Luke - Chapter 20

¹ Now it happened that one day while he was teaching the people in the Temple and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came up, together with the elders,

² and spoke to him. 'Tell us,' they said, 'what authority have you for acting like this? Or who gives you this authority?'

³ In reply he said to them, 'And I will ask you a question, just one. Tell me:

⁴ John's baptism: what was its origin, heavenly or human?'

⁵ And they debated this way among themselves, 'If we say heavenly, he will retort, "Why did you refuse to believe him?";

⁶ and if we say human, the whole people will stone us, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.'

⁷ So their reply was that they did not know where it came from.

⁸ And Jesus said to them, 'Nor will I tell you my authority for acting like this.'

⁹ And he went on to tell the people this parable, 'A man planted a vineyard and leased it to tenants, and went abroad for a long while.

¹⁰ When the right time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get his share of the produce of the vineyard. But the tenants thrashed him, and sent him away empty-handed.

¹¹ But he went on to send a second servant; they thrashed him too and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed.

¹² He still went on to send a third; they wounded this one too, and threw him out.

¹³ Then the owner of the vineyard thought, "What am I to do? I will send them my own beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him."

¹⁴ But when the tenants saw him they put their heads together saying, "This is the heir, let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours."

¹⁵ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 'Now what will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

¹⁶ He will come and make an end of these tenants and give the vineyard to others.' Hearing this they said, 'God forbid!'

¹⁷ But he looked hard at them and said, 'Then what does this text in the scriptures mean: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?

¹⁸ Anyone who falls on that stone will be dashed to pieces; anyone it falls on will be crushed.'

¹⁹ And the scribes and the chief priests would have liked to lay hands on him that very moment, because they realised that this parable was aimed at them, but they were afraid of the people.

²⁰ So they awaited their opportunity and sent agents to pose as upright men, and to catch him out in something he might say and so enable them to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor.

²¹ They put to him this question, 'Master, we know that you say and teach what is right; you favour no one, but teach the way of God in all honesty.

²² Is it permissible for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?'

²³ But he was aware of their cunning and said,

²⁴ 'Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and title are on it?' They said, 'Caesar's.'

²⁵ He said to them, 'Well then, pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar -- and God what belongs to God.'

²⁶ They were unable to catch him out in anything he had to say in public; they were amazed at his answer and were silenced.

²⁷ Some Sadducees -- those who argue that there is no resurrection -- approached him and they put this question to him,

²⁸ 'Master, Moses prescribed for us, if a man's married brother dies childless, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother.

²⁹ Well then, there were seven brothers; the first, having married a wife, died childless.

³⁰ The second

³¹ and then the third married the widow. And the same with all seven, they died leaving no children.

³² Finally the woman herself died.

³³ Now, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?'

³⁴ Jesus replied, 'The children of this world take wives and husbands,

³⁵ but those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead do not marry

³⁶ because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are children of God.

³⁷ And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

³⁸ Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him everyone is alive.'

³⁹ Some scribes then spoke up. They said, 'Well put, Master.'

⁴⁰ They did not dare to ask him any more questions.

⁴¹ He then said to them, 'How can people maintain that the Christ is son of David?

⁴² Why, David himself says in the Book of Psalms: The Lord declared to my Lord, take your seat at my right hand,

⁴³ till I have made your enemies your footstool.

⁴⁴ David here calls him Lord; how then can he be his son?'

⁴⁵ While all the people were listening he said to the disciples,

⁴⁶ 'Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes and love to be greeted respectfully in the market squares, to take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets,

⁴⁷ who devour the property of widows, and for show offer long prayers. The more severe will be the sentence they receive.'

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