Mark 12:26-44

26But God does make dead people alive again! You have read what Moses wrote about the bush in the wilderness. There, God said to Moses, “I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. And I am the God of Jacob.”

27God is not the God of people who are dead. He is the God of people who are alive. So you see, you are very wrong.’

28One of the teachers of God's Law came near to the group of people. He heard Jesus speaking with the leaders. The teacher knew that Jesus had answered them well. So then the teacher asked Jesus, ‘Which rule is the most important among God's Laws?’

29Jesus replied, ‘This rule is the most important rule: “Listen, Israel's people! The Lord alone is our God. There is no other Lord.

30Love the Lord, your God completely. Love him with all your mind and with all your strength. Love him in everything that you think and you do.”

31The second most important rule is this: “You should love other people as much as you love yourself.” No other rules are as important as these two.’

32The teacher of God's Law said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, you have answered well. You are right to say that the Lord is the only God. And there is no other God except him.

33We must love him completely, with all our mind and with all our strength. We must also love other people as much as we love ourselves. This is more important than all the gifts or animals that we could offer to God.’

34Jesus heard that the man had answered well. So Jesus said to him, ‘You are almost ready for God to rule in your life.’ After that, everybody was afraid to ask Jesus any more questions.

35Jesus was teaching people in the yard at the temple. He said, ‘The teachers of God's Law say that the Messiah is King David's son. What do you think about that?

36The Holy Spirit helped David himself to say: “The Lord God said to my Lord: Sit at my right side until I win against your enemies. The you will be able to put your feet on them.”

37In these words, David himself calls the Messiah his Lord. So can you really say that the Messiah is David's son?’ The large crowd liked to listen to the things that Jesus was saying. It made them happy.

38As Jesus was teaching the people, he said, ‘Be careful not to do the same as the teachers of God's Law. They want people to think that they are important. So they walk about in beautiful long clothes. They like people to praise them in the market place.

39They want to sit in the best seats in the meeting places. They choose the most important places at special meals.

40But these men take things away from women after their husbands have died, even their houses. Then they pray for a long time so that other people will praise them. Because they do these things, God will punish those men much more than other people.’

41Many people were giving their gifts for the temple. There was a box for money there. People threw their coins into it. Jesus sat near the box and he watched them. Many rich people put a lot of money into the box.

42But then a woman came there. Her husband had died and she was very poor. She put two small coins that had only a little value into the box.

43Jesus asked his disciples to come to him. He said to them, ‘I tell you this: This poor woman has put a better gift into the box than all the other people have put in there.

44All those rich people have plenty of money. They only put a small part of that into the box. But this woman has almost nothing. She put in all the money that she had. That was all the money that she needed to live.’