Who told Jesus what to say?

1One day Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and telling them God's good news so that they could obey God. But the chief priests and the teachers of Moses' law and the elders came to Jesus,

2and said, “Tell us, what are you doing here? Who told you to do everything you have done in this place?”

3Jesus answered, “Now I am going to ask you a question. You tell me.

4A while ago John was baptizing people in the river. So who told John to baptize them? God or people?”

5They talked about it and said to each other, “What answer can we give him? If we say, ‘God told John,’ he will say, ‘Then why didn't you believe John?’

6But if we say, ‘Some people told John,’ all the people will kill us with rocks, because they say that John was a prophet.”

7So they answered, “How can we tell? We don't know who told John.”

8And Jesus said to them, “Then I won't tell you who told me to do these things.”

About the men who looked after the grape vines

9Then Jesus told the people this story. There was once a man who planted a lot of grape vines. He gave some men the work of looking after them, and then some of the fruit would be his and some would be for them. Then he left home and went far away to another place. He stayed there for a long time. Then the grape season came and he wanted some of the fruit. So he sent a servant home to get some. The servant went and asked the men for some grapes to take back to his master. But they refused to give him any. They beat him and sent him away, and he went back to his master without any grapes.

11So the owner of the grape vines sent another servant to get the grapes. But the men were still bad and spoke unkindly to him and laughed at him. Then they beat him and sent him away, and he too went back to his master empty-handed.

12Then the owner of the grape vines sent another servant. They beat him too, and sent him away and he went back covered in cuts and bruises.

13The owner said, “What shall I do? I will send my own dear son. Maybe they won't beat him, because he is my son.” So he sent his son.

14But when the men saw the son coming they said to each other, “This is the master's son. When his father dies, he will be the owner. Let us kill him straight away and then this place and all these grapes will be ours!”

15So they grabbed him and threw him out of the place and killed him. After Jesus had told this story he asked, “So what will the owner of the grape vines do? I will tell you.

16He will go home and kill those wicked men. Then he will give his grape vines to some other men, so that they can look after his grapes for him when he goes away.” When they heard Jesus say this, they all said, “Surely he won't do that!”

17Jesus looked at them and said, “Long ago these words were written in God's book: ‘Some men wanted to build a house, and they collected a lot of stones. They put one stone to the side because they didn't want it. But later on they took the same stone that they hadn't wanted at first and found that it was the most important stone of all.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Think carefully about those words,

18because if any of you fall on that stone your bones will be broken in little pieces. But if that stone falls on you, it will crush you to dust.”

About Jewish people paying tax money to the Romans

19The teachers of Moses' law and the chief priests wanted to take Jesus straight away. They realized that Jesus was speaking about them when he told the story about the wicked men. But they were afraid of all the people who wanted to listen to Jesus.

20So they kept watching him day and night. Then they told some bad men to go to him. They said, “Try asking Jesus some questions, just like good, honest people ask, but you must trick him. See if he will give you bad answers so that we can blame him. If you do that we will pay you.” They wanted Jesus to say something bad so that they could give him to the Roman ruler.

21The men went to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we know that what you say is always right. You treat important people and unimportant people all the same. And when you teach people, you speak the truth about God.

22So tell us, when people collect tax money from us to send away to that ruler Caesar in Rome, is that right? Should we pay taxes or not?”

23Jesus knew what they were thinking and that their minds were evil.

24“Give me a coin,” he said. “Show me, whose face do you see on it? And whose name is this?” They answered, “It is Caesar's.”

25So Jesus said to them, “That is right. You should give Caesar what belongs to him, and you should give God what belongs to God.”

26Then the teachers of Moses' law and the chief priests kept quiet because they were so amazed at Jesus' answer. They couldn't do anything, and they couldn't say anything wrong about him, because there were too many people there.

About people coming alive after we die

27Then some Jewish people called Sadducees came to Jesus. The Sadducees say that we can't come alive again after our bodies die.

28They said, “Teacher, long ago Moses wrote this law for us: ‘If a man dies and leaves a wife but no children, that man's brother must marry the widow, so that they can have children who will be like the dead man's children.’

29“One time there were seven brothers. The first one got married but he didn't have any children and then he died.

30“Later on his younger brother married the widow.

31But he died too, without having any children. “Then another brother married her. But he also died without having any children. “One after another all the brothers married the same woman and died without having children.

32Last of all the woman died.

33“So tell us, Teacher. On the day when the dead come alive again, what will happen to that woman? Those seven men had all married her, so who will be her husband?”

34Jesus answered them, “In this world men and women marry each other,

35but in heaven God's people don't get married. When those people die, God will make them alive again, and he will say, ‘These people are good,’ and he will take them to be with him forever. They won't die again and they won't marry. The angels never die and those people will be like them. They will be God's children because after they have died they will come alive again.

37“You Sadducees say, ‘After we die we don't come alive again,’ but that is not right. Moses made it clear that after we die we do come alive again. You know what he wrote about the tree that wasn't destroyed after it burnt. At that time he also wrote these words of God's. God said to Moses, ‘I am the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’

38God doesn't rule over dead people. He is the Lord of people who are alive, because everyone who trusts in God in this world is alive now.”

39Some teachers of Moses' law said to Jesus, “That's right. Those are good words you have told the Sadducees.”

40After that they didn't want to ask Jesus any more questions, because they were ashamed and afraid.

About the Messiah

41Then Jesus said to the teachers of Moses' law, “People talk about the Messiah, saying that he is the descendant of David. But is that true?

42We know these words that David wrote. He said, ‘The Lord God said to my Lord: Sit here on my right. Stay near me

43until I make you the ruler over all the people who hate you.’

44“When David spoke those words about the Messiah, he called him his Lord. So because of that we know that the Messiah is David's descendant but he is also his Lord, isn't he?”

About Jesus warning people against the teachers

45Then Jesus spoke to his disciples and many other people also heard him.

46He said, “Be careful of the teachers of Moses' law. See that they don't trick you. They love to wear long clothes so that people can see them and say, ‘Those men are very important.’ And when they go around among people, they love everyone to speak nice words to them. And they love to have the best places to sit in, in the synagogues and when they eat in other people's houses.

47They even steal houses from the widows. And then they pray long prayers where people can see them. So think about the last day, because at that time God will blame wicked people, and he will blame the teachers of Moses' law even more!”