Chapter 20

1One day, while Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and announcing the good news, the chief priests, experts in the Jewish Scriptures, and elders came up to him.

2They said to him, “Tell us: What authority do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?”

3Jesus answered them, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me:

4Did John’s authority to baptize come from heaven—that is, from God—or merely from people?”

5They discussed it among themselves: “If we say, ‘From God,’ he will ask, ‘Then why did you not believe John?’

6But if we say, ‘Merely from people,’ the whole crowd will stone us, because they are convinced that John was a prophet.”

7So they answered that they did not know where John’s authority came from.

8Jesus told them, “Then I will not tell you what authority I have to do these things.”

9Jesus then began telling the people this story: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to tenant farmers, and went away for a long time.

10At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the vineyard’s fruit. But the tenants beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed.

11The owner sent another servant. They beat and humiliated him too, then sent him away empty-handed.

12The owner sent a third servant. The tenants wounded him and threw him out.

13Then the vineyard owner said, ‘What should I do? I will send my dearly loved son. Perhaps they will respect him.’

14But when the tenants saw the son, they discussed the matter with one another. They said, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so the property will become ours.’

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

16He will come, destroy those tenants, and give the vineyard to others.” When the people heard this, they said, “May that never happen!”

17Jesus looked directly at them and said, “Then what does this Scripture mean: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, the most important stone in the building’?

18Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

19The Scripture experts and chief priests wanted to arrest Jesus immediately, because they realized that he had told this story against them. But they were afraid of the people.

20So they watched Jesus closely and sent spies who pretended to be honest people. They hoped to trap him by something he said, so they could hand him over to the authority and power of the Roman governor.

21The spies asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly. You do not show favoritism, but truthfully teach how God wants people to live.

22Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar, the Roman emperor, or not?”

23Jesus recognized their trick and said to them,

24“Show me a denarius, a Roman coin. Whose portrait and title are on it?” They answered, “Caesar’s.”

25Jesus told them, “Then give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give God what belongs to God.”

26They could not trap him in anything he said before the people. Astonished by his answer, they became silent.

27Then some Sadducees—a religious group who denied that the dead would rise—came and questioned Jesus.

28They said, “Teacher, Moses wrote that if a married man dies without children, his brother should marry the widow and have children who will carry on the dead brother’s family line.

29Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died without children.

30Then the second brother married her,

31and then the third. The same thing happened to all seven: they married her, left no children, and died.

32Finally, the woman also died.

33So when the dead rise, whose wife will she be? All seven brothers had been married to her.”

34Jesus answered them, “People in this present age marry and are given in marriage.

35But those considered worthy to share in the coming age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.

36They can no longer die, because they are like angels. Since they have been raised from the dead, they are God’s children.

37Even Moses showed that the dead are raised. In the account of the burning bush, he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’

38God is not the God of the dead but of the living, because to him they are all alive.”

39Some of the Scripture experts replied, “Teacher, you have answered well.”

40After that, no one dared to ask him another question.

41Then Jesus said to them, “How can people say that the Messiah, God’s chosen king, is merely David’s descendant?

42David 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 beneath your feet.”’

44David therefore calls the Messiah ‘lord.’ So how can the Messiah be merely David’s descendant?”

45While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples,

46“Watch out for the Scripture experts. They like to walk around in long robes, receive respectful greetings in the marketplaces, sit in the most honored seats in the synagogues, and take the best places at banquets.

47They take widows’ homes from them, yet put on a show by praying at great length. They will receive a more severe judgment.”