Matthew 22
22
The Story of the Wedding Dinner
1Jesus told them more stories. He said, 2“Here is what the kingdom of heaven is like. A king prepared a wedding dinner for his son. 3He sent his slaves to those who had been invited to the dinner. The slaves told them to come. But they refused.
4“Then he sent some more slaves. He said, ‘Tell those who were invited that I have prepared my dinner. I have killed my oxen and my fattest cattle. Everything is ready. Come to the wedding dinner.’
5“But the people paid no attention. One went away to his field. Another went away to his business. 6The rest grabbed his slaves. They treated them badly and then killed them. 7The king became very angry. He sent his army to destroy them. They killed those murderers and burned their city.
8“Then the king said to his slaves, ‘The wedding dinner is ready. But those I invited were not fit to come. 9So go to the street corners. Invite to the dinner anyone you can find.’ 10So the slaves went out into the streets. They gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good. Soon the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11“The king came in to see the guests. He noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man couldn’t think of anything to say.
13“Then the king told his slaves, ‘Tie up his hands and feet. Throw him outside into the darkness. Out there people will weep and grind their teeth.’
14“Many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Is It Right to Pay the Royal Tax to Caesar?
15The Pharisees went out. They made plans to trap Jesus with his own words. 16They sent their followers to him. They sent the Herodians with them. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of honor. You teach the way of God truthfully. You don’t let others tell you what to do or say. You don’t care how important they are. 17Tell us then, what do you think? Is it right to pay the royal tax to Caesar or not?”
18But Jesus knew their evil plans. He said, “You pretenders! Why are you trying to trap me? 19Show me the coin people use for paying the tax.” They brought him a silver coin. 20He asked them, “Whose picture is this? And whose words?”
21“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. And give back to God what belongs to God.”
22When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Marriage When the Dead Rise
23That same day the Sadducees came to Jesus with a question. They do not believe that people rise from the dead. 24“Teacher,” they said, “here is what Moses told us. If a man dies without having children, his brother must get married to the widow. He must provide children to carry on his brother’s name. 25There were seven brothers among us. The first one got married and died. Since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26The same thing happened to the second and third brothers. It happened right on down to the seventh brother. 27Finally, the woman died. 28Now then, when the dead rise, whose wife will she be? All seven of them were married to her.”
29Jesus replied, “You are mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures. And you do not know the power of God. 30When the dead rise, they won’t get married. And their parents won’t give them to be married. They will be like the angels in heaven. 31What about the dead rising? Haven’t you read what God said to you? 32He said, ‘I am the God of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac. And I am the God of Jacob.’ (Exodus 3:6) He is not the God of the dead. He is the God of the living.”
33When the crowds heard this, they were amazed by what he taught.
The Most Important Commandment
34The Pharisees heard that the Sadducees weren’t able to answer Jesus. So the Pharisees got together. 35One of them was an authority on the law. So he tested Jesus with a question. 36“Teacher,” he asked, “which is the most important commandment in the Law?”
37Jesus replied, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your mind.’ (Deuteronomy 6:5) 38This is the first and most important commandment. 39And the second is like it. ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ (Leviticus 19:18) 40Everything that is written in the Law and the Prophets is based on these two commandments.”
Whose Son Is the Messiah?
41The Pharisees were gathered together. Jesus asked them, 42“What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
“The son of David,” they replied.
43He said to them, “Then why does David call him ‘Lord’? The Holy Spirit spoke through David himself. David said,
44“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
under your control.” ’ (Psalm 110:1)
45So if David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be David’s son?” 46No one could give any answer to him. From that day on, no one dared to ask him any more questions.
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Matthew 22: NIrV
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Matthew 22
22
The Story of the Wedding Banquet
1-3Jesus responded by telling still more stories. “God’s kingdom,” he said, “is like a king who threw a wedding banquet for his son. He sent out servants to call in all the invited guests. And they wouldn’t come!
4“He sent out another round of servants, instructing them to tell the guests, ‘Look, everything is on the table, the prime rib is ready for carving. Come to the feast!’
5-7“They only shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden, another to work in his shop. The rest, with nothing better to do, beat up on the messengers and then killed them. The king was outraged and sent his soldiers to destroy those thugs and level their city.
8-10“Then he told his servants, ‘We have a wedding banquet all prepared but no guests. The ones I invited weren’t up to it. Go out into the busiest intersections in town and invite anyone you find to the banquet.’ The servants went out on the streets and rounded up everyone they laid eyes on, good and bad, regardless. And so the banquet was on—every place filled.
11-13“When the king entered and looked over the scene, he spotted a man who wasn’t properly dressed. He said to him, ‘Friend, how dare you come in here looking like that!’ The man was speechless. Then the king told his servants, ‘Get him out of here—fast. Tie him up and ship him to hell. And make sure he doesn’t get back in.’
14“That’s what I mean when I say, ‘Many get invited; only a few make it.’”
Paying Taxes
15-17That’s when the Pharisees plotted a way to trap him into saying something damaging. They sent their disciples, with a few of Herod’s followers mixed in, to ask, “Teacher, we know you have integrity, teach the way of God accurately, are indifferent to popular opinion, and don’t pander to your students. So tell us honestly: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
18-19Jesus knew they were up to no good. He said, “Why are you playing these games with me? Why are you trying to trap me? Do you have a coin? Let me see it.” They handed him a silver piece.
20“This engraving—who does it look like? And whose name is on it?”
21They said, “Caesar.”
“Then give Caesar what is his, and give God what is his.”
22The Pharisees were speechless. They went off shaking their heads.
Marriage and Resurrection
23-28That same day, Sadducees approached him. This is the party that denies any possibility of resurrection. They asked, “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies childless, his brother is obligated to marry his widow and father a child with her. Here’s a case where there were seven brothers. The first brother married and died, leaving no child, and his wife passed to his brother. The second brother also left her childless, then the third—and on and on, all seven. Eventually the wife died. Now here’s our question: At the resurrection, whose wife is she? She was a wife to each of them.”
29-33Jesus answered, “You’re off base on two counts: You don’t know what God said, and you don’t know how God works. At the resurrection we’re beyond marriage. As with the angels, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. And regarding your speculation on whether the dead are raised or not, don’t you read your Bibles? The grammar is clear: God says, ‘I am—not was—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.’ The living God defines himself not as the God of dead men, but of the living.” Hearing this exchange the crowd was much impressed.
The Most Important Command
34-36When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?”
37-40Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”
David’s Son and Master
41-42As the Pharisees were regrouping, Jesus caught them off balance with his own test question: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said, “David’s son.”
43-45Jesus replied, “Well, if the Christ is David’s son, how do you explain that David, under inspiration, named Christ his ‘Master’?
God said to my Master,
“Sit here at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool.”
“Now if David calls him ‘Master,’ how can he at the same time be his son?”
46That stumped them, literalists that they were. Unwilling to risk losing face again in one of these public verbal exchanges, they quit asking questions for good.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.