1After that Jesus told them all a picture story. He said, “A man wanted to grow fruit trees in a good garden. He made a strong fence around it and he built a high place where men could watch over that garden. He made all the things needed to look after those trees. Then that man got some other people to look after those trees for him. Those men agreed to give him some of the fruit from that garden instead of paying rent money for it. After that, the owner went to another country.
2The time came for the men to pick the fruit, and the owner sent a workman to get his share of the fruit from the garden.
3The men in the garden grabbed the owner’s workman, beat him up and threw him out of the garden with nothing to take back for the owner.
4The owner sent another man to the garden, but the men hit him with whips too, and they hit him on the head.
5The owner sent another workman to the garden and this time the men killed him. Again and again the owner sent workmen to get his share of the fruit, but the men in the garden killed some of them and beat up the others.
6The 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.
7The 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.’
8So they grabbed the young man, killed him and chucked his body out of the garden.
9What do you reckon the owner of the garden will do? 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.
10You mob have to remember this message in God’s book, ‘Some workmen built a house out of rocks, but the workmen thought one of the rocks was rubbish, so they chucked it away. They were wrong. That rock was the properly good one, but they didn’t understand about it.
11God made that rock the best one, and we are really happy about it, and we reckon he did something great.’”
12The Jewish leaders heard that story and they knew that it was a picture of themselves, that they were the bad workmen in the story. They got upset and 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.
13Some time later, some Jewish leaders got some people together. They got some of the law men called Pharisees and the other men that were good friends with the big boss called Herod. The leaders sent these people to try to trick Jesus. They tried to get him to say something wrong, so they could make trouble for him.
14They said to Jesus, “Teacher, we know you always want to do the right thing and say true words. You talk to everyone the same way, whether they are big bosses or not. You always teach God’s words the right way. So tell us, is it right or wrong for us Jews to pay tax money to the Roman government bosses of our country?”
15Jesus knew that if he said, “Don’t pay that tax money,” then he will be in trouble with the Romans 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 it.”
16The men gave Jesus one bit of money, a coin. He looked at it and said, “Who is this on this money? Whose picture and whose name is this?” Those men said, “That is Caesar, the big boss of the Roman government.”
17Jesus said, “Well, you have to give the Roman government whatever belongs to them, and you have to give God whatever belongs to Him.” When they heard him say this they were all really surprised.
18There 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.
19They said to him, “Teacher, Moses wrote down God’s law like this, ‘If a man is married but dies with no kids, then his brother has to marry that woman. That man and that woman have to have a kid for that dead brother.’
20But what about this. There were 7 brothers. The oldest one got married but died before his wife could have a baby.
21So the next brother married the woman to follow God’s law, but he died too before they could have a baby. After that the next brother did the same but he too died before they could have a baby.
22The 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 a kid. And in the end that woman died too, last of all.
23Well, you reckon that one day all the dead people will get up alive again. So here is the question. If all those brothers and the woman get up alive again, which brother will have that woman as his wife? All 7 brothers had her as wife before she died.”
24Jesus said, “You mob have a problem. You don’t know God’s word properly and you don’t know about God’s power.
25At the time when all the dead people come alive again, they will be like God’s messengers in heaven, called angels. They never marry each other. And people in heaven will be the same. Nobody will promise a wife to anyone, and nobody will marry anyone.
26You mob reckon that the dead people will not come alive again one day. But think about the story about Moses. You have read it, in God’s book. Moses saw a little tree on fire, and 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 that at one time he used to be the God of those men. He said that he is their God now. That means those men are still alive, they aren’t dead. They are living now with God. You mob are really wrong.”
28One 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?”
29Jesus answered him, “The most important of God’s laws is this one, ‘Listen to me, you Israel people, God is the one biggest boss over everybody. He is the only one you have to take notice of.
30You 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.’
31The 2nd most important of God’s laws is this one, ‘You have to love other people just as much as you love yourself.’ These 2 laws are the strongest and most important laws.”
32The Jewish law man said, “That is a good answer, Teacher. God is the number one boss over everybody. You are right to say, ‘There is no other god, just him.’
33We 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. This is really important for us. It isn’t so important for us to do ceremonies, like we burn meat to give it to him.”
34Jesus heard the man’s words and knew this man was thinking the right way. Jesus said, “You are thinking the right way now. You are nearly ready to let God be your boss.” After that nobody was brave enough to ask Jesus any more questions to try to trick him.
35Then 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 law teachers tell us that God’s special person will be the grand-son to come of David. What do they mean by that?
36Think about this. God’s Holy Spirit told David to write down these words, he wrote, ‘God said to my boss, “Come here and sit down beside me until I make you boss over all your enemies.” ’
37David was talking about that special man from God, 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.
38Jesus kept on teaching the people. He said, “Look out for those law teachers. They think they are great. They wear long coats and want people to look at them. They like people to say hello to them whenever they go shopping.
39Those law teachers want everyone to respect them, so they want to have special chairs at a meeting house, and if they go to a party they want to get special places to sit.
40But they trick old ladies that have nobody to look after them. They take everything off those ladies, their houses and all their things, and then those law teachers go to the meeting house and say long prayers so that everyone will think they are good. They just pretend to live God’s way. God will punish them more than other people that do wrong things.”
41Then Jesus sat down near the money box at God’s house. He watched the people put money in the box to give it to God. Some rich people put in a lot of money
42but then a poor lady came in. She had no husband. He was dead. She put 2 very little coins into the money box.
43Jesus called his close followers to him and said, “I’m telling you straight, this poor lady gave more than those rich people. Those rich people look like they gave a lot of money, but they still have lots more back at home. But that poor lady gave all the money she had. She kept nothing for herself, not even money to buy herself some food.”
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