Matthew 22

Matthew 22:1

H. Parable of the Wedding Dinner (22:1-14) 22:1-6 Jesus was not through with the chief priests and Pharisees. In a parable of a wedding dinner He again pictured favored Israel as set aside and the despised Gentiles as guests at the table. He likened the kingdom of heaven to a certain king who arranged a marriage feast for his son. The invitation was in two stages. First, an advance invitation, personally conveyed by servants, which met a flat refusal. The second invitation announced that the feast was spread. It was treated contemptuously by some, who were too busy with their farms and businesses, and violently by others, who seized, abused, and killed the servants. 22:7-10 The king was so furious that he destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Scrapping the first guest list, he issued a general invitation to all who would come. This time there wasn’t an empty seat in the wedding hall. 22:11-13 Among the guests, however, was one who did not have a wedding garment. Challenged on his unfitness to attend, he was speechless. The king ordered him to be cast out into the night, where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The attendants in verse 13 are not the same as the servants in verse 3. 22:14 Our Lord concluded the parable with the words, For many are called, but few are chosen.As to the meaning of the parable, the king is God and His Son is the Lord Jesus. The wedding feast is an appropriate description of the festive joy which characterizes the kingdom of heaven. Introducing the church as the bride of Christ in this parable unnecessarily complicates the picture. The main thought is the setting aside of Israelnot the distinctive call and destiny of the church. The first stage of the invitation pictures John the Baptist and the twelve disciples graciously inviting Israel to the wedding feast. But the nation refused to accept. The words, they were not willing to come (v. 3), were climactically dramatized in the crucifixion. The second stage of the invitation suggests the proclamation of the gospel to the Jews in the book of Acts. Some treated the message with contempt. Some treated the messengers with violence; most of the apostles were martyred. The King, justifiably angry with Israel, sent his armies, that is, Titus and his Roman legions, to destroy Jerusalem and most of its people in a.d. 70. They were his armies in the sense that He used them as His instruments to punish Israel. They were His officially even if they did not know Him personally. Now Israel is set aside nationally and the gospel goes out to the Gentiles, both bad and good, that is, of all degrees of respectability (Act_13:45-46; Act_28:28). But the reality of each individual who comes is tested. The man without a wedding garment is one who professes to be ready for the kingdom but who has never been clothed in the righteousness of God through the Lord Jesus Christ (2Co_5:21). Actually there was (and is) no excuse for the man without the wedding garment. As Ryrie notes, it was the custom in those days to provide the guests with a garment if they had none. The man obviously did not take advantage of the offered provision.

Without Christ, he is speechless when challenged as to his right to enter the kingdom (Rom_3:19). His doom is outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The weeping suggests the suffering of hell. Some suggest that the gnashing of teeth signifies continued hatred and rebellion against God. If so, it disproves the notion that the fires of hell exert a purifying effect. Verse 14 refers to the whole parable and not just to the incident of the man without the wedding garment. Many are called, that is, the gospel invitation goes out to many. But few are chosen. Some refuse the invitation, and even of those who respond favorably, some are exposed as false professors. All who respond to the good news are chosen. The only way a person can tell whether he is chosen is by what he does with the Lord Jesus Christ. As Jennings put it, All are called to enjoy the feast, but not all are willing to trust the Giver to provide the robe that fits for the feast.

Matthew 22:15

I. Rendering to Caesar and to God (22:15-22) Chapter 22 is a chapter of questions, recording attempts by three different deputations sent to trap the Son of God. 22:15, 16 Here we have an attempt by the Pharisees and Herodians. These two parties were bitter foes temporarily brought together by a common hatred of the Savior. Their goal was to lure Christ into making a political statement with dangerous implications. They took advantage of the Jews’ division over allegiance to Caesar. Some passionately opposed submitting to the Gentile emperor. Others, like the Herodians, adopted a more tolerant view. 22:17 First they insincerely complimented His purity of character, His truthfulness, and His fearlessness. Then they dropped the loaded question, Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?If Jesus answered, No, He would not only antagonize the Herodians, but would be accused of rebellion against the Roman government. The Pharisees would have hustled Him off and pressed charges against Him. If He said, Yes, He would run afoul of the Jews’ intense nationalistic spirit. He would lose much support among the common peoplesupport which so far hindered the leaders in their efforts to dispose of Him. 22:18, 19 Jesus bluntly denounced them as hypocrites, trying to trap Him. Then He asked them to show Him a denarius, the coin used to pay taxes to the Roman government. Every time the Jews saw the likeness and title of Caesar on the coin it was an annoying reminder that they were under Gentile authority and taxation. The denarius should have reminded them that their bondage to Rome was a result of their sin. Had they been true to Jehovah, the question of paying taxes to Caesar would never have arisen. 22:20, 21 Jesus asked them, Whose image and inscription is this? They were forced to answer, Caesar’s. Then the Lord told them, Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.Their question had boomeranged. They had hoped to trap Jesus on the question of tribute to Caesar. He exposed their failure to give tribute to God. Galling as it was, they did give Caesar his due, but they had disregarded the claims of God on their lives. And One stood before them who is the express image of God’s Person (Heb_1:3) and they failed to give Him His rightful place. Jesus’ reply shows that the believer has dual citizenship. He is responsible to obey and financially support human government. He is not to speak evil of his rulers nor work to overthrow his government. He is to pray for those in authority. As a citizen of heaven, he is responsible to obey God. If there is ever a conflict between the two, his first loyalty is to God (Act_5:29). In quoting verse 21, most of us emphasize the part about Caesar and skip lightly over the part about Godexactly the fault for which Jesus reprehended the Pharisees! 22:22 When the Pharisees heard His answer, they knew they were outdone. All they could do was marvel, then leave.

