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The story about men that looked after a garden
1 After that, Jesus told them all a picture story. He said, “A man planted some fruit trees in his garden. Then he built a strong fence around it, and he made all the things he needed to look after those trees properly. Then he got some men to look after those trees for him. They agreed to give him some of the fruit from that garden, instead of paying rent money for it. After that, the owner went away to another country.
2 The time came for the men to pick the fruit, and the owner sent one of his work-men to get some of his fruit from the garden.
3 But the men in the garden grabbed that work-man, and they beat him up, and they sent him back with nothing.
4 Then the owner sent another work-man to the garden, but those men hit him on the head and said bad things to him.
5 After that, the owner sent another work-man to the garden, and this time the men killed him. Again and again the owner sent work-men to get some of his fruit, but the men in the garden killed some of them, and they beat up the others.
6 The owner of the garden had one more person to send to get the fruit from the garden. The owner 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 too.’ So he sent his son to that garden.
7 But the men in the garden saw the owner’s son, and they said to themselves, ‘After that old man dies this young man will get this garden for himself. Let’s kill this man now so that we can get the garden for ourselves.’
8 So they grabbed the young man, and they killed him and chucked his body out of the garden.”
9 Then Jesus asked the people, “What do you reckon the owner of that garden will do? I’m telling you, he will go to the garden and kill all those men there. Then he will get other people to look after the garden for him.”
10 Then Jesus said, “You mob can read this picture story in God’s book, so think about its message. God said,
‘Some workers built a house out of big stones, but those workers thought one of those stones was rubbish, so they chucked it away.
They were wrong. That stone was properly good, and now God made it the most important stone of all.
11 Yes, God did that, and we are really happy about it. We reckon he did something great.’ ”
12 The Jewish leaders heard that story, and they knew that it was a picture of themselves, that they were the bad workers in the story. They got angry, and they wanted to grab Jesus and take him to jail. But they were frightened of the big mob of people there, so they just walked away and left him alone.
Some people tried to trick Jesus
13 Then the Jewish leaders sent some other men to try to trick Jesus. They sent some of the law men that were called Pharisees, and they sent some men that were good friends of Herod. Herod was the big government boss at that time. Those men tried to get Jesus to say something wrong, so they could make trouble for him.
14 They said to Jesus, “Teacher, we know that you always want to do the right thing, and you always say true words. You talk to everyone the same way, people that are important and people that are not important. You always teach God’s words the right way. Well, we have a question about the Roman government bosses over our country. Is it right or wrong for us Jews to pay tax money to them?”
15 Jesus knew that if he said, “Don’t pay that tax money,” then he will be in trouble with the Roman bosses, and if he said, “Pay that tax money,” then he will be in trouble with the Jewish people. They wanted to be free from the Roman bosses. So Jesus said, “Don’t try to trick me. Have you got some money? I want to look at a coin.”
16 The men gave Jesus a coin. He looked at it and said, “Who is this on this money? Whose picture is this? And whose name is this?”
They said, “That is Caesar, the Roman government’s big boss.”
17 Jesus said, “Well, you have to give Caesar and the Roman government whatever belongs to them, and you have to give God whatever belongs to him.”
When they heard him say that they were all really surprised.
Other people asked Jesus a tricky question
18 There were some Jewish people that believed that after somebody dies they will stay dead, and they will never come alive again. They were called Sadducees. They tried to trick Jesus too.
19 They said to him, “Teacher, Moses wrote down God’s law like this, he said, ‘If a married man has no kids, and if he dies, then his brother has to marry his widow. Then they have to have kids, and everyone will call those kids that dead brother’s kids.’
20 But what about this. There were 7 brothers. The oldest brother got married, but he died before his wife could have a baby.
21 So the next brother married that woman to follow God’s law, but he died too, before they could have a baby. Then the next brother did the same, but he died too, before they could have a baby.
22 The same happened to all of those brothers. They all followed God’s law and married the woman, but each of them died before they could have any kids. And then last of all, that woman died too.
