Matthew 22:1–22

Parable of the Wedding Feast

¹And Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables, saying,

²“^aThe kingdom of heaven ¹may be compared to ²a king who ³gave a ^bwedding feast for his son.

³“And he ^asent out his slaves to call those who had been called to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come.

⁴“Again he ^asent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been called, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”’

⁵“But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own ¹farm, another to his business,

⁶and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.

⁷“But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.

⁸“Then he ^*said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were called were not worthy.

⁹‘Go therefore to ^athe main highways, and as many as you find there, call to the wedding feast.’

¹⁰“And those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with ¹dinner guests.

¹¹“But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw ^aa man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes,

¹²and he ^*said to him, ‘^aFriend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless.

¹³“Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into ^athe outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴“For many are ^1acalled, but few are ^bchosen.”

Taxes to Caesar

^15aThen the Pharisees went and took counsel together about how they might trap Him ¹in what He said.

¹⁶And they ^*sent their disciples to Him, along with the ^aHerodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and ¹defer to no one; for You are not partial to any.

¹⁷“Therefore, tell us, what do You think? Is it ¹lawful to give a ^atax to ^bCaesar, or not?”

¹⁸But Jesus, knowing their wickedness, said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?

¹⁹“Show Me the ^acoin used for the tax.” And they brought Him a ¹denarius.

²⁰And He ^*said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”

²¹They ^*said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He ^*said to them, “^aTherefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”

²²And hearing this, they marveled, and ^aleaving Him, they went away.