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Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:

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"The kingdom 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 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.'

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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 people 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 guests, 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."

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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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"Caesar's," they replied. Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

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

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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.

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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 neighbour as yourself.'

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All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

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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.

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