The New Testament with Commentary Matthew 22

Parable of the wedding feast

1 Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables saying: 2 “The kingdom of the heavens is like a certain king who prepared a wedding feast for his son. 3 And he sent out his servants to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, but they did not want to come. 4 Again he sent out other servants saying: ‘Say to those who have been invited: “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast!” ’ 5 Now the indifferent ones just took off—one to his own field, another to his business. 6 But the rest, seizing his servants mistreated and killed them! 7 So when that king heard about it he was furious; and sending his troops he destroyed those murderers and burned up their city.*

8 “Then he says to his servants: ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 So go on the roads leading out of town, and as many as you may find invite to the wedding feast.’ 10 And going out on the roads those servants gathered together everyone they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had not been clothed with a wedding garment.† 12 So he says to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, take him away and throw him out into the darkness farthest away.’‡ There there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 14 For many are called, but few chosen.”

Jesus bests the Herodians

15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might trap Him in some word. 16 So they send their disciples to Him, with the Herodians,§ saying: “Teacher, we know that you are truthful and teach the way of God in truth; and you are not impressed by anyone, for you do not look at people's faces.* 17 So tell us, what do you think: is it lawful to pay tax to Caesar, or not?” 18 But perceiving their malignancy Jesus said: “Hypocrites! Why do you test me? 19 Show me the tax coin.” So they brought Him a denarius. 20 And He says to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” 21 They say to Him, “Caesar's.” Then He says to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's!” 22 And hearing it they marveled, and leaving Him they went away.

Jesus bests the Sadducees

23 The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him 24 saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if someone dies having no children his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring he left his widow to his brother. 26 So also the second, and the third, up to the seventh. 27 Last of all, the woman died too. 28 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife, of the seven, will she be? For they all had her.”† 29 So in answer Jesus said to them: “You are deceived,‡ not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God!§ 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.* 31 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?† God is not God of dead people but of living.”‡ 33 Now as the crowds heard Him they were astonished at His teaching.

Jesus bests the Pharisees

34 Now when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they got together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, testing Him, questioned and said, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 So Jesus said to him:§ “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind.’* 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it, ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’† 40 On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets.”

David's Son and Lord

41 While the Pharisees were assembled, Jesus asked them 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ; whose Son is He?” They say to Him, “David's.” 43 He says to them: “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord’ saying,

44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord,

“Sit at my right until I place your enemies

as a footstool for your feet” ’?‡

45 Really now, if David calls Him ‘Lord’, how can He be his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare to question Him anymore.

*22:7 There is a contrast between the indifferent (verse 5) and the malignant (verse 6)—the indifferent missed out on the feast, but the malignant were destroyed. In the kingdom of the heavens there is only one wedding feast for the King's Son, so far as I know, called “the marriage supper of the Lamb” in Revelation 19:9. So who might the ‘indifferent’ be?

†22:11 Obviously people grabbed off the street would not have appropriate attire—the wedding garment must have been issued to each one as he went in.

‡22:13 Someone tried to ‘crash the party’ and had even taken a place at a table, but it did not work. I suppose there may be those who think they can crash “the marriage supper of the Lamb”, but if you are not dressed in the righteousness of the Bridegroom you will not make it.

§22:16 The Pharisees and the Herodians were political enemies, but in their desperation they joined forces against Jesus.

*22:16 They really tried to butter Him up.

†22:28 To dream up hypothetical situations is typical of those who really do not want to acknowledge or obey the truth. No doubt they thought they were being clever.

‡22:29 I started out putting ‘self-deceived’, but the verb is passive Indicative and not inherently reflexive—it could be Satan deceiving them.

§22:29 Alas! Is this not true of large segments of so-called evangelical Christianity? The Lord puts His finger on the Sadducees' real problem—they were spiritually bankrupt.

*22:30 Jesus does not say that angels do not have sex/gender. Evidently no baby angels (good or fallen) are born, but if angels are of only one gender they cannot reproduce in kind. Whenever an angel takes on human form in the Bible, it is always the form of a man. Perhaps 1% of the Greek manuscripts, of inferior quality, omit “of God” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).

†22:32 See Exodus 3:6,15,16—Jesus attributes this text to God!

‡22:32 Jesus argues on the basis of the present tense of the verb—if Abraham was simply eradicated it would have to be “was”. Jesus implies that they should have figured it out for themselves.

§22:37 Evidently Jesus answered without hesitation; this one was easy!

*22:37 See Deuteronomy 6:5, 10:12.

†22:39 See Leviticus 19:18. Jesus gave him more than he asked for.

‡22:44 See Psalm 110:1—note that Jesus affirms that David was inspired.