Matthew 22

The Parable of the Wedding Feast

¹And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying,²“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son,³and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.⁴Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’⁵But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business,⁶while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.⁷The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.⁸Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.⁹Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’¹⁰And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.¹²And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.¹³Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Paying Taxes to Caesar

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.¹⁶And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.¹⁷Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”¹⁸But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?¹⁹Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.²⁰And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”²¹They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”²²When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.

Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

²³The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question,²⁴saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother.²⁶So too the second and third, down to the seventh.²⁷After them all, the woman died.²⁸In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”

²⁹But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.³¹And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God:³²‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”³³And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

The Great Commandment

³⁴But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.³⁵And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.³⁶“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”³⁷And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.³⁸This is the great and first commandment.³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.⁴⁰On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Whose Son Is the Christ?

⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,⁴²saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.”⁴³He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴“‘The Lord said to my Lord,

“Sit at my right hand,

until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

⁴⁵If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”⁴⁶And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.