Luke 20 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

One day while he was teaching the people in the temple and sharing the good news, the chief priests and the legal experts showed up, along with the elders.

They confronted him: "Tell us — by what authority are you doing all this? Who gave you this authority?"

He answered them, "Let me ask you a question too.

John's submersion — was it from heaven, or was it just a human idea?"

They huddled up and discussed it among themselves: "If we say 'from heaven,' he'll say, 'Then why didn't you believe him?'

But if we say 'just a human idea,' the whole crowd will stone us, because they're convinced John was a prophet."

So they answered, "We don't know where it came from."

Jesus said to them, "Then I'm not telling you by what authority I'm doing these things either."

Then he turned to the people and told them this story: "A man planted a vineyard, leased it out to tenant farmers, and left the country for a long time.

When harvest time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the crop. But the tenants beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed.

He sent another servant, and they beat that one too, humiliated him, and sent him away with nothing.

He sent a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.

Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What should I do? I'll send my son — the one I love. Surely they'll respect him.'

But when the tenants saw the son, they talked it over: 'This is the heir. Let's kill him so the inheritance will be ours.'

So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now what do you think the owner of the vineyard will do to them?

He'll come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others." When the people heard this, they said, "That must never happen!"

But Jesus looked straight at them and said, "Then what does this mean — 'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone'?

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and anyone it falls on will be crushed."

The legal experts and chief priests wanted to arrest him right then and there — they knew he'd told this story about them — but they were afraid of the people.

So they watched for an opportunity and sent spies who pretended to be sincere, hoping to catch him saying something they could use to hand him over to the governor's authority.

So these spies asked him, "Teacher, we know you speak and teach what's right. You don't play favorites — you teach God's way honestly.

Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"

But he saw right through their scheme and said to them,

"Show me a coin. Whose face and name are on it?" They said, "Caesar's."

He told them, "Then give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give God what belongs to God."

They couldn't catch him in anything he said in front of the people. Stunned by his answer, they just went silent.

Then some Sadducees came to him — they're the ones who say there's no resurrection — and they put a question to him.

"Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man should marry the widow and have children for his brother.

Now, there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died without children.

The second married her,

then the third, and so on — all seven married her and died without leaving any children.

Finally, the woman died too.

So here's our question: In the resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven were married to her."

Jesus said to them, "People in this age marry and are given in marriage.

But those who are considered worthy of reaching that age — the resurrection from the dead — won't marry or be given in marriage.

They can't die anymore — they're like the angels. They are children of God because they are children of the resurrection.

Even Moses showed that the dead are raised. In the passage about the burning bush, he calls Yahweh 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'

He's not the God of the dead but of the living — because to him, everyone is alive."

Some of the legal experts said, "Teacher, that was a great answer."

And after that, nobody dared ask him any more questions.

Then Jesus asked them, "How can people say that The One is David's son?

David himself says in the book of Psalms: 'Yahweh said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand

until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'

David calls him 'Lord' — so how can he be just David's son?"

While all the people were listening, he said to his followers,

"Watch out for the legal experts. They love walking around in long robes, and they love being greeted with respect in the marketplaces. They grab the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at dinners.

They exploit widows and take everything they have, and then put on long prayers to look good. They're going to be judged more severely than anyone."