23 Well, you reckon that one day all the dead people will come alive again. So here is our question. If all those brothers and that woman come alive again, which brother will have that woman as his wife? All 7 brothers had her as their wife before they died.”
24 Jesus said, “You mob have a problem. You don’t know God’s word properly, and you don’t know about God’s power.
25 You see, after all the dead people come alive again, they will be like God’s angel messengers in heaven. Those angels never marry each other. And people that come alive again will be the same. Nobody will promise a wife to anyone, and nobody will marry anyone.
26-27 You mob reckon that dead people will never come alive again, but think about this story about Moses. You can read it in God’s book. Moses saw a little tree on fire, and then God said to him,
‘I am the God of Abraham, and I am the God of Isaac, and I am the God of Jacob.’
He didn’t say, ‘At one time, I used to be the God of those men.’ He said that he is their God now. That means those men are alive, not dead. They are living right now, with God. You see, you mob are really wrong.”
The most important laws
28 One of the Jewish law teachers listened to Jesus and thought that Jesus answered them well. Then he asked Jesus, “Which one of God’s laws is the most important one?”
29 Jesus said to him, “The most important law is this one,
‘Listen to me, you Israel people, our God is the only God.
He is the number one boss over everybody.
30 You have to love God properly, not just a little bit. You have to love God from right inside yourself.
You have to love God in the way you feel, and in the way you think.
And you have to love God in the way you do things.’
31 The 2nd most important law is this one,
‘You have to love other people just as much as you love yourself.’
Those 2 laws are the strongest and most important laws.”
32 The Jewish law teacher said, “That is a good answer, teacher. God is the number one boss over everybody. There is no other god, just him.
33 We have to love God properly, not just a little bit. We have to love God from right inside ourselves. We have to love God in the way we feel, and in the way we think. And we have to love God in the way we do things. That is really important for us. It is not so important for us to do ceremonies, like we do when we burn meat to give it to God.”
34 Jesus heard the man’s words and knew this man was thinking the right way, so Jesus said, “You are right. You are nearly ready for God to take you into his family.”
After that, nobody was brave enough to ask Jesus any more questions to try to trick him.
Jesus taught people in God’s special house
35 Then Jesus taught people in the yard of God’s ceremony house. He said, “You know that David lived a long time ago, and now our Jewish law teachers say that one of his grand-sons will be the special man that God promised to send, called the Christ. What do they mean by that?
36 Think about this. God’s Holy Spirit told David to write these words, and they are in God’s book. He wrote,
‘God said to my boss, “Come here and sit down beside me until I make you boss over all your enemies.” ’
37 You know, David was talking about that special man that God was going to send, and David called him boss, so how can that man be David’s grand-son?”
A lot of people listened to his words, and they were really happy with him.
38 Jesus kept on teaching the people. He said, “Look out for those Jewish law teachers. They think they are great. They wear real good clothes so that people will think they are important. They like people to say hello to them whenever they go shopping.
39 Those law teachers want everyone to respect them, so they want to have special chairs at the meeting houses, and if they go to parties, they want to have special places to sit.
40 But they do bad things. They trick old women that haven’t got anybody to look after them. They take everything off those women. They take their houses and all their things, and then those law teachers go to the meeting house and say long prayers, so that people will think they are good. They just pretend to live God’s way. You know, God will punish them more than he will punish the other people that do bad things.”
A poor widow gave money to God
41 Then Jesus sat down near the money box at God’s ceremony house, and he watched the people put money in the box to give it to God. Some rich people put in a lot of money.
42 But then a poor widow woman came in, and she didn’t put much money into the money box. She just put in 2 very little coins.
43-44 Jesus called his followers to him and said, “Listen, this poor woman gave more money than those rich people. You see, those rich people gave some of their money, but they still have lots more back at their homes. But that poor woman gave all the money she had. She kept nothing for herself, not even money to buy some food for herself.”