Parable of the Evil Farmers

12 Then Jesus began teaching them with stories: “A man planted a vineyard. He built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country. ² At the time of the grape harvest, he sent one of his servants to collect his share of the crop. ³ But the farmers grabbed the servant, beat him up, and sent him back empty-handed. ⁴ The owner then sent another servant, but they insulted him and beat him over the head. ⁵ The next servant he sent was killed. Others he sent were either beaten or killed, ⁶ until there was only one left—his son whom he loved dearly. The owner finally sent him, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’

⁷ “But the tenant farmers said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ ⁸ So they grabbed him and murdered him and threw his body out of the vineyard.

⁹ “What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do?” Jesus asked. “I’ll tell you—he will come and kill those farmers and lease the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures?

¹² The religious leaders^[b] wanted to arrest Jesus because they realized he was telling the story against them—they were the wicked farmers. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.

Taxes for Caesar

¹³ Later the leaders sent some Pharisees and supporters of Herod to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested. ¹⁴ “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest you are. You are impartial and don’t play favorites. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us—is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? ¹⁵ Should we pay them, or shouldn’t we?”

Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a Roman coin,^[c] and I’ll tell you.” ¹⁶ When they handed it to him, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

¹⁷ “Well, then,” Jesus said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”

His reply completely amazed them.

Discussion about Resurrection

¹⁸ Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. They posed this question: ¹⁹ “Teacher, Moses gave us a law that if a man dies, leaving a wife without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name.^{[d] 20} Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children. ²¹ So the second brother married the widow, but he also died without children. Then the third brother married her. ²² This continued with all seven of them, and still there were no children. Last of all, the woman also died. ²³ So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.”

²⁴ Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. ²⁵ For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven.

²⁶ “But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—haven’t you ever read about this in the writings of Moses, in the story of the burning bush? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said to Moses,^[e] ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’^{[f] 27} So he is the God of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error.”