Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Matthew 22
The Wedding Banquet
Jesus spoke to them again in parables: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to call those who had been invited to the banquet, but they did not want to come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ But they paid no attention and went away—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king became angry. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Therefore go to the crossroads and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those servants went out into the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothing. He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothing?’ The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and grinding of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Paying Taxes to Caesar
Then the Pharisees went and planned how to trap Jesus in what he said. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are truthful and teach God's way in truth. You are not swayed by anyone, because you do not show favoritism. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay the tax to Caesar or not?” But Jesus knew their evil intent and said, “Why are you testing me, hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” They brought him a denarius. He asked them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar's.” Then he told them, “Give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” When they heard this, they were amazed. They left him and went away.
The Sadducees and Resurrection
That same day Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies without children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and because he had no offspring, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third, all the way to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died. In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be among the seven? For they all had her.” Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven. And concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God spoke to you: ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
The Greatest Commandment
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. One of them, an expert in the Law, tested him with a question: “Teacher, which commandment in the Law is greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your life, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
David's Son and Lord
While the Pharisees were gathered, Jesus asked them,
“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “David's.”
He asked them, “How then does David, by the Spirit, call him Lord, saying,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies under your feet’?
If David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
No one was able to answer him a word, and from that day no one dared ask him another question.