Matthew 21:23–24:51
The Authority of Jesus Questioned
21:23–27pp—Mk 11:27–33; Lk 20:1–8
23 Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authorityo are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?”
24 Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 25 John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?”
They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”p
27 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”
Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’q
29 “ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectorsr and the prostitutess are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness,t and you did not believe him, but the tax collectorsu and the prostitutesv did. And even after you saw this, you did not repentw and believe him.
21:33–46pp—Mk 12:1–12; Lk 20:9–19
33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who plantedx a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower.y Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place.z 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servantsa to the tenants to collect his fruit.
35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.b 36 Then he sent other servantsc to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir.d Come, let’s kill hime and take his inheritance.’f 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,”g they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants,h who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“ ‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’h?i
43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from youj and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”i k
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.l
The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
22 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is likem a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servantsn to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servantso and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderersp and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street cornersq and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good,r and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friends?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’t
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”u
Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar
22:15–22pp—Mk 12:13–17; Lk 20:20–26
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians.v “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial taxa w to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s,x and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.y
22:23–33pp—Mk 12:18–27; Lk 20:27–40
23 That same day the Sadducees,z who say there is no resurrection,a came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.b 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scripturesc or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage;d they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’b?e He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.f
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,g the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law,h tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’c i 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’d j 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”k
22:41–46pp—Mk 12:35–37; Lk 20:41–44
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
“The son of David,”l they replied.
43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,
44 “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.n
23:1–7pp—Mk 12:38,39; Lk 20:45,46
23:37–39pp—Lk 13:34,35
23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the lawo and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.p
5 “Everything they do is done for people to see:q They make their phylacteriesa r wide and the tassels on their garmentss long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;t 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.u
8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father,v and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant.w 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.x
Seven Woes on the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees
13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!y You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.z [14]b
15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert,a and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hellb as you are.
16 “Woe to you, blind guides!c You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’d