Matthew 22
BSASBJesus tells the parable of the wedding banquet, then faces three tests from the Pharisees and Herodians, the Sadducees, and a lawyer. He answers each with wisdom, then asks a question of His own about who the Christ really is. No one can answer Him.
Matthew 22:1-2
Jesus speaks again in a parable to the leaders who are opposing Him. The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king giving a wedding feast for his son. God is the king, and the feast celebrates His Son. It is a picture of joy, not of duty.
BSA: parables (“illustrated stories, moral lessons”): Jesus uses an everyday story to carry a serious truth about God’s kingdom.
See also: Revelation 19:7-9.
Matthew 22:3-4
The invited guests refuse to come. The king patiently sends more servants and says everything is ready. The slaughtered oxen show a costly, generous feast. God’s invitations are repeated, and He has already done the work.
BSA: servants (“slaves, bond servants”): The messengers belong wholly to the king, as God’s prophets belong to Him.
Matthew 22:5-6
The guests treat the invitation lightly. They go back to their farm or business. Others seize the messengers, abuse them and kill them. Ordinary concerns can crowd out God’s call, and some go on to open hostility toward those who bring it.
BSA: paid no attention (“made light of it, ignored”): They did not argue; they simply treated the king’s feast as unimportant.
See also: Matthew 21:35-36.
Matthew 22:7
The king’s anger is just. He destroys the murderers and burns their city. Hearers would think of how Jerusalem fell to Rome in AD 70. Rejecting God’s messengers carries real consequences, and God does not ignore violence against His servants.
Matthew 22:8-10
The feast will not be cancelled. The invited were not worthy, so the servants gather people from the crossroads, bad and good alike. The hall fills. God’s grace reaches beyond those first invited, and the guests come simply because they were called.
BSA: crossroads (“highways, intersections of the main streets”): The servants go where the roads lead out of the city, to reach everyone passing by. worthy (“deserving, suitable”): The first guests’ fault was not lack of merit but scorning an invitation that was freely given.
See also: Acts 13:46.
Matthew 22:11-12
The king inspects his guests and finds one man without wedding clothes. Calling him ‘Friend’, he asks how he came in. The man has no answer. Being invited is not the same as being ready. The feast is free, but a guest must come on the king’s terms, not his own.
BSA: speechless (“muzzled, unable to speak, silenced”): The man has no excuse; his silence shows he knew he was wrong.
See also: Isaiah 61:10; Revelation 19:8.
Matthew 22:13
The man is bound and thrown into the outer darkness. This is a sober picture of exclusion from the king’s presence and joy, marked by grief and anguish. Jesus does not soften it. Entry to the feast must be taken seriously.
BSA: outer (“extreme, utter”): It is the farthest place from the light and warmth of the banquet.
See also: Matthew 8:12.
Matthew 22:14
Many are called, but few are chosen. The invitation goes out widely, yet not all who hear it end up truly belonging. Christians understand how calling and choosing fit together in different ways. All agree the verse calls for a serious response to God’s call.
BSA: chosen (“selected, favored by God”): Those who finally share the feast are the ones God has set His favor upon.
Matthew 22:15-16
The Pharisees plot to trap Jesus with His own words. They send disciples with the Herodians, supporters of Herod’s family, who were normally political rivals. They open with flattery, though their words about Him are true. Even enemies admit He teaches God’s way honestly.
BSA: trap (“ensnare, catch off guard”): The word suggests catching an animal, which is how they hoped to catch Jesus.
Greek: παγιδεύσωσιν (pagideusōsin, G3802) — “to snare, to trap.” It comes from a word for a snare or trap used for catching birds. They wanted His own words to close on Him.
Matthew 22:17
The question is a trap. If Jesus says to pay the tax, the crowds who resent Rome will turn against Him. If He says not to, the Herodians can report Him to the Roman authorities. Either answer seems to ruin Him.
BSA: lawful (“permitted, allowed”): They ask about God’s law, not only about Rome’s rules, which makes the question sharper.
Matthew 22:18-19
Jesus sees through their motives and calls them hypocrites. They are pretending to seek truth while hunting for a charge. He asks to see the coin used for the tax. They produce a denarius, showing they carry Roman money themselves.
BSA: hypocrites (“pretending to be righteous, insincere”): The word means acting a part, which fits their flattering show.
Matthew 22:20-21
The coin bears Caesar’s face and name, so it is his. Give him what is his. But people bear God’s image, so give God what is His, which is everything. Jesus accepts that government has a rightful place, while reminding us that God has the highest claim.
BSA: image (“likeness, representation”): The same word is used for God’s image in humanity in the Greek Old Testament, hinting that we belong to God. Give (“render, pay back”): It is the language of paying a debt that is truly owed.
Greek: εἰκών (eikōn, G1504) — “image, likeness.” The word is used for Caesar’s portrait on the coin. It also echoes Genesis 1:27, where people are made in God’s image, so we belong to Him.
