Luke 20:9-26

9Then Jesus began to tell this story to the people. He said, ‘A man planted vines in his garden to grow grapes there. He found some farmers to work in the garden for him. Then he went away to another country and he stayed there for a long time.

10At the time for the harvest, the man sent a servant to speak to the farmers. He wanted them to give him some fruit from the garden. But the farmers hit the servant with sticks and they sent him away with nothing.

11The master sent another servant to go to the farmers. They hit him with sticks too, and they did other bad things to him. They also sent him away with nothing.

12The master then sent a third servant to the farmers. They hurt him badly too, and they threw him out of the garden.

13Then the master of the garden said to himself, “I know what I will do. I will send my own son to go to them. I love him very much. Perhaps they will respect him.”

14But the farmers saw him coming. They said to each other, “This is the son of our master. When our master dies, the garden will belong to his son. So we should kill the son and then the garden will be ours.”

15So they threw the son out of the garden and they killed him.’ Jesus went on to ask, ‘Then what will the master of the garden do to those farmers?

16I tell you, he will come to those farmers and he will kill them. Then he will give the garden to other people to take care of it.’ When the people heard this, they replied, ‘That must never happen!’

17Jesus then looked at the people and he said, ‘You say that this must not happen. But you have read this in the Bible and you should know what it means: “The builders refused to use a certain stone. They thought that it had no value. But now that stone has become the most important stone at the corner of the building.

18When a person falls onto that stone, it will break his body into pieces. When that stone falls on top of someone, it will destroy him completely.” ’

19The teachers of God's Law and the leaders of the priests knew that Jesus had told this story about them. They were the bad farmers in the story. So they wanted to take hold of Jesus immediately. But they did not do it, because they were afraid of the people.

20So this is what they did to catch Jesus. They sent people to ask him difficult questions. These people pretended to be honest, but they wanted to deceive Jesus. They wanted to make him say something wrong. Then they would take him to the ruler of the city to punish him.

21So these people went to Jesus. They said, ‘Teacher, everything that you say and everything that you teach is right. We know that. You teach everyone the same true message about what God wants us to do. You do not say something different to an important person to make him happy.

22So tell us your answer to this question: Should we pay our taxes to the Roman ruler, Caesar? Is it right to give that money to him, or not?’

23Jesus knew that those men were not really honest. They wanted to make him say the wrong thing.

24So he said to them, ‘Show me a coin. Tell me, whose picture is on this coin? Whose name is on it?’

25The men replied, ‘It is Caesar's picture and Caesar's name.’ Jesus then said to them, ‘So you should give to Caesar the things that belong to him. And give to God the things that belong to God.’

26So the Jewish leaders could not make Jesus say anything wrong. They were very surprised at his answer to their question. They could not say anything more against him. All the people who were there saw this.