12
The story about men that looked after a garden
And you can read this story in Matthew 21:33-46 and in Luke 20:9-19
1 Then Jesus started to teach the people with picture stories. He said, “A man wanted to grow fruit trees in a garden. He made a strong fence around it, and got everything ready. Then he rented the garden to some men and went away to another country.+
2 The workers did not pay the owner any rent money, but they promised to pay him with a share of the fruit that was picked from his garden. When the time came for the workers to pick the fruit, the owner sent a man to get his share. 3 But the workers in the garden grabbed the man, they bashed him, and then they sent him away with nothing.
4 The owner sent another man to the garden, but the workers hit him on the head and rubbished him. 5 Then the owner sent another man, and this time the workers killed him. Again and again the owner sent his men to get his share of the fruit. But every time, the workers in the garden would not give anything to the owner's men. They bashed some of them and they killed others.
6 The owner of the garden had one more person to send. He said to himself, ‘I will try one more time. I will send my son. I love him and those men in the garden will respect him.’
7 But when the workers in the garden saw the owner's son, they said to each other, ‘When that old man dies, this son will get everything. Why don't we kill him so that we can have the garden for ourselves?’ 8 So they grabbed the young man, killed him and dumped his body out of the garden.”
9 Then Jesus asked the people that were listening to him, “What do you think the owner will do? I tell you, the owner will go to the garden and kill all the men that worked there. Then he will get other people to work in the garden for him.
10 Here is another story for you to think about, it is in God's book for you to read.
‘Some workmen built a house out of big stones,
but those workmen thought one of those stones was rubbish,
so they would not use it. But they were wrong.
God has made that stone the most important stone in the building.
11 Yes, God did that, and we think he has done a really great thing.’ ”+
12 The Jewish leaders knew that Jesus was talking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they were frightened of the people, so they left him and walked away.
The Jewish leaders asked Jesus about paying tax money to the Romans
And you can read this story in Matthew 22:15-22 and in Luke 20:20-26
13 Later on, the Jewish leaders sent some lawmen and some other people who were good friends with King Herod to talk to Jesus. They wanted to trick him and get him to say something wrong.
14 They said, “Teacher, we know you always want to do the right thing. You are not frightened of anyone and you do not worry about what people say about you. We know that you always speak the same way to everybody, and you always teach people about God the right way. So, can you answer this question? Is it right for us Jewish people to pay tax money to the Romans? Or is it wrong for us Jewish people to pay tax money to the Romans?”
15 So Jesus said, “You are trying to trick me. Show me a piece of Roman money.”
16 They gave Jesus a coin, and after he looked at it, he said, “This money has a man's face on it. Who is he, and what is his name?”
They said, “That is See-zar (Caesar). He is the boss of the Roman people.”
17 So Jesus said, “Give See-zar what belongs to him and give God what belongs to God.” All the people were really amazed.
Other people asked Jesus a trick question
And you can read this story in Matthew 22:23-33 and in Luke 20:27-40
18 There were some Jewish people called Sad-you-sees (Sadducees) who believed that after someone died, that person would stay dead. They believed that God would never make a dead body come alive again. Some of those people went to Jesus and tried to trick him by asking another question.+ 19 They said to him, “Teacher, Moses wrote one of God's laws like this, ‘If a man gets married but dies before his wife has a baby, then his brother has to marry that woman. Then if they have a baby, it is like that baby belongs to her first husband and so his family line can keep going.’+
20 But what about this story? There were 7 brothers. The oldest one got married, but he died before his wife had a baby. 21 So the next brother married the woman to follow God's law, but he died too before they had children. Then the next brother married the woman and he died before they had a baby. 22 The same thing happened to all of those 7 brothers. They all followed God's law and married the woman, but each one of them died before they had any children. And then last of all, the woman died.
23 Well, on the day when God makes everyone come alive again, which one of the brothers will be married to the woman? She had been married to all of them.”
24 Jesus said, “You men are wrong, and this is why you are wrong. You do not know God's word properly, and you do not know about God's power! 25 When God makes all the dead people come alive again, no-one will be married, and no-one will be promised to anyone. Everyone will be like the angels in heaven, and they never get married.
