Gary Gleans

Matthew 22:15-22 15  Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said.  16  And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any.  17  “Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?”  18  But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?  19  “Show Me the coin  used  for the poll-tax.” And they brought Him a denarius.  20  And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”  21  They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”  22  And hearing  this,  they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went...

Matthew 22:1-14 1  Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying,  2  “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.  3  “And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come.  4  “Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are  all  butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”’  5  “But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business,  6  and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.  7  “But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.  8  “Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.  9  ‘Go therefore ...

Matthew 21:33-46 33  “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT AND DUG A WINE PRESS IN IT, AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey.  34  “When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce.  35  “The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third.  36  “Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them.  37  “But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’  38  “But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’  39  “They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.  40  “Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes,...

Matthew 21:28-32 28  “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’  29  “And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went.  30  “The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I  will,  sir’; but he did not go.  31  “Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.  32  “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing  this,  did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him. We tend to categorize sin according to different levels of seriousness.   We use terms like little white lie and innocent mistake to describe what we consider to be tolerable...