| 章 |
| 22:1 |
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:
|
| 22:2 |
"The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
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| 22:3 |
He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
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| 22:4 |
"Then he sent some more servants and said, `Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.
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| 22:5 |
"'But they paid no attention and went off--one to his field, another to his business.
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| 22:6 |
The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
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| 22:7 |
The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
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| 22:8 |
"Then he said to his servants, `The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.
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| 22:9 |
Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.
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| 22:10 |
'So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
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| 22:11 |
"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
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| 22:12 |
`Friend,' he asked, `how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless.
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| 22:13 |
"Then the king told the attendants, `Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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| 22:14 |
"'For many are invited, but few are chosen."
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| 22:15 |
Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.
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| 22:16 |
They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. "Teacher," they said, "we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are.
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| 22:17 |
Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
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| 22:18 |
But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?
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| 22:19 |
Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius,
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| 22:20 |
and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"
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| 22:21 |
"Caesar's," they replied. Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
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| 22:22 |
When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
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| 22:23 |
That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.
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| 22:24 |
"Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him.
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| 22:25 |
Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother.
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| 22:26 |
The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh.
|
| 22:27 |
Finally, the woman died.
|
| 22:28 |
Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"
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| 22:29 |
Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
|
| 22:30 |
At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
|
| 22:31 |
But about the resurrection of the dead--have you not read what God said to you,
|
| 22:32 |
`I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."
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| 22:33 |
When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
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| 22:34 |
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
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| 22:35 |
One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
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| 22:36 |
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
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| 22:37 |
Jesus replied: " `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
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| 22:38 |
'This is the first and greatest commandment.
|
| 22:39 |
And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.
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| 22:40 |
'All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
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| 22:41 |
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
|
| 22:42 |
"What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" "The son of David," they replied.
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| 22:43 |
He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him `Lord'? For he says,
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| 22:44 |
"`The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet."
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| 22:45 |
'If then David calls him `Lord,' how can he be his son?"
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| 22:46 |
No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.
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