved his son very much. The owner then sent this son to the farmers. This was the last person that he sent. He thought they would respect his son. 7The farmers said to themselves: “This son will inherit all the owner's money and things one day. Let us kill him, then we will get everything.” 8They grabbed the owner's son and they killed him and they threw his body out of the vineyard.
9What do you think? What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill all those farmers and he will give the vineyard to other farmers. 10Did you read these words in the Old_Testament?
“The stone that the builders
did not want to use
is now the most important stone in the building.
11It is something that the Lord has done
and it is wonderful for us.” ’
12The leaders_of_the_Jews knew that Jesus was really talking about them. They wanted to arrest Him but they were afraid of the crowd of people and they did not arrest Him. They went away from Him.
Must people pay tax?
13The Pharisees and Herodians sent a few people to Jesus. They wanted to trap Jesus to say something wrong. 14They came to Jesus and said to Him: ‘Teacher, we know You always speak the truth. You are not afraid of what people say about You. You respect everyone and You do not think one person is more important than the other. You teach the people what God wants them to do. Now tell us: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar? Must we pay taxes to him or not?’
15Jesus knew what they wanted to do and He asked them: ‘Why do you want Me to say something wrong? Why do you want to trap Me? Bring Me a silver_coin so I can see it.’ 16They brought a silver_coin to Jesus and He asked them: ‘Whose head and whose name is on this money?’ They answered Him: ‘It is Caesar's head and his name.’
17Then Jesus said to them: ‘You must pay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but you must also pay to God what belongs to God.’ They were amazed at what Jesus said.
People who have died will rise and live again
18A few Sadducees came to Jesus. The Sadducees did not believe that people who died would live again. They said to Jesus: 19‘Teacher, Moses wrote in his laws what we must do. He said:
“If 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 if the widow has children, then they will be the children of the brother who died.”
20There were 7 brothers. The oldest brother married a woman but he died and they did not have any children. 21The 2nd brother then married the widow of the oldest brother but he also died and they did not have any children. The same happened with the 3rd brother. He also married her and he died. 22It happened to all 7 brothers. All of them married this woman but they did not have any children. Later, the woman also died. 23Now we ask You: Whose wife will she be when all the dead people rise and live again? Because all of these 7 brothers were married to her.’
24Jesus said to them: ‘You are completely wrong because you do not know the Old_Testament and the power of God. 25When people rise and live again, they will not be married and they will not marry. They will be like the angels_in_heaven. 26You asked if people who died would rise and live again. But did you not read it in the books_of_Moses? Moses wrote about the burning bush and God said to Moses: “I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God_of_Jacob.” 27God is not the God of dead people. He is the God of people who live. You are completely wrong.’
The most important commandment
28One of the teachers_of_the_Laws heard Jesus and the Sadducees talk to each other and he came to them. When he heard that Jesus had answered them very well, he asked Jesus: ‘What is the most important commandment in the Old_Testament?’
29Jesus answered him: ‘The most important commandment is: “You must listen, Israelites. You have only one Lord and God. 30You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and your whole life and with your mind and with all your power.” 31The 2nd important commandment is: “You must love the people near you as you love yourself.” There is no other commandment that is more important.’
32The teacher_of_the_Laws said to Jesus: ‘Teacher, You have answered well. Yes, there is only one God. There is no other God, 33and it is important that we must love God with all our hearts, our minds and our power and that we must love other people as we love ourselves. These commandments are more important than all the sacrifices and offerings that we could give to God.’
34When Jesus heard what the teacher_of_the_Laws said, Jesus told him: ‘You almost understand what it means that God is King.’ After this, no one dared to ask Jesus any more questions.
Is Christ the Son of David?
35Jesus talked to the people in the temple and He taught them. He asked them: ‘Why do the teachers_of_the_Laws say that Christ is the Son of David? 36David listened to the Holy_Spirit and he said:
“The Lord said to my Lord:
Sit down here next to Me,
in the most important place.
I will make your enemies bow before you
and you will put your feet on them.”
37If David said the Christ is his Lord, how can the Christ be the Son of David?’
The crowd of people enjoyed listening to Jesus.
Jesus warns the people against the religious leaders
38Jesus taught the people. He said: ‘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. 39They want to sit in the most important places in the synagogues and at the feasts. 40But the teachers_of_the_Laws cheat widows and they take their houses. They pray long prayers so that other people can see them. God will punish them more.’
The poor widow's offering
41Jesus was sitting in the temple near the offering-box and He looked at the people putting in their offerings. He saw many rich people giving a lot of money. 42A poor widow came and she put in 2 small copper_coins. They were the smallest of all coins. It was very little money.
43Jesus called his disciples and He said to them: ‘I tell you this and it is sure: This poor widow has given more than all that money in the offering-box. 44The rich people have lots of money to give and this woman is very poor but she gave everything that she had. Now she has no money to buy food.’