Matthew 22:23

J. The Sadducees and Their Resurrection Riddle (22:23-33) 22:23, 24 As mentioned previously, the Sadducees were the liberal theologians of that day, denying the resurrection of the body, the existence of angels, and miracles. In fact, their denials were more numerous than their affirmations. A group of them came to Jesus with a story designed to make the idea of resurrection look ridiculous. They reminded Him of the law concerning levirate marriage (Deu_25:5). Under that law, if an Israelite died without leaving children, his brother was supposed to marry the widow to preserve the family name in Israel and keep the inheritance within the family. 22:25-28 Their riddle concerned a woman who lost her husband, then married one of his brothers. The second brother died, so she married the thirdand so on, down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Then came the question designed to humiliate Him who is the resurrection (Joh_11:25): Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.22:29 Basically, they argued that the idea of resurrection posed insuperable difficulties, hence it was not reasonable, therefore it was not true. Jesus answered that the difficulty was not in the doctrine but in their minds; they were ignorant of the Scriptures and the power of God. First of all, they were ignorant of the Scriptures. The Bible never says the husband-wife relationship will be continued in heaven. While men will be recognizable as men, and women as women, they will all be like angels in the sense that they neither marry nor are given in marriage. Secondly, they were ignorant of the power of God. If He could create men from dust, could He not as easily raise the dust of those who had died and refashion it into bodies of glory? 22:30-32 Then the Lord Jesus brought forth an argument from Scripture to show that resurrection is an absolute necessity. In Exo_3:6 God spoke of Himself as the God of Abraham, … Isaac, and … Jacob. Yet Jesus pointed out, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. God made covenants with these men, but they died before the covenants were completely fulfilled. How can God speak of Himself as the God of three men whose bodies are in the grave? How can He who cannot fail to keep His promises fulfill those made to men who have already died? There is only one answerresurrection. 22:33 No wonder the multitudes were astonished at His teaching; we are too!

Matthew 22:34

K. The Great Commandment (22:34-40) 22:34-36 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced their antagonists the Sadducees, they came to Him for an interview. Their spokesman, a lawyer, asked Jesus to single out the great commandment in the law. 22:37, 38 In a masterful way the Lord Jesus summarized man’s obligation to God as the first and great commandment: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Mark’s account adds the phrase, and with all your strength (Mar_12:30). This means that man’s first obligation is to love God with the totality of his being. As has been pointed out: the heart speaks of the emotional nature, the soul of the volitional nature, the mind of the intellectual nature, and strength of the physical nature. 22:39, 40 Then Jesus added that man’s second responsibility is to love his neighbor as himself. Barnes says, Love to God and man comprehends the whole of religion: and to produce this has been the design of Moses, the prophets, the Savior, and the apostles. We should frequently ponder the words, love your neighbor as yourself. We should think of how very much we do love ourselves, of how much of our activity centers around the care and comfort of self. Then we should try to imagine what it would be like if we showered that love on our neighbors. Then we should do it. Such behavior is not natural; it is supernatural. Only those who have been born again can do it, and then only by allowing Christ to do it through them.

Matthew 22:41

L. David’s Son Is David’s Lord (22:41-46) 22:41, 42 While the Pharisees were still awed by Jesus’ answer to the lawyer, He faced them with a provocative problem. What did they think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?Most Pharisees did not believe that Jesus was the Christ; they were still waiting for the Messiah. So Jesus was not asking them, What do you think of Me? (though that, of course, was involved). He was asking in a general way whose Son the Messiah would be when He appeared. They answered correctly that the Messiah would be a descendant of David. 22:43, 44 Then the Lord Jesus quoted Psa_110:1 where David said, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool. The first use of the word Lord refers to God the Father, and the second to the Messiah. So David spoke of the Messiah as his Lord. 22:45 Now Jesus posed the question, If David then calls Him Lord, how is He his Son? The answer is that the Messiah is both David’s Lord and David’s Sonboth God and Man. As God, He is David’s Lord; as Man, He is David’s Son. Had the Pharisees only been teachable, they would have realized that Jesus was the Messiahthe Son of David through the line of Mary, and the Son of God as revealed by His words, works, and ways. 22:46 But they refused to see. Completely baffled by His wisdom, they ceased trying to trick Him with questions. Hereafter they would use another methodviolence.