The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
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Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:
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"The kngdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
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He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet
to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
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"Then he sent some more servants and said,
'Tell those wo 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.'
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"But they paid no attention and went off - one to his field, another to his business.
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The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
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The king was enraged.
He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
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"Then he said to his servants,
'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.
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Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.'
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So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the peope
they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
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"But when the king came in to see the guest,
he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
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'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?'
The man was speechless.
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"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.'
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"For many are invited, but few are chosen."
Paying Taxes to Caesar
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Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.
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They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians.
"Teacher," they said, "we know you are a man of integrity
and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are.
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Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
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But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said,
"You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?
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Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius,
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and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"
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When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Marriage at the Resurrection
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That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection,
came to him with a question.
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"Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children,
his brother must marry the widow and have children for him.
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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.
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The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down
to the seventh.
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Finally, the woman died.
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Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven,
since all of them were married to her?"
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Jesus replied,
"You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
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At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage;
they will be like the angels in heaven.
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But about the resurrection of the dead - have you not read what God said to you,
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I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?
He is not the God of the dead but of the living."
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When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
The Greatest Commandment
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Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
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One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
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"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
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Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
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This is the first and greatest commandment.
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And the second is like it:
'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
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All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Whose Son Is the Christ?
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While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
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"What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?
"The son of David," they replied.
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He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit,
calls him 'Lord'? For he says,
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" 'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies under your feet." '
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If then David calls him 'Lord,' how can he be his son?"
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No one could say a word in reply and from that day on
no one dared to ask him any more questions.
