Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we open with Jesus telling the parable of the wedding feast. This parable is really similar to the parable of the ten which we first read in Matthew 21 and then read again

today in Mark 12. Both involved the master and his relationship with his son. Both involved sending

multiple rounds of servants to get a response from the people who refuse and even kill them. And both

involved the master bringing justice for those who refuse him and showing generosity to others.

In the wedding feast parable,

the master orders his servants to go invite both good and bad, according to verse 10. This would

certainly have shocked the Pharisees. They would consider themselves good, but they'd be a guess

that the bad were invited as well. The master's approach to the wedding feast offends the pride

of the self-righteous.

Everyone who is invited in, both good and bad, gets a wedding garment. But Jesus points out that

those who don't belong, who don't have a wedding garment, will be cast out. This wedding garment

seems to be a parallel to the robes of righteousness God gives his children when he adopts us into his family.

Whether these robes are figurative or literal or some combo doesn't really matter.

The point is that they mark us as God's righteous children.

As the Pharisees and other leaders grow more desperate for reasons to accuse Jesus,

they send some people to trap him in a conversation about taxes.

You may recall that we already dealt with taxes once in Matthew 17 when they asked Peter if Jesus pays the temple tax

or not. When that happened, Jesus sent Peter fishing and promised him that had catch a coin to use

for the tax. He honors the temple tax ordained by God, but will he respond differently when it's the tax imposed by the oppressive ruling government?

Not by God. The Jews hate giving their money to the Roman oppressors. It funds the very army that's ruling over them and even killing their family members.

But Jesus says it's lawful to pay taxes, to submit to the authorities God has placed over you,

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