Luke 20

And it came to pass on one of the days he was teaching the people in the Temple and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the experts in the law, along with the elders, approached him,

and they spoke, saying to him, “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things. Who is the one who gave you this authority?”

And he answered and said to them, “I also will ask you a question, and you tell me:

Was the baptism of John from heaven or of human origin?”

And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’

But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us because they are convinced that John was a prophet.”

And so they answered that they did not know where it was from.

And Jesus said to them, “Then I will not tell you by what authority I do these things.”

And he began to speak to the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to farmers and went away on a journey for a long time.

And at the time of the harvest he sent a servant to the farmers so that they would give him his portion of the fruit of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him and sent him away empty-handed.

And he sent yet another servant, and they also beat him, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed.

And he sent yet a third, and they also wounded him and threw him out.

And the lord of the vineyard said, ‘What should I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be they will reverence him.’

But when the farmers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.’

And they threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. “Now, what then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

He will come and destroy those farmers, and will give the vineyard to others.” And when they heard it, they said, “May it not be!”

But he looked at them and said, “What then does this scripture mean: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will crush.”

And the experts in the law and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him in that very hour because they knew that he spoke this parable against them (but they were afraid of the people).

And they watched him closely and sent spies who pretended to be righteous in order to catch him in some statement so they could deliver him up to the rule and to the authority of the governor.

And they asked him, saying, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and you do not show favoritism, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

But he perceived their craftiness and said to them,

“Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?” And they said, “Caesar’s.”

And he said to them, “Then give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

And they could not catch him in his words in the presence of the people; and being amazed at his answer, they became silent.

And some of the Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him,

and they asked him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote to us, that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, that man must take his brother’s wife and raise up offspring for his dead brother.

Now there were seven brothers, and the first took a wife, and died without children,

and the second,

and the third took her, and in the same way the seven also left no children, and died.

Afterward, the woman also died.

So in the resurrection, the woman will become the wife of which one of them, since all seven had her as a wife?”

And Jesus said to them, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage,

but those who are counted worthy to attain to that age, and the resurrection from among the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage.

Indeed, they are not able to die any more, for they are equal to the angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the passage about the burning bush, when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

Now he is not the God of the dead, but of living, for all live for him.”

And some of the experts in the law answering said, “Teacher, you have spoken well!”

For they did not dare to question him any more about anything.

And he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son?

For David himself says in the scroll of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand,

until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.’

David therefore calls him Lord, and so how is he his son?”

And while all the people were listening, he said to his disciples,

“Beware of the experts in the law who like to walk around in long robes, and like to receive greetings in the marketplaces and to sit in the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at the feasts,

who cheat widows out of their houses, and make long prayers just for show. These people will receive a harsher punishment.”