Mark 12:3-31

3But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully.

5He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.

6“He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7“But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’

8So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 9“What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.

10Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture: “ ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;

11the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’ Psalm 118:22,23 ?”

12Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.

Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar 13Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax A special tax levied on subject peoples, not on Roman citizens to Caesar or not?

15Should we pay or shouldn’t we?” But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.”

16They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied.

17Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him.

Marriage at the Resurrection 18Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too.

23At the resurrection Some manuscripts resurrection, when people rise from the dead, whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” 24Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ Exodus 3:6 ?

27He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

The Greatest Commandment 28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Or The Lord our God is one Lord 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ Deut. 6:4,5

31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Lev. 19:18 There is no commandment greater than these.”