1 Yeshua again used parables in speaking to them:
2 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son,
3 but when he sent his slaves to summon the invited guests to the wedding, they refused to come.
4 So he sent some more slaves, instructing them to tell the guests, ‘Look, I’ve prepared my banquet, I’ve slaughtered my bulls and my fattened cattle, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding!’
5 But they weren’t interested and went off, one to his farm, another to his business;
6 and the rest grabbed his slaves, mistreated them and killed them.
7 The king was furious and sent his soldiers, who killed those murderers and burned down their city.
8 “Then he said to his slaves, ‘Well, the wedding feast is ready; but the ones who were invited didn’t deserve it.
9 So go out to the street-corners and invite to the banquet as many as you find.’
10 The slaves went out into the streets, gathered all the people they could find, the bad along with the good; and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “Now when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who wasn’t dressed for a wedding; so he asked him,
12 ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.
13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him outside in the dark!’ In that place people will wail and grind their teeth,
14 for many are invited, but few are chosen.”
15 Then theP’rushimwent away and put together a plan to trap Yeshua with his own words.
16 They sent him some of theirtalmidimand some members of Herod’s party. They said, “Rabbi, we know that you tell the truth and really teach what God’s way is. You aren’t concerned with what other people think about you, since you pay no attention to a person’s status.
17 So tell us your opinion: doesTorahpermit paying taxes to the Roman Emperor or not?”
18 Yeshua, however, knowing their malicious intent, said, “You hypocrites! Why are you trying to trap me?
19 Show me the coin used to pay the tax!” They brought him a denarius;
20 and he asked them, “Whose name and picture are these?”
21 “The Emperor’s,” they replied. Yeshua said to them, “Nu, give the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor. And give to God what belongs to God!”
22 On hearing this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
23 That same day, someTz’dukimcame to him. They are the ones who say there is no such thing as resurrection, so they put to him ash’eilah:
24 “Rabbi, Moshe said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother must marry his widow and have children to preserve the man’s family line.’
25 There were seven brothers. The first one married and then died; and since he had no children, he left his widow to his brother.
26 The same thing happened to the second brother, and the third, and finally to all seven.
27 After them all, the woman died.
28 Now in the Resurrection — of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all married her.”
29 Yeshua answered them, “The reason you go astray is that you are ignorant both of theTanakhand of the power of God.
30 For in the Resurrection, neither men nor women will marry; rather, they will be like angels in heaven.
31 And as for whether the dead are resurrected, haven’t you read what God said to you,
32 ‘I am the God of Avraham, the God of Yitz’chak and the God of Ya‘akov’? He is God not of the dead but of the living!”
33 When the crowds heard how he taught, they were astounded;
34 but when theP’rushimlearned that he had silenced theTz’dukim, they got together,
35 and one of them who was aTorahexpert asked ash’eilahto trap him:
36 “Rabbi, which of themitzvotin theTorahis the most important?”
37 He told him, “‘You are to loveAdonaiyour God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’
38 This is the greatest and most importantmitzvah.
39 And a second is similar to it, ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 All of theTorahand the Prophets are dependent on these twomitzvot.”
41 Then, turning to the assembledP’rushim, Yeshua put ash’eilahto them:
42 “Tell me your view concerning the Messiah: whose son is he?” They said to him, “David’s.”
43 “Then how is it,” he asked them, “that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord,’ when he says,
44 ‘Adonaisaid to my Lord,
“Sit here at my right hand
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?
45 If David thus calls him ‘Lord,’ how is he his son?”
46 No one could think of anything to say in reply; and from that day on, no one dared put to him anothersh’eilah.