1 One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and announcing the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came up to him along with the elders
2 and said to him, "Tell us, by what authority do you do these things? Or who gave you this authority?"
3 He answered them, "I too will ask you a question. Tell me:
4 John's baptism, did it come from heaven or from men?"
5 They talked it over among themselves: "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say, 'Why did you not believe him?'
6 But if we say, 'From men,' the whole people will stone us, since they are convinced that John was a prophet."
7 So they replied that they did not know where it came from.
8 Jesus said to them, "Then neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."
9 He began to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard, rented it out to tenant farmers, and went away to another country for a long time.
10 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him his share of the vineyard's fruit. But the tenants beat him and sent him off with nothing.
11 He sent yet another servant; they beat that one too, treated him with contempt, and sent him off with nothing.
12 He sent a third as well; this one too they wounded and threw out.
13 The owner of the vineyard said, 'What am I to do? I will send my son, the beloved one; perhaps when they see him they will show him respect.'
14 But when the tenants saw him, they talked it over with one another: 'This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours.'
15 And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. So what will the owner of the vineyard do to them?
16 He will come and put those tenants to death and give the vineyard to others." When they heard this, they said, "Never may it be!"
17 But he looked straight at them and said, "Then what does this mean that is written: 'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone'?
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be shattered, and anyone on whom it falls will be crushed to dust."
19 At that very hour the chief priests and scribes tried to get their hands on him, but they were afraid of the people, because they realized he had told this parable against them.
20 They kept him under watch and sent spies who acted as if they were righteous men, to catch him in something he said, so as to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor.
21 They put a question to him: "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right and show no favoritism, but teach the way of God truthfully.
22 Is it lawful for us to pay tribute to Caesar, or not?"
23 But he saw through their cunning and said to them, "Why are you testing me?
24 Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?" They answered, "Caesar's."
25 He said to them, "Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
26 They were unable to catch him in his words in front of the people; amazed at his answer, they fell silent.
27 Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came up and questioned him:
28 "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies leaving a wife but no children, the man should marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.
29 Well, there were seven brothers. The first married a wife and died childless.
30 The second married the woman, and he too died childless.
31 Then the third married her, and so on with all seven; they left no children and died.
32 Finally the woman died too.
33 In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as their wife."
34 Jesus answered them, "The people of this age marry and are given in marriage;
35 but those judged worthy to have a share in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.
36 Indeed, they can no longer die, for they are like the angels, and they are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
37 And that the dead are raised Moses himself made known in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord 'the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.'
38 He is not God of the dead but of the living; for to him all are alive."
39 Some of the scribes responded, "Teacher, that was well said."
40 From then on they did not dare to ask him any more questions.
41 He said to them, "How can they say that the Christ is David's son?
42 And David himself says in the Book of Psalms: 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand
43 until I make your enemies your footstool."'
44 So David calls him 'Lord'; how, then, is he his son?"
45 While all the people were listening, he said to his disciples,
46 "Watch out for the scribes, who like to go about in long robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.
47 They eat up widows' houses and make long prayers for show. These will receive the heavier condemnation."