Luke 20

¹One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and announcing the good news, the high priests and the scribes, along with the elders, confronted him. ²They spoke to him, saying, “Tell us: by what authority are you doing these things? Or who is the one who gave you this authority?”

³He answered them, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me: ⁴was the immersion of John from heaven or from a human source?”

⁵They debated among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ ⁶But if we say, ‘From a human source,’ the entire populace will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” ⁷So they answered that they did not know where it came from.

⁸Jesus said to them, “Then neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

⁹He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and went abroad for a long time. ¹⁰At the harvest season, he sent a slave to the tenants so that they would give him his share of the vineyard’s fruit. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹He proceeded to send another slave; that one, too, they beat and treated with dishonor, sending him away empty-handed. ¹²He proceeded to send a third; this one they wounded and threw out.

¹³Then the master of the vineyard said, ‘What should I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ ¹⁴But when the tenants saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance becomes ours.’ ¹⁵And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, will the master of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “May this never happen!”

¹⁷But he looked straight at them and said, “What then is the meaning of this scripture: ‘The stone that the builders rejected, this very stone has become the cornerstone’?

¹⁸Everyone who falls on that stone will be shattered to pieces; and the one on whom it falls—it will grind him to dust.”

¹⁹The scribes and the high priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people; for they realized that he had aimed this parable at them.

²⁰So they watched him closely and sent spies who performed as though they were just men, in order to catch him in some statement, so as to deliver him over to the rule and authority of the governor. ²¹They questioned him, saying, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly and are not swayed by a person’s status, but truly teach the way of God. ²²Is it lawful for us to pay tribute to Caesar or not?”

²³But perceiving their duplicity, he said to them, ²⁴“Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.”

²⁵He said to them, “Then return to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

²⁶And they were not able to catch him in a statement in the presence of the people, and marvelling at his answer, they fell silent.

²⁷Some of the Sadducees—those who deny there is a resurrection—approached and questioned him, ²⁸saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should take the wife and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁹Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died childless. ³⁰And the second ³¹and the third took her, and in the same way all seven died leaving no children. ³²Finally, the woman died as well. ³³In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife does the woman become? For the seven had her as a wife.”

³⁴Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage. ³⁵But those considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. ³⁶For they can no longer die, because they are equal to angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. ³⁷But that the dead are raised, even Moses revealed in the passage about the bush, when he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob.’ ³⁸Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”

³⁹Some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” ⁴⁰For they no longer dared to ask him anything.

⁴¹But he said to them, “How can they say that the Anointed One is David’s son? ⁴²For David himself says in the Book of Psalms: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, ⁴³until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’

⁴⁴David thus calls him ‘Lord,’ so how is he his son?”

⁴⁵While all the people were listening, he said to the disciples, ⁴⁶“Beware of the scribes, who like to stroll in long robes and love greetings in the marketplaces, and the best seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets. ⁴⁷They are the ones who devour the estates of widows and offer long prayers as a pretext. These will receive a more severe judgment.”