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UST MAT Chapter 22

22 Then Jesus used more stories to teach the chief priests and the Jewish leaders. He said, 2 “Here is what God’s heavenly kingdom is like: a king prepared a banquet to celebrate his son, who was getting married. 3 When it was time for the banquet, the king told his servants to summon the people that he had asked to attend the banquet. However, those people refused to attend the banquet. 4 So, the king told different servants to summon again the people he had asked to attend the banquet. He instructed them to say that the meal was ready, that his servants had prepared special cows to eat and everything else, and that they should attend the banquet. 5 However, the people that the king had asked to attend the banquet ignored his servants. Instead, some of them left for other places, like their farms or workplaces. 6 Other people that the king had asked to attend the banquet grabbed his servants. They abused some of them, and they killed some of them. 7 So, the king was very upset. He told his soldiers to kill the people who killed his servants and to burn down their town. 8 After that, the king told his servants that, although the feast for his son’s wedding was ready, the people he had asked to attend did not deserve to be there. 9 So, he told his servants to walk to the intersections of the main roads and to tell the people they encountered to attend the feast for his son’s wedding. 10 So, his servants walked to the intersections of the roads. They brought all the people they encountered, whether those people did what was right or did what was wrong. Then, the wedding hall was full of people who were feasting. 11 The king went into the hall to see the people who were feasting. While he was there, he noticed that one person did not have on the proper clothing for a wedding. 12 The king called him friend and told him that he should not have attended without having on the proper clothing for a wedding. The person had nothing to say in response. 13 After that, the king told his servants to tie the person up and cast him out of the wedding hall. He told them to punish him in a dark place, where people will cry and sorrowfully grind their teeth. 14 As that story illustrates, God summons many people to participate in his kingdom. However, he only chooses a few of them to do so.”

15 After Jesus said those things, the Pharisees left that place. They started to plan how they could cause him to make a mistake in what he said. 16 So, the Pharisees told some of their apprentices and some people who supported King Herod to go to Jesus and say to him, “Our instructor, we realize that you say what is true. Further, you truthfully instruct people in what God wants them to do. You do not pay attention to how important or powerful people are. So, you do not care about what other people think. 17 So, please tell us how you answer this question: Does our law allow us to pay taxes to the Roman government, or does it not allow that? 18 However, Jesus knew that they were trying to harm him. So, he replied, “You are trying to make me say something wrong. You pretend to respect me, but you really do not!” 19 Hand me one of the coins that you use to pay taxes.” Someone handed him a Roman coin. 20 Then Jesus asked, “Whose picture and name are on this coin?” 21 They replied, “It is Caesar’s picture and name.” Then Jesus said, “In that case, give to the Roman government what belongs to it, and give to God what belongs to him.” 22 What Jesus said impressed the Pharisees’ apprentices and the people who supported King Herod. They left where he was.

23 Later that day, some Sadducees came to Jesus. They are a Jewish group that does not believe that God will make people who have died alive again. They asked Jesus, 24 “Our instructor, Moses wrote in the Scriptures about what should happen when a man with a wife but no children dies. When that happens, the man’s brother should marry the dead man’s wife. When they have a child, they should consider it to be the child of the dead man. 25 So, consider this situation: seven brothers lived here. One brother got married, but then he died before he had children. So, one of his brothers married his widow. 26 The same thing happened to the second brother, the third brother, and the other four brothers. They each married the widow but died before they had children. 27 Finally, the widow died. 28 So then, of those seven brothers, whose wife will she be when God makes people alive again? We ask because she got married to all seven of them at different times.” 29 Jesus replied, “You do not realize what the Scriptures mean or how powerful God is. So, you believe what is wrong. 30 Here is what I mean: after God makes people alive again, they will not get married. Instead, they will be like angels who dwell in heaven and do not get married. 31 Now I will speak about whether God makes people who have died alive again. You have read in the Scriptures that God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God whom Abraham worships, the God whom Isaac worships, and the God whom Jacob worships.’ It is living people who worship God, not dead people. So, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who all have died, must be alive again!”

33 The things that Jesus taught impressed the large groups of people.

34 The Pharisees heard that Jesus answered so well that the Sadducees could not respond. So, the Pharisees met together and went to where Jesus was. 35 Then, one of the Pharisees, who was an expert in the Jewish law, decided to investigate Jesus. He asked him, 36 “Instructor, which of the laws that God gave us is the most important?” 37 Jesus replied: “We must love the Lord, the God whom we worship, with everything that we desire, everything that we do, and everything that we think. 38 That is the most important law. 39 The next most important law is similar. It is that we must care for people we know as much as we care for ourselves. 40 All the parts of the Scriptures depend upon these two laws.”

41 While those Pharisees were still all together near Jesus, he asked them, 42 “I want you to answer a question about the Messiah. Who is his ancestor?” They replied, “His ancestor is King David.” 43 Jesus replied, “In that case, why did the Holy Spirit cause King David to write that the Messiah was his Lord? People do not describe their descendants as their lords. However, King David wrote 44 that

the Lord God said to David’s Lord,

‘Rule with me

while I defeat all of your enemies!’

45 So then, since King David wrote that the Messiah was his Lord, how is it possible for King David to be his ancestor?” 46 The people who were there could not answer his question. In fact, after that nobody was bold enough to ask him more questions.

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