Read New International Version, 2011 Matthew 22 Bible Online

Matthew 22 - New International Version, 2011 bible

Matthew 22

¹Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:

²“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.

³He sent his servants 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 servants 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.

⁶The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.

⁷The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers 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.

⁹So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’

¹⁰So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, 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.

¹²He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ 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.’

¹⁴ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.

¹⁶They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “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.

¹⁷Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax [88] to Caesar or not?”

¹⁸But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?

¹⁹Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius,

²⁰and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

²¹“Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

²²When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

²³That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, 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.

²⁵Now 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.

²⁶The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh.

²⁷Finally, the woman died.

²⁸Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

²⁹Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

³⁰At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

³¹But 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’ [89]? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

³³When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

³⁴Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.

³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

³⁶“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ [90]

³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment.

³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ [91]

⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

⁴¹While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,

⁴²“What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied.

⁴³He 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 under your feet.” ’ [92]

⁴⁵ If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?”

⁴⁶No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.