1 Continuing, Jesus again spoke to them in parables: 2 “The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son. 3 He sent out his slaves to call those invited to the wedding feast, but they refused to come. 4 Again he sent out other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Listen! I have prepared my banquet. My oxen and fattened calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast!” ’ 5 But paying no attention, those he invited went their way—one man to his own field, another to his business. 6 The rest, meanwhile, grabbing hold of his slaves, arrogantly mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king, then, was furious. Sending forth his armies, he had them destroy those murderers and set fire to their city.

8 “Then he said to his slaves, ‘Though the wedding feast is ready, those invited were not worthy. 9 Go to the places where the main streets exit the city and invite to the wedding feast, therefore, as many people as you find.’ 10 So those slaves went out into the streets and gathered everyone they found, both the rough characters and the good folk, and the wedding hall was packed with dinner guests.

11 “Now when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who wasn’t dressed in wedding garments. 12 ‘Friend, how dare you come in here without wedding garments?’ he asked him. But the man was speechless. 13 The king, then, said to the servants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 Many, you see, are invited, but few are chosen.”

15 Then the Pharisees went away and formed a plan to trap Jesus in his own words. 16 They sent some of their disciples to him, along with some people who were politically loyal to the Herodian dynasty. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of the utmost integrity; the way of God you teach in accordance with the truth and only in accordance with the truth, and human opinion means nothing to you. Yes, you don’t compromise truth or justice for anyone, no matter how important they seem to be. 17 Tell us, therefore, what you think. Does the Torah permit us to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor, or not?”

18 Jesus, however, knowing their evil intentions, said, “Why is it ᵖyou are trying to trap me? You hypocrites! 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.” So they brought him the silver coin, a denarius. 20 “Whose image is this,” he asked them, “and whose title inscribed?”

21 “The Emperor’s,” they replied.

“Well then,” Jesus said to them, “give the things that are the Emperor’s back to the Emperor, and the things that are God’s back to God.”

22 When they heard this, they were amazed. And they left him and went away.

23 That same day, some who belonged to the religious party called the Sadducees (whose adherents claim that the dead will not be resurrected) came up to Jesus and posed a question to him. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses said, ‘If a man dies without children, his brother must marry the widow and father children for his brother.’+ 25 Now, once there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and then died, and since he had no children, he left his widow to his brother. 26 The same thing also happened with the second brother, the third, and eventually with all seven. 27 Last of all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will the woman be, given that all of them had at one point been married to her?”

29 “ᵖYou are deceived,” answered Jesus, “because you don’t understand the Scriptures or acknowledge the power of God. 30 In the resurrection, you see, people aren’t going to marry or be given in marriage; they will be, rather, in this respect, like the angels in heaven. 31 Now as for the matter of the resurrection of the dead, surely ᵖyou have read, haven’t you, what was spoken to you by God: 32 ‘I AM the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’+? He is the God not of the dead, but of the living!” 33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

34 Now the Pharisees, on hearing that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered together at the same place. 35 One of them, an expert in the Torah, posed a question to him to test him: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Torah?”

37 “ ‘ˢYou are to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind!’+” Jesus said to him. 38 “ This is the greatest and most important commandment. 39 The second, meanwhile, is like it: ‘ˢYou are to love your neighbor as yourself.’+ 40 On these two commandments depend the entire Torah and all the Prophets.”

41 While the Pharisees were gathered, Jesus posed a question to them. 42 “What do ᵖyou think about the Messiah?” he asked. “Whose son is he?”

“David’s,” they replied.

43 “Why does David, then,” Jesus asked them, “call the Messiah his ‘Sovereign’ while under the very power of the Spirit? For he says,

46 No one was able to answer him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask him any more questions.