Luke 20
1 One of those days, while he was teaching the people in the temple and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law came up with the elders.
2 They said to him, “Tell us: By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority?”
3 He answered them, “I’ll ask you a question too. Tell me:
4 Was John’s baptism from heaven or from people?”
5 They discussed it among themselves: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he’ll say, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’
6 But if we say, ‘From people,’ all the people will stone us, because they are convinced that John was a prophet.”
7 So they answered that they didn’t know where it came from.
8 Jesus said to them, “Then I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things either.”
9 Then he began telling the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and went away for a long time.
10 At the proper time, he sent a servant to the farmers so they would give him some of the vineyard’s produce. But the farmers beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
11 He sent another servant, but they beat him too, treated him with contempt, and sent him away empty-handed.
12 He sent a third, but they wounded him too and threw him out.
13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I’ll send my beloved son. Perhaps they’ll respect him.’
14 But when the farmers saw the son, they discussed it among themselves: ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him so the inheritance will be ours.’
15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to them?
16 He will come, destroy those farmers, and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “May it never be!”
17 But he looked at them and said, “Then what does this written passage mean: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and anyone it falls on will be crushed.”
19 The teachers of the Law and the chief priests tried to arrest him that very moment, but they were afraid of the people, because they understood that he had told this parable against them.
20 They kept watching him and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, hoping to catch him in something he said and hand him over to the governor’s power and authority.
21 They asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and that you don’t show partiality, but teach the way of God truthfully.
22 Is it lawful for us to pay tribute to Caesar or not?”
23 But he saw through their cunning and said to them,
24 “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?” They answered, “Caesar’s.”
25 He said to them, “Then give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and God what belongs to God.”
26 They could not catch him in anything he said in front of the people. Amazed at his answer, they fell silent.
27 Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came up and questioned him:
28 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies while he has a wife, but dies without children, his brother must take the wife and provide descendants for his brother.
29 There were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died without children.
30 The second did too.
31 Then the third took her. In the same way, all seven died without leaving children.
32 Finally, the woman died too.
33 At the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as a wife.”
34 Jesus said to them, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage.
35 But those considered worthy of reaching that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.
36 For they can no longer die, because they are like the angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.
37 And that the dead are raised, even Moses showed 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 not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
39 Some of the teachers of the Law answered, “Teacher, you spoke well.”
40 For they no longer dared to ask him anything.
41 He said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son?
42 For David himself says in the book of Psalms, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,
43 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’
44 So David calls him Lord. How, then, is he his son?”
45 While all the people were listening, he said to his disciples,
46 “Watch out for the teachers of the Law. They like to walk around in long robes, enjoy being greeted in the marketplaces, and seek the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.
47 They devour widows’ houses and make long prayers as a pretense. They will receive a more severe judgment.”
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