12
“A Man Planted a Vineyard”
1 Then Jesus+ began speaking to them in parables+: “A man planted a vineyard.++ He put a fence around it and dug out a pit for a winepress and built a watchtower. Then he leased the vineyard+ to tenant farmers and went abroad.
2 The man+ sent to the tenant farmers, at the time of the grape harvest,+ a slave, to collect from the tenant farmers his portion of the fruit from the vineyard.
3 But seizing the slave,+ the tenants+ beat him and sent him back with nothing.+
4 So he sent another slave to them once+ again. That slave, however, they struck on the head and treated shamefully.
5 The man+ sent yet+ another slave, but that one they killed—and so with many others, some of whom the tenants+ beat, others of whom they killed.
6 The man+ still had one+ person left: His dearly loved son. He sent his son+ to them last of all. ‘Surely they’ll respect my son,’ he thought.
7 Those tenant farmers, however, said to one another,+ ‘This is the heir! Come on, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours+!’
8 So they seized him and killed him and threw his body+ outside the vineyard.
9 What then will the master of the vineyard do? He will come and put the tenant farmers to death and entrust+ the vineyard to others.
10 Haven’t ᵖyou read this Scripture+:
“ ‘The stone the builders examined+ and rejected as worthless,
this stone turned out to be the cornerstone!
11 The LORD+ is the one who+ brought this to pass,+
and it is remarkable in our eyes!’+?”+
12 The religious leaders+ wanted to have+ Jesus+ arrested, but they were afraid of the crowd. They realized, you see, that they were the ones+ against whom he had spoken the parable. So they left him and went away.
“The Things That Are the Emperor’s Give Back to the Emperor, and the Things That Are God’s Give Back to God”
13 Then they sent to Jesus+ some of the Pharisees and some people who were politically loyal to the Herodian dynasty,+ to trap him in his own words.
14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of the utmost+ integrity, and that human opinion means nothing to you.+ Yes, you don’t compromise truth or justice for anyone, no matter how important they seem to be,+ but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth and only in accordance with+ the truth.+ Does the Torah permit us+ to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor,+ or not? Should we pay, or should we not pay?”
15 Recognizing their hypocrisy, Jesus+ said to them, “Why is it+ ᵖyou are trying to trap me?+ Bring me a denarius,+ and let me have a look at it.”
16 So, they brought him the silver coin.+ “Whose image is this,” he asked them, “and whose title inscribed?”+
“The Emperor’s,” they replied.
17 “The things that are the Emperor’s,” said Jesus, “give back to the Emperor,+ and the things that are God’s give back to God.”+ And they were utterly amazed at him.
“He Is the God Worshiped Not by the Dead, but by the Living!”
18 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.
19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves behind a wife but no children, that man+ must marry the widow+ and father children+ for his brother.+
20 Once there were seven brothers.+ The first one married+ and then died without children.+
21 So the second brother married the widow,+ but he also died without children,+ and the third brother likewise.
22 In fact, none of the seven brothers left behind any children.+ Last of all, the woman herself+ died, too.
23 In the resurrection, when people+ rise to life, whose wife will the woman+ be, given that all seven+ had at one point been married to her?+”
24 “ᵖYou are deceived, aren’t you?” replied Jesus. “Yes,+ and this is why:+ Because you don’t understand the Scriptures or acknowledge+ the power of God.
25 When people+ have risen from the dead,+ you see, they aren’t going to marry or be given in marriage, but will be in this respect+ like the angels in the heavens.
26 Now as for the matter+ of the dead being raised to life,+ surely ᵖyou have read in the book of Moses, haven’t you, in the passage about the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I AM the God of+ Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’+?
27 He is the God not+ of the dead, but of the living!+ ᵖYou are very+ greatly deceived.”
“There Is No Other Commandment Greater Than These”
28 One of the Torah-experts came up and heard them debating. When he saw how well Jesus+ answered them, he posed a question to him: “Which is the most important commandment of all?”
29 “The most important one,” replied Jesus, “is ‘Hear and obey,+ O Israel! The LORD+ our God, the LORD is one+!+
30 ˢYou+ are to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength!’+
31 The second is this: ‘ˢYou are to love your neighbor as yourself.’+ There is no other commandment greater+ than these.”
32 “Well said, Teacher!” replied the Torah-expert. “ˢYou have spoken in full+ accordance with the truth in saying+ that he is one,+ and ‘there is no other besides him.’+ And to love him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength,
33 and to love your neighbor as yourself, mean far+ more than indeed all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 Jesus, then, when he saw how+ wisely the man+ answered, said to him, “ˢYou are not very+ far at all from the Kingdom of God.”+ No longer+ did anyone dare pose him a question.+
“How Can the Messiah Be His Son?”
35 Jesus said some very weighty things+ while teaching in the temple courts: “Why+ do the Torah-experts say that the Messiah is the son of David+?
36 David himself said while under the power+ of the Holy Spirit,
“ ‘The LORD said to my Sovereign,+
“Continue sitting at my right hand
until I put ˢyour enemies under your feet.” ’+
37 Even+ David himself calls the Messiah+ his ‘Sovereign,’ and so how can the Messiah+ be his son+?”+ And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.
“These Will Receive a More Severe Punishment”
38 As Jesus+ taught, he said, “Watch out for the Torah-experts, who like to walk around in long robes+ and like+ elaborate greetings+ in the market areas
39 and the seats of honor in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts.
40 They who rob widows of their livelihood+ and pray on and on and on+ just+ for show, these will receive a more severe punishment.”+
“This Destitute Widow Has Put In Far More Than Indeed All the Others”
41 After sitting down in the Court of Women across from the trumpet-shaped receptacles in which contributions to the temple were collected,+ Jesus+ watched as the crowds put their coins into the mouth of the trumpets. A large number of rich people were putting in more and more coins,+
42 when+ a destitute widow came along and put in two tiny copper coins worth next-to-nothing.+
43 Calling his disciples over to himself, Jesus+ said to them, “Amen, I solemnly+ tell ᵖyou this: This destitute widow has put in far+ more than indeed all the others who are putting in coins.+
44 All of them, you see, merely put in this:+ What they never really needed anyway.+ She, however, put in this:+ All that she had and truly did need,+ everything she had to live on.”