Matthew 22
22
The Parable of the Wedding Feast
1And Jesus answered #Luke 14:16; (Rev. 19:7–9)and spoke to them again by parables and said: 2“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, 3and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. 4Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; #Prov. 9:2my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.” ’ 5But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. 6And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. 7But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out #(Dan. 9:26)his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not #Matt. 10:11worthy. 9Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ 10So those servants went out into the highways and #Matt. 13:38, 47, 48; (Acts 28:28)gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there #(2 Cor. 5:3; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10, 12; Rev. 3:4; 16:15; 19:8)who did not have on a wedding garment. 12So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was #(Rom. 3:19)speechless. 13Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him #Matt. 8:12; 25:30; Luke 13:28into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14#Matt. 20:16“For many are called, but few are chosen.”
The Pharisees: Is It Lawful to Pay Taxes to Caesar?
15#Mark 12:13–17; Luke 20:20–26Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. 16And they sent to Him their disciples with the #Mark 3:6; 8:15; 12:13Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. 17Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
18But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? 19Show Me the tax money.”
So they brought Him a denarius.
20And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”
21They said to Him, “Caesar’s.”
And He said to them, #Matt. 17:25“Render therefore to Caesar the things that are #(Rom. 13:1–7; 1 Pet. 2:13–15)Caesar’s, and to God the things that are #(1 Cor. 3:23; 6:19, 20; 12:27)God’s.” 22When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.
The Sadducees: What About the Resurrection?
23#Mark 12:18–27; Luke 20:27–40The same day the Sadducees, #Acts 23:8who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, 24saying: “Teacher, #Deut. 25:5Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. 25Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. 26Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. 27Last of all the woman died also. 28Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.”
29Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, #John 20:9not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but #(1 John 3:2)are like angels of God in heaven. 31But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 32#Gen. 17:7; 26:24; 28:21; Ex. 3:6, 15; Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37; Acts 7:32; (Heb. 11:16)‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” 33And when the multitudes heard this, #Matt. 7:28they were astonished at His teaching.
The Scribes: Which Is the First Commandment of All?
34#Mark 12:28–31; Luke 10:25–37But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35Then one of them, #Luke 7:30; 10:25; 11:45, 46, 52; 14:3; Titus 3:13a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
37Jesus said to him, #Deut. 6:5; 10:12; 30:6“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like it: #Lev. 19:18; Matt. 19:19; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; (Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8)‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40#(Matt. 7:12; Rom. 13:10; 1 Tim. 1:5)On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Jesus: How Can David Call His Descendant Lord?
41#Mark 12:35–37; Luke 20:41–44While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”
They said to Him, “The #Matt. 1:1; 21:9Son of David.”
43He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:
44‘The#Ps. 110:1; (Matt. 26:64); Mark 16:19; Acts 2:34; 1 Cor. 15:25; Heb. 1:13; 10:13 Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool” ’?
45If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?” 46#Luke 14:6And no one was able to answer Him a word, #Mark 12:34; Luke 20:40nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.
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Matthew 22: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
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.