See also: Genesis 1:27; Romans 13:7.
Matthew 22:22
They are amazed. His answer avoids their trap and does not give up truth. They leave without a charge to bring. Jesus’ wisdom is greater than their schemes.
Matthew 22:23-24
The Sadducees, a group who deny the resurrection, come with their own puzzle. They quote the law of Moses on marrying a dead brother’s widow, so that the family line continues. They hope to make belief in resurrection look foolish.
BSA: resurrection (“a standing up again from death, rising again”): The word means rising up again, a real bodily rising, not just survival of the spirit.
See also: Deuteronomy 25:5-6.
Matthew 22:25-28
They tell of seven brothers who each marry the same woman and die. Then they ask whose wife she will be in the resurrection. The story is meant to show that the idea of resurrection leads to nonsense. It assumes the next life is just like this one.
Matthew 22:29
Jesus says plainly that they are mistaken. Their error has two roots: they do not know the Scriptures and they do not know God’s power. The God who made life once can raise it again, and His Word already says more than they have seen.
BSA: mistaken (“to lead astray, in error”): They have wandered off the road, and the cause is ignorance of Scripture and of God.
Greek: πλανᾶσθε (planasthe, G4105) — “you are wandering, you are led astray.” This is the root of our word ‘planet’, a wanderer. They have drifted from the truth rather than just slipped on a detail.
Matthew 22:30
In the resurrection there is no marriage, because people will be like the angels in heaven. Jesus does not say we become angels. He says life then is of a new kind, not a continuation of earthly arrangements. Nothing good will be lost, though it will be changed.
BSA: angels (“messengers of God, heavenly beings”): The point of likeness is a life no longer under death, so no need for marriage to continue the family.
Matthew 22:31-32
Jesus turns to Scripture, to what God said at the burning bush. God speaks as the present God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, long after they died. So they must still live to Him. God is not the God of the dead but of the living. He quotes Moses because the Sadducees held the books of Moses in highest honor.
BSA: living (“those who have spiritual life, eternal existence”): Those who belong to God are alive in His eyes even when they have died.
See also: Exodus 3:6; Luke 20:38.
Matthew 22:33
The crowds are astonished at His teaching. Jesus answers with simple Scripture and clear thinking. His authority shows in how He reads God’s Word and in the way He speaks.
Matthew 22:34-36
The Pharisees hear that the Sadducees are silenced and regroup. One of them, an expert in the law, tests Jesus by asking which commandment is greatest. Scholars often ranked the many commands, so the question invited Jesus to choose a side.
BSA: expert in the law (“a lawyer, knowledgeable in the law”): He is a trained student of the Law of Moses, not a courtroom lawyer.
Matthew 22:37-38
Jesus quotes the great command: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. It asks for the whole person, not part of us. All obedience begins in loving God.
BSA: Love (“with all your affection and devotion”): It is a deliberate, wholehearted devotion, not only a passing feeling. heart (“the seat of thoughts and emotions”): The heart was seen as the center of the whole inner person, not only feelings.
Greek: ἀγαπήσεις (agapēseis, G25) — “you shall love.” It is the Greek word for a committed, giving love. It is a love of choice and action, not just warm feeling.
See also: Deuteronomy 6:5.
Matthew 22:39
The second is like the first: love your neighbor as yourself. Love of God and love of neighbor belong together. How we treat those around us shows whether our love for God is real.
BSA: neighbor (“those near to you, fellow believers”): The word means anyone near you; Jesus later shows it reaches even strangers and enemies.
See also: Leviticus 19:18; 1 John 4:20-21.
Matthew 22:40
The whole Law and the Prophets hang on these two commands, as a door hangs on its hinge or a picture on a nail. Every command in Scripture explains how to love God and neighbor. Love is the heart of all that God asks.
BSA: hang (“depend, are based”): Everything else in Scripture depends on these two commands for its meaning.
See also: Romans 13:8-10.
Matthew 22:41-42
Now Jesus asks the question. Whose son is the Christ? They answer correctly that He is David’s son, meaning descended from King David. But Jesus is leading them toward something more.
BSA: Christ (“the Anointed One, Messiah”): Christ means the one anointed by God as promised King.
See also: 2 Samuel 7:12-13.
Matthew 22:43-45
Jesus quotes Psalm 110, where David, speaking by the Spirit, calls the Messiah ‘Lord’. A father would not call his own descendant ‘Lord’. So the Messiah is David’s son, yet also far greater. He is invited to sit at God’s right hand, the place of highest honor, until all enemies are subdued.
BSA: Lord (“the supreme Master, God”): David gives the Messiah a title of divine honor, pointing beyond mere human descent. right hand (“the position of power and authority”): To sit there is to share the king’s rule and honor.
See also: Psalm 110:1; Acts 2:34-36.
Matthew 22:46
No one can answer Him, and no one dares to question Him further. The leaders’ tests are over, and each has failed. The question Jesus leaves hanging is one every reader must answer: who is He?