20:1 - And it so happened that one day, as he was in the temple teaching the people and preaching the gospel, the chief priest came to him accompanied by scribes and elders,
20:2 - They asked him, Where did you get the power and who gave you the right to do these things.
20:3 - And he replied to their question by saying, I am going to ask you something to and you will reply:
20:4 - Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it a creation of man?
20:5 - They thought to themselves, If we say, ‘from heaven’, he will say, ‘then why did you not believe him?’
20:6 - If we are to say that it is of men, everyone will attack us as they believe that John was a prophet.
20:7 - They replied that they did not know what place it was from.
20:8 - So Jesus stated, I’m not going to tell you how I perform these feats.
20:9 - Then he told the people this story: There was a man who planted a vineyard. Then he hired someone to care for it while he went on a long trip to a far-away country.
20:10 - And at the end of the growing season, he sent a slave to the farmer to collect the harvest of his vineyard: but the farmer beat him, and drove him away empty-handed.
20:11 - Then he sent another of his employees: and they beat him too, and abused him, and made him go back empty-handed.
20:12 - He sent a third person: and they hurt him also, and put him out.
20:13 - Then the landowner said, What will I do? I will send my son, whom I love: and they will hopefully respect him when they see him.
20:14 - When the workers saw him, they gathered together to talk about what to do. This is the heir, they concluded, let’s kill him so that we can have his inheritance.
20:15 - So they threw him out of the vineyard and murdered him. Now, what will the vineyard’s owner do to them?
20:16 - They said, God forbid when they heard that He would come down and destroy the caretakers and give their vineyards to others.
20:17 - He hugged them and said, What is this written, the stone rejected by the builders, the same has been done to the head of the corner?
20:18 - Anybody who will fall on that stone will be broken into pieces; and it will scatter anyone to whom it falls like dust.
20:19 - The religious leaders and journalists searched for him and worried about public opinion because they felt his story had been aimed at them.
20:20 - They watched him and sent spies to pretend they were ordinary men in order to hear what he said, so they would be able to bring him under the power and authority of the governor.
20:21 - And they called him Master and asked, we know your words and teachings are true, and not showing favoritism but teaching the true way of God:
20:22 - Is it just for us to pay recognition to Caesar or not?
20:23 - But he sensed their cunning, and said to them. Why do you entice me?
20:24 - Give me a coin. Whose picture and words are these on it? They replied, Ceasar’s.
20:25 - He said to them, Give the tax man what is due to him and give God what is due to God.
20:26 - They did not understand him: they looked incredulously at him, and were quiet.
20:27 - The Sadducees, a Jewish group at that time who didn’t believe that there was any life after death, and they asked Jesus
20:28 - They said Master, Moses wrote to us, If a man’s brother died and he had a wife and no children, the man’s brother should marry her and have children in place of his brother.
20:29 - The oldest of seven brothers had a wife, but died without having any children.
20:30 - The next married her and died without children.
20:31 - In the same way, the third brother took her for his wife; then all seven brothers did the same: but none of them had any children with her before they died.
20:32 - Finally even the woman passed on.
20:33 - When the resurrection has come who will be her husband? for she has been married seven times.
20:34 - And Jesus responded to them, The offspring living in this world enter into marriage and are given for to marry.
20:35 - But those who are rewarded with that realm, and resurrection, do not marry.
20:36 - And they cannot die again: they are immortal, like the angels; they are God’s children, given new life from the resurrection.
20:37 - Once the dead have been revived, even Moses appeared at the shrubbery calling for the Lord, Abraham’s God, Isaac’s God, and Jacob’s God.
20:38 - Because he is the God of living people: for we are all alive in his sight.
20:39 - Then one of the scribes answered to the Master that the words were well spoken.
20:40 - After all that they did not dare to question him in any way.
20:41 - He asked the others, Why do they claim that David is the father of Christ?
20:42 - And David said in the book of Psalms, The LORD told my Lord to sit on his right,
20:43 - Until I can make you rise above your enemies.
20:44 - How can he be David’s son, if David calls him Lord?
20:45 - With everybody listening, he spoke.
20:46 - Avoid the scribes, because they wish to have the best of everything;
20:47 - Those who take over widow’s houses or properties and then show off with elaborate prayers that they don’t really mean, will pay for it with a harsher judgment.