Matthew 22

New International Version

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

New International Version