Matthew Chapter 22 (NIV)
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The Parable of the Wedding BanquetJesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:
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“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
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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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“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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“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business.
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The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
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The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
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“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.
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Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’
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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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“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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‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.
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“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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“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
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Paying Taxes to CaesarThen the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.
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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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Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
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But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?
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Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius,
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and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?”
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“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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When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
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Marriage at the ResurrectionThat same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.
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“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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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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The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh.
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Finally, the woman died.
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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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Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
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At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
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But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you,
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‘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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When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
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The Greatest CommandmentHearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
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One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
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“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
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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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This is the first and greatest commandment.
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And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
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All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
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Whose Son Is the Christ?While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
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“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”“The son of David,” they replied.
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He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,
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“‘The Lord said to my Lord:“Sit at my right handuntil I put your enemiesunder your feet.”’
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If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?”
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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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