ne. When John
the Baptist used to preach to you and baptize people, who gave him the
right to do that?"

Then the rulers did not know what to say. They thought to themselves:

_Now if we say that John was sent by God to preach, he will say, "Why
didn't you listen to him, then?_"

_If we say that John didn't have any right to preach, the people will
be angry and will likely kill us; for everyone still thinks that John
the Baptist was a great prophet sent by God himself._

So all they said was, "We don't know--we can't tell."

"Very well," Jesus retorted, "neither am I going to tell you what
right I have to do these things!"

Every day that week, Jesus came and taught in the Temple. Several
times his enemies tried to trick him into saying something that would
turn the people against him, but Jesus always had an answer which
silenced them. Once they came and asked, "Should we pay taxes to the
Romans?"

That was a hard question. All the Jews hated the Romans, and if Jesus
said that it was their duty to pay the taxes, everybody would hate him
too. But if he said they should not pay the taxes--well, they could
count on the Roman governor to settle with Jesus then.

"Show me a penny," Jesus replied.

[Illustration]

Someone handed him a piece of Roman money. There was a man's picture
stamped on one side of it. Jesus said, "Whose picture is that?"

"Why," they answered, "that is a picture of Caesar, the emperor of
Rome."

"All right," said Jesus, "do whatever your duty is to Caesar and his
government. You will have to decide about that for yourselves. And
also do your duty to God!"

It was such a clever answer that no one had a word to say. And Jesus
still had not said anything that he could be punished for.

But he said a great deal to make his enemies angry. About the
Pharisees he spoke the hardest words he ever said.

"Watch out for the scribes and the Pharisees," he told the people,
"and don't be like them. They love to walk around in their long white
robes, and to have everybody bow to them in the street, and to sit in
the best seats in the synagogues and at dinners. All the time they are
taking money from poor widows and they try to cover it up by making
long prayers."

Turning to the Pharisees themselves, he went on:

"Woe to you Pharisees! You are like graves with rotting bodies in
them, which people walk over without knowing what is underneath.
Nobody knows how bad you are. You snakes! How can yo