Luke 20:20–38

A Question about Taxes—Matthew 22:15–22; Mark 12:13–17

²⁰So they watched for an opportunity to send out some spies. The spies were to act like sincere religious people. They wanted to catch him saying the wrong thing so that they could hand him over to the governor. ²¹They asked him, “Teacher, we know that you’re right in what you say and teach. Besides, you don’t play favorites. Rather, you teach the way of God truthfully. ²²Is it right for us to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” 

²³He saw through their scheme, so he said to them, ²⁴“Show me a coin. Whose face and name is this?” 

They answered, “The emperor’s.” 

²⁵He said to them, “Well, then give the emperor what belongs to the emperor, and give God what belongs to God.” 

²⁶They couldn’t make him say anything wrong in front of the people. His answer surprised them, so they said no more. 

The Dead Come Back to Life—Matthew 22:23–33; Mark 12:18–27

²⁷Some Sadducees, who say that people will never come back to life, came to Jesus. They asked him, ²⁸“Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If a married man dies and has no children, his brother should marry his widow and have children for his brother.’ ²⁹There were seven brothers. The first got married and died without having children. ³⁰Then the second brother married the widow, ³¹and so did the third. In the same way all seven brothers married the widow, died, and left no children. ³²Finally, the woman died. ³³Now, when the dead come back to life, whose wife will she be? The seven brothers had married her.” 

³⁴Jesus said to them, “In this world people get married. ³⁵But people who are considered worthy to come back to life and live in the next world will neither marry ³⁶nor die anymore. They are the same as the angels. They are God’s children who have come back to life. 

³⁷“Even Moses showed in the passage about the bush that the dead come back to life. He says that the Lord is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ³⁸He’s not the God of the dead but of the living. In God’s sight all people are living.”