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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Matthew 22: MSG
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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.
Matthew 22
22
1And Jesus answered and spake again in parables unto them, saying, 2The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king, who made a marriage feast for his son, 3and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the marriage feast: and they would not come. 4Again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them that are bidden, Behold, I have made ready my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come to the marriage feast. 5But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise; 6and the rest laid hold on his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7But the king was wroth; and he sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they that were bidden were not worthy. 9Go ye therefore unto the partings of the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage feast. 10And those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was filled with guests. 11But when the king came in to behold the guests, he saw there a man who had not on a wedding-garment: 12and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding-garment? And he was speechless. 13Then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and cast him out into the outer darkness; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. 14For many are called, but few chosen.
15Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might ensnare him in his talk. 16And they send to him their disciples, with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, and carest not for any one: for thou regardest not the person of men. 17Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not? 18But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why make ye trial of me, ye hypocrites? 19Show me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a denarius. 20And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? 21They say unto him, Cæsar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s. 22And when they heard it, they marvelled, and left him, and went away.
23On that day there came to him Sadducees, they that say that there is no resurrection: and they asked him, 24saying, Teacher, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 25Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first married and deceased, and having no seed left his wife unto his brother; 26in like manner the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. 27And after them all, the woman died. 28In the resurrection therefore whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. 29But Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. 30For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven. 31But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 32I am the God of Abraham, and 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 it, they were astonished at his teaching.
34But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, gathered themselves together. 35And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, trying him: 36Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? 37And he said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38This is the great and first commandment. 39And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 40On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets.
41Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42saying, What think ye of the Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. 43He saith unto them, How then doth David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying,
44The Lord said unto my Lord,
Sit thou on my right hand,
Till I put thine enemies underneath thy feet?
45If David then calleth him Lord, how is he his son? 46And no one was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
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