Gospel according to Matthew 22

¹ Jesus began to speak to them in parables once again,

² ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding.

³ He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come.

⁴ Next he sent some more servants. “Tell those who have been invited” he said “that I have my banquet all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding.”

⁵ But they were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business,

⁶ and the rest seized his servants, maltreated them and killed them.

⁷ The king was furious. He despatched his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their town.

⁸ Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready; but as those who were invited proved to be unworthy,

⁹ go to the crossroads in the town and invite everyone you can find to the wedding”.

¹⁰ So these servants went out on to the roads and collected together everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹ When the king came in to look at the guests he noticed one man who was not wearing a wedding garment,

¹² and said to him, “How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?” And the man was silent.

¹³ Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth”.

¹⁴ For many are called, but few are chosen.’

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went away to work out between them how to trap him in what he said.

¹⁶ And they sent their disciples to him, together with the Herodians,[*a] to say, ‘Master, we know that you are an honest man and teach the way of God in an honest way, and that you are not afraid of anyone, because a man’s rank means nothing to you.

¹⁷ Tell us your opinion, then. Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’

¹⁸ But Jesus was aware of their malice and replied, ‘You hypocrites! Why do you set this trap for me?

¹⁹ Let me see the money you pay the tax with.’ They handed him a denarius,

²⁰ and he said, ‘Whose head is this? Whose name?’

²¹ ‘Caesar’s’ they replied. He then said to them, ‘Very well, give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God’.

²² This reply took them by surprise, and they left him alone and went away.

²³ That day some Sadducees – who deny that there is a resurrection – approached him and they put this question to him,

²⁴ ‘Master, Moses said that if a man dies childless, his brother is to marry the widow, his sister-in-law to raise children for his brother.

²⁵ Now we had a case involving seven brothers; the first married and then died without children, leaving his wife to his brother;

²⁶ the same thing happened with the second and third and so on to the seventh,

²⁷ and then last of all the woman herself died.

²⁸ Now at the resurrection to which of those seven will she be wife, since she had been married to them all?’

²⁹ Jesus answered them, ‘You are wrong, because you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God.

³⁰ For at the resurrection men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven.

³¹ And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you never read what God himself said to you:

³² I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?[*b] God is God, not of the dead, but of the living.’

³³ And his teaching made a deep impression on the people who heard it.

³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they got together

³⁵ and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question,

³⁶ ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’

³⁷ Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

³⁸ This is the greatest and the first commandment.

³⁹ The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself.

⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.’

⁴¹ While the Pharisees were gathered round, Jesus put to them this question,

⁴² ‘What is your opinion about the Christ? Whose son is he?’ ‘David’s’ they told him.

⁴³ ‘Then how is it’ he said ‘that David, moved by the Spirit, calls him Lord, where he says:

⁴⁴ The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand and I will put your enemies under your feet?[*c]

⁴⁵ ‘If David can call him Lord, then how can he be his son?’

⁴⁶ Not one could think of anything to say in reply, and from that day no one dared to ask him any further questions.