Luke 20:20–38

Is It Right to Pay Taxes or Not?

²⁰So they watched Jesus and sent some spies who acted as if they were sincere. They wanted to trap Jesus in saying something wrong so they could hand him over to the authority and power of the governor. ²¹So the spies asked Jesus, “Teacher, we know that what you say and teach is true. You pay no attention to who people are, and you always teach the truth about God’s way. ²²Tell us, is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

²³But Jesus, knowing they were trying to trick him, said, ²⁴“Show me a coin. Whose image and name are on it?”

They said, “Caesar’s.”

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

²⁶So they were not able to trap Jesus in anything he said in the presence of the people. And being amazed at his answer, they became silent.

Some Sadducees Try to Trick Jesus

²⁷Some Sadducees, who believed people would not rise from the dead, came to Jesus. ²⁸They asked, “Teacher, Moses wrote that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, then that man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. ²⁹Once there were seven brothers. The first brother married and died, but had no children. ³⁰Then the second brother married the widow, and he died. ³¹And the third brother married the widow, and he died. The same thing happened with all seven brothers; they died and had no children. ³²Finally, the woman died also. ³³Since all seven brothers had married her, whose wife will she be when people rise from the dead?”

³⁴Jesus said to them, “On earth, people marry and are given to someone to marry. ³⁵But those who will be worthy to be raised from the dead and live again will not marry, nor will they be given to someone to marry. ³⁶In that life they are like angels and cannot die. They are children of God, because they have been raised from the dead. ³⁷Even Moses clearly showed that the dead are raised to life. When he wrote about the burning bush, ⁿ he said that the Lord is ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ^{n 38}God is the God of the living, not the dead, because all people are alive to him.”