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Luke 20 - Good News Bible bible

Luke 20

¹One day when Jesus was in the Temple teaching the people and preaching the Good News, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law, together with the elders, came

²and said to him, "Tell us, what right do you have to do these things? Who gave you such right?"

³Jesus answered them, "Now let me ask you a question. Tell me,

⁴did John's right to baptize come from God or from human beings?"

⁵They started to argue among themselves, "What shall we say? If we say, 'From God,' he will say, 'Why, then, did you not believe John?'

⁶But if we say, 'From human beings,' this whole crowd here will stone us, because they are convinced that John was a prophet."

⁷So they answered, "We don't know where it came from."

⁸And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you, then, by what right I do these things."

⁹Then Jesus told the people this parable: "There was once a man who planted a vineyard, rented it out to tenants, and then left home for a long time.

¹⁰When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest. But the tenants beat the slave and sent him back without a thing.

¹¹So he sent another slave; but the tenants beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him back without a thing.

¹²Then he sent a third slave; the tenants wounded him, too, and threw him out.

¹³Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my own dear son; surely they will respect him!'

¹⁴But when the tenants saw him, they said to one another, 'This is the owner's son. Let's kill him, and his property will be ours!'

¹⁵So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. "What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to the tenants?" Jesus asked.

¹⁶"He will come and kill those men, and turn the vineyard over to other tenants." When the people heard this, they said, "Surely not!"

¹⁷Jesus looked at them and asked, "What, then, does this scripture mean? 'The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all.'

¹⁸Everyone who falls on that stone will be cut to pieces; and if that stone falls on someone, that person will be crushed to dust."

¹⁹The teachers of the Law and the chief priests tried to arrest Jesus on the spot, because they knew that he had told this parable against them; but they were afraid of the people.

²⁰So they looked for an opportunity. They bribed some men to pretend they were sincere, and they sent them to trap Jesus with questions, so that they could hand him over to the authority and power of the Roman Governor.

²¹These spies said to Jesus, "Teacher, we know that what you say and teach is right. We know that you pay no attention to anyone's status, but teach the truth about God's will for people.

²²Tell us, is it against our Law for us to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor, or not?"

²³But Jesus saw through their trick and said to them,

²⁴"Show me a silver coin. Whose face and name are these on it?" "The Emperor's," they answered.

²⁵So Jesus said, "Well, then, pay to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and pay to God what belongs to God."

²⁶There before the people they could not catch him in a thing, so they kept quiet, amazed at his answer.

²⁷Then some Sadducees, who say that people will not rise from death, came to Jesus and said,

²⁸"Teacher, Moses wrote this law for us: 'If a man dies and leaves a wife but no children, that man's brother must marry the widow so that they can have children who will be considered the dead man's children.'

²⁹Once there were seven brothers; the oldest got married and died without having children.

³⁰Then the second one married the woman,

³¹and then the third. The same thing happened to all seven---they died without having children.

³²Last of all, the woman died.

³³Now, on the day when the dead rise to life, whose wife will she be? All seven of them had married her."

³⁴Jesus answered them, "The men and women of this age marry,

³⁵but the men and women who are worthy to rise from death and live in the age to come will not then marry.

³⁶They will be like angels and cannot die. They are the children of God, because they have risen from death.

³⁷And Moses clearly proves that the dead are raised to life. In the passage about the burning bush he speaks of the Lord as 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'

³⁸He is the God of the living, not of the dead, for to him all are alive."

³⁹Some of the teachers of the Law spoke up, "A good answer, Teacher!"

⁴⁰For they did not dare ask him any more questions.

⁴¹Jesus asked them, "How can it be said that the Messiah will be the descendant of David?

⁴²For David himself says in the book of Psalms, 'The Lord said to my Lord: Sit here at my right side

⁴³until I put your enemies as a footstool under your feet.'

⁴⁴David called him 'Lord'; how, then, can the Messiah be David's descendant?"

⁴⁵As all the people listened to him, Jesus said to his disciples,

⁴⁶"Be on your guard against the teachers of the Law, who like to walk around in their long robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplace; who choose the reserved seats in the synagogues and the best places at feasts;

⁴⁷who take advantage of widows and rob them of their homes, and then make a show of saying long prayers! Their punishment will be all the worse!"