The Question of Authority
1One of those days, while he was teaching the people in the temple and announcing the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came up with the elders 2and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things. Who is it that gave you this authority?” 3He answered them, “I too will ask you a question. Tell me: 4the baptism of John — was it from heaven or from human beings?” 5They reasoned it out among themselves: “If we say ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 6And if we say ‘From human beings,’ the whole people will stone us, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8And Jesus said to them, “Then neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
The Tenants of the Vineyard
9He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, leased it out to tenant farmers and went abroad for a long time. 10When the season came he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him his share of the vineyard’s fruit. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11He sent another servant; that one too they beat and humiliated and sent away empty-handed. 12He sent a third; this one they wounded and threw out. 13Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What am I to do? I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him.’ 14But when the tenants saw him, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 15So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this they said, “God forbid!” 17But he looked straight at them and said, “Then what does this text mean: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’? 18Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and the one it falls on will be crushed to dust.” 19The scribes and the chief priests wanted to lay hands on him then and there, but they were afraid of the people; for they knew he had told this parable against them.
Caesar and God
20So they kept watch on him and sent men who pretended to be sincere, in order to catch him in something he said and hand him over to the rule and authority of the governor. 21They questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and that you show no favoritism, but teach the way of God truthfully. 22Is it lawful for us to pay tribute to Caesar or not?” 23He saw through their cunning and said to them, 24“Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it carry?” “Caesar’s,” they said. 25And he said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” 26They could not catch him out in anything he said in front of the people, and, amazed at his answer, they fell silent.
The Sadducees and the Resurrection
27Then some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, came to him and put a question to him: 28“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, the brother is to take the wife and raise up offspring for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died childless. 30Then the second, 31and the third took her; and in the same way all seven died leaving no children. 32Last of all the woman died too. 33So at the resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven had her as wife.” 34Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35but those counted worthy to attain that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36They can no longer die, for they are like the angels; and they are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37That the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for to him all are alive.” 39Some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40And they no longer dared to ask him anything.
David’s Son and David’s Lord
41Then he said to them, “How is it that they say the Christ is David’s son? 42For David himself says in the book of Psalms: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand 43until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’ 44David, then, calls him Lord. So how can he be his son?” 45While 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 greetings in the marketplaces, the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 47They devour the houses of widows and cover it with long prayers. Their judgment will be all the heavier.”