26-27 You people think that God will never make dead people come alive again. But don't you remember how God spoke to Moses from inside a burning bush. The story is written in God's book. God said to Moses,
‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’
*God is the God of people who are alive, not the God of people that are dead. Your thinking is all wrong!”+
The most important laws
And you can read this story in Matthew 22:34-40 and in Luke 10:25-28
28 One of the Jewish law teachers liked what Jesus said to those men and so he said to Jesus, “Which one of God's laws is the most important one?”
29 Jesus said to him, “The most important law is,
‘Listen to me, you people of Israel, the Lord our God is the one and only God.
30 You have to love God with all your heart. Yes, love God with everything inside you.
You have to love God with all your soul, which is that part of you that will live forever.
You have to love God with all your mind. That is, love God in the way you think.
And you have to love God in everything that you do.’ +
31 And the second most important law is this one,
‘You have to love other people as much as you love yourself.’+
These 2 laws are the most important laws.”
32 The Jewish lawman said, “Teacher, that is a good answer. God is the one and only God.+ 33 We have to love God properly. With all our heart, and with all our mind. Yes, we have to love God with every part of us in a really strong way. Loving your neighbour is much more important than doing the ceremonies God told people to do.”+
34 Jesus knew that this man was thinking the right way, and so he said, “You are right. I tell you, you are nearly ready for God to take you into his family.”
From that time, everyone was too frightened to ask Jesus any more tricky questions.
Jesus was teaching people in the Temple
And you can read this story in Matthew 22:41-46 and in Luke 20:41-44
35 Then Jesus kept on teaching the people in the Temple. He said, “Everybody knows that David was our king a long time ago. And we know that our Jewish law teachers say that a grandson for David will be the special man God promised to send from heaven. That man from heaven is going to save us, and we call him The Christ. So why do you think our law teachers say that The Christ, is a grandson for King David?
36 Think about this.
God's Holy Spirit told King David to write down these words in God's song book.
‘The Lord said to my lord, “Come here and sit down beside me until I make you boss over all your enemies.” ’ +
37 David called The Christ, ‘My Lord’. And so, if David said that The Christ was his Lord, how can The Christ who came from heaven be David's grandson?
Why do the law teachers say that?”
The big crowd of people were really happy with what he said.
38 Jesus kept on teaching and said, “You have to look out for those law teachers. They wear really flash clothes so that people will think they are better than everyone else. And they like people to say hello and show them respect when people see them in the shops. 39 And when they go to the Jewish meeting houses† and important parties, they want to have special chairs ready for them. 40 But some of those law teachers do bad things to other people. They trick old women that have lost their husbands. They take everything from those women and then try to make themselves look good by saying long prayers. They just pretend to live God's way. But I tell you, God will say that they are guilty and will punish them more than he punishes other people.”
Jesus talked about giving money to God
And you can read this story in Luke 21:1-4
41 Then Jesus sat down near the money box that was in the Temple, and he watched people put their money in the box. Some rich people put in a lot of money. 42 But then an old woman that had lost her husband and did not have much money walked up to the money box and put in 2 very little coins. 43 Jesus called his followers to him and said, “I tell you, this old woman gave more money than those rich people. 44 Those rich people look like they gave a lot of money, but they still have lots more back at home. That old woman gave all the money she had to God, and now she has nothing.”
+ 12:1 Isaiah 5:1-2 + 12:11 Psalms 118:22-23 + 12:18 Acts 23:8 + 12:19 Deuteronomy 25:5 * 12:26-27 God did not say, “At one time, I used to be the God of those men.” No, God said “I am their God.” That means those men are not dead, they are still alive and they are living with God. + 12:26-27 Exodus 3:6; 15 + 12:30 Deuteronomy 4:35; 6:4; Isaiah 45:21 + 12:31 Leviticus 19:18 + 12:32 Deuteronomy 4:35; 6:4; Isaiah 45:21 + 12:33 1 Samuel 15:22; Psalms 40:6-8; Isaiah 1:11-15; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6-8 + 12:36 Psalms 110:1 † 12:39 A Jewish meeting house is called a Syn-a-gog (Synagogue)