Luke 20
20
Chapter 20
A question about Jesus' authority
1One day, Jesus was teaching people in the yard of the temple. He was telling people the good news about God. Then the leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law came to him. With them were some other important Jews. 2The Jewish leaders asked him, ‘Tell us what authority you have to do these things. Who gave you the authority to do them?’
3Jesus replied, ‘I will also ask you a question. Tell me the answer. 4John baptized people. Did God give him the authority to do this? Or did men tell him to do it?’
5The Jewish leaders talked to each other about Jesus' question. They said, ‘We could say that God gave John his authority. But if we say that, Jesus will say to us, “Then you should have believed John.” 6But we cannot say that John received his authority from people. Then all the people would throw stones at us to kill us. They are sure that John was a prophet from God.’
7So the Jewish leaders answered Jesus, ‘We do not know who gave John his authority.’
8Jesus said to them, ‘You will not answer my question. So I will not tell you what authority I have to do these things.’
Jesus' story about some wicked farmers
9Then Jesus began to tell this story to the people. He said, ‘A man planted vines in a vineyard to grow grapes there. He found some farmers to work in the vineyard for him. Then he went away to another country and he stayed there for a long time.
10At the time for the harvest, the man sent a servant to speak to the farmers. He wanted them to give him his fruit from the vines.
But the farmers hit the servant with sticks and they sent him away with nothing.
11The master sent another servant to go to the farmers. They hit him with sticks too, and they did other bad things to him. They also sent him away with nothing. 12The master then sent a third servant to the farmers. They also hurt him very much, and they threw him out of the vineyard.
13Then the master of the vineyard said to himself, “I know what I will do. I will send my own son to go to them. I love him very much. Perhaps they will respect him.” 14But the farmers saw the son coming. They said to each other, “This is the master's own son. When our master dies, the farm will belong to his son. So we should kill the son and then the farm will belong to us.”
15So they threw the son out of the vineyard and they killed him.’ #20:15 The farmers were a picture of the people who had not obeyed God's prophets in the past. Now they were ready to kill God's own Son.
Jesus asked, ‘Then what will the master of the vineyard do to those farmers? 16I tell you, he will come to those farmers and he will kill them. Then he will give the vineyard to other people to take care of it.’
When the people heard this, they replied, ‘That must never happen!’
17Jesus then looked at the people and he said, ‘You say that this must not happen. But you have read this in the Bible and you should know what it means:
“The builders refused to use a certain stone.
They thought that it had no value.
But now that stone has become the most important stone at the corner of the building. #20:17 See Psalms 118:22. God had chosen Jesus to do his work. But the Jewish leaders would not agree with that.
18When a person falls onto that stone, it will break his body into pieces. When that stone falls on top of someone, it will destroy him completely.” ’
The leaders ask Jesus a question about taxes
19The teachers of God's Law and the leaders of the priests knew that Jesus had told this story about them. They were the bad farmers in the story. So they wanted to take hold of Jesus immediately. But they did not do it, because they were afraid of the people.
20So this is what they did to catch Jesus. They sent people to ask him difficult questions. These people pretended to be honest, but they wanted to deceive Jesus. They wanted to make him say something wrong. Then they would take him to the ruler of the city to punish him. 21So these people went to Jesus. They said, ‘Teacher, everything that you say and everything that you teach is right. We know that. You teach everyone the same true message about what God wants us to do. You do not say something different to an important person to make him happy. 22So tell us your answer to this question: Should we pay our taxes to the Roman ruler, Caesar? Is it right to give that money to him, or not?’
23Jesus knew that these men were not really honest. They wanted to make him say something wrong. 24So he said to them, ‘Show me a coin. Tell me, whose picture is on this coin? Whose name is on it?’
The men replied, ‘It is Caesar's picture and Caesar's name.’
25Jesus then said to them, ‘So you should give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar. And give to God the things that belong to God.’
26So the Jewish leaders could not make Jesus say anything wrong. They were very surprised at his answer to their question. They could not say anything more against him. All the people who were there saw this.
The Sadducees ask Jesus about life after death
27Then some of the Sadducees came to see Jesus. The Sadducees do not believe that anyone becomes alive again after they die.
28They wanted to ask Jesus a question. They said to him, ‘Teacher. Moses wrote this in the Bible for us: “A man may die and leave behind a wife but no children. Then that man's brother must marry the widow. Their children will be called the children of the brother who died.” #20:28 See Deuteronomy 25:5-10. 29But once there were seven brothers. The oldest brother married a woman. Then he died before they had any children. 30So the second brother married the widow. But that brother also died without children. 31Then the third brother married this woman. The same thing happened to all seven brothers. They all died but they had no children. 32After all this, the woman also died. 33You teach that one day dead people will become alive again. On that day, whose wife will that woman be? She had married all seven of those brothers.’
34Jesus answered them, ‘Men and women who are alive in this world are the ones who get married. 35But God accepts some people who deserve to live with him in the future. He will raise them up after they have died. These people will not marry. They will not have husbands or wives. 36They cannot die any more. This is because they will live as the angels live in heaven. They are children of God. He has made them alive again to live with him.
37You should know that God makes dead people become alive again. Moses showed this in his report about the bush in the wilderness. He told us that our Lord God is the God of Abraham. He is the God of Isaac. And he is the God of Jacob. #20:37 See Exodus 3:1-6. Jacob was Abraham's grandson. His father was Isaac. God gave Jacob a new name, ‘Israel’. The 12 tribes of Israel were descendants of Jacob's 12 sons. 38But God is not the God of people who are dead. He is the God of people who are alive. For God, all people continue to be alive.’
39Some of the teachers of God's Law agreed with Jesus. They said, ‘Teacher, that was a very good answer.’ 40After that, they were all afraid to ask Jesus any more questions.
Jesus teaches people about the Messiah
41Jesus said to them, ‘Why do people say that the Messiah will be King David's son? 42David himself said this in the book of Psalms:
“The Lord God said to my Lord,
Sit at my right side until I win against your enemies.
43Then you will be able to put your feet on them.” #20:43 See Psalms 110:1.
44You see here that David calls the Messiah his Lord. So can you really say that the Messiah is David's son?’
Jesus warns about the teachers of God's Law
45All the people were listening to Jesus. Jesus then said to his disciples, 46‘Be careful not to live like the teachers of God's Law. They want people to think that they are important. So they walk about in beautiful long clothes. They like people to praise them in the market place. They choose to sit in the best seats in the meeting place. They like to sit in the most important places at special meals. 47They take things away from women after their husbands have died, even their houses. Then they pray for a long time so that other people will praise them. Because they do these things, God will punish these men much more than other people.’
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