Matthew 22

22 ¹Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:

²"The kingdom of our Father is like a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son. ³He sent his servants to summon the invited guests to the wedding feast, but they refused to come. ⁴Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle are killed, everything ready. Come to the wedding feast.' ⁵But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, ⁶while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. ⁷The king was enraged, and he sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. ⁸Then he told his servants, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited weren't worthy. ⁹Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' ¹⁰Those servants went out into the roads and gathered everyone they found, bad and good, and the wedding hall filled with guests.

¹¹"But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man not dressed in wedding clothes. ¹²He asked, 'Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' He was speechless. ¹³Then the king told the servants, 'Tie his hands and feet, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.' ¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen."

Give Our Father What Is His

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to trap him with his own words.

¹⁶They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know you are truthful and truly teach God's way; you defer to no one, since you don't judge people by rank. ¹⁷Tell us, then, what you think: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"

¹⁸But Jesus, knowing their malice, said, "Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? ¹⁹Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius.

²⁰And he said to them, "Whose image is this, and whose inscription?"

²¹They said, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "So pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and our Father what belongs to our Father."

²²When they heard it, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

Our Father Is the God of the Living

²³That same day Sadducees came to him, who say there is no resurrection, and they asked him, ²⁴saying, "Teacher, Moses said: if a man dies childless, his brother must marry the widow and raise offspring for his brother. ²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married, died, and, childless, left his wife to his brother. ²⁶So too the second and the third, down to the seventh. ²⁷Last of all, the woman died. ²⁸In the resurrection, then, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her."

²⁹Jesus answered, "You're mistaken—you know neither the Scriptures nor our Father's power. ³⁰For in the resurrection people neither marry nor are married off, but are like angels in heaven. ³¹Now, about the resurrection of the dead, haven't you read what our Father told you:

³²'I'm the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob'? He's not God of the dead, but of the living."

³³And when the crowds heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

Love Your Father With Everything You Have

³⁴But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵And one of them, an expert in the Law, asked him a question to test him: ³⁶"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"

³⁷He said to him, "Love your Father with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: You will love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

Whose Son Is the Christ?

⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, ⁴²"What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "David's."

⁴³He asked them, "How then does David, by the Holy Spirit, call him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴'Our Father said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet"'?

⁴⁵If then David calls the Christ Lord, how can the Christ be David's son?"

⁴⁶No one could answer him a word, and from that day no one dared ask him anything else.