Matthew 22
- Who wrote it
- Traditionally Matthew
- Who it was for
- Jewish followers of Jesus
- What was happening
- In the temple, answering trap after trap
What’s happening
Jesus tells a parable: a king gives a wedding banquet for his son, but the invited guests won't come; some ignore the servants and others mistreat and kill them. The king sends troops, destroys those murderers, and burns their city, then tells his servants to invite everyone they find, bad and good, so the hall fills. One guest has no wedding clothes and is thrown out into the darkness. "For many are called, but few are chosen." The Pharisees then plot with the Herodians to trap him: "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" Jesus asks for a coin, asks whose image and inscription it carries, and says, "Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." They go away amazed. That same day Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, pose a puzzle about a woman who married seven brothers in turn. Jesus says they know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God; in the resurrection people neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And God said, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," and he is God of the living, not of the dead. The crowds are astonished at his teaching. When the Pharisees hear he has silenced the Sadducees, a lawyer asks which commandment in the law is the greatest. Jesus says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind," and the second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets. Then Jesus asks the Pharisees whose son the Christ is. "David's." "How then does David in the Spirit call him 'Lord,' saying, 'The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool under your feet'?" No one can answer him, and from that day no one dares ask him any more questions.
Why the setting matters
A king's son's wedding was a lavish public event, and refusing the invitation, repeated by servants, was a grave insult to the king. The "burned city" may reflect Jerusalem's fall in AD 70, if Matthew was written afterward; that is debated. What the wedding clothes stand for is also debated. The Herodians were supporters of Herod's family and its Roman-backed rule, odd allies for the Pharisees. The tax was the Roman poll tax, paid with a silver denarius whose inscription named Tiberius as the son of the divine Augustus; it was bitterly resented, and a tax revolt in AD 6 (reported by the historian Josephus) shows how explosive the question was. The Sadducees were the priestly aristocracy, accepted only the five books of Moses as authoritative, and denied resurrection and angels (Acts 23:8). Their puzzle rests on levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-10), and Jesus answers from the Torah itself, from the burning bush (Exodus 3:6). The "greatest commandment" joins Deuteronomy 6:5, the heart of the Shema that Jews recited each day, with Leviticus