16. “I’ll tell you—he will come and kill those farmers and lease the vineyard to others.”“How terrible that such a thing should ever happen,” his listeners protested.
17. Jesus looked at them and said, “Then what does this Scripture mean?‘The stone that the builders rejectedhas now become the cornerstone.’
18. Everyone who stumbles over that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone it falls on.”
19. The teachers of religious law and the leading priests wanted to arrest Jesus immediately because they realized he was telling the story against them—they were the wicked farmers. But they were afraid of the people’s reaction.
20. Watching for their opportunity, the leaders sent spies pretending to be honest men. They tried to get Jesus to say something that could be reported to the Roman governor so he would arrest Jesus.
21. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you speak and teach what is right and are not influenced by what others think. You teach the way of God truthfully.
22. Now tell us—is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
23. He saw through their trickery and said,
24. “Show me a Roman coin. Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”“Caesar’s,” they replied.
25. “Well then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”
26. So they failed to trap him by what he said in front of the people. Instead, they were amazed by his answer, and they became silent.
27. Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead.
28. They posed this question: “Teacher, Moses gave us a law that if a man dies, leaving a wife but no children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name.
29. Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children.