Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 294
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IMMERSE
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MESSIAH
12:12-30
The religious leaders 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.
Later the leaders sent some Pharisees and supporters of Herod to trap
Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested. “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? 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, and I’ll tell you.” When they handed it to
him, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
“Well, then,” Jesus said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give
to God what belongs to God.”
His reply completely amazed them.
Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who
say there is no resurrection from the dead. They posed this question:
“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. Well, suppose there were seven brothers.
The oldest one married and then died without children. So the second
brother married the widow, but he also died without children. Then the
third brother married her. This continued with all seven of them, and still
there were no children. Last of all, the woman also died. So tell us, whose
wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.”
Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and
you don’t know the power of God. 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.
“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, ‘I am the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God
of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error.”
One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the
debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the
commandments, which is the most important?”
Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen,
O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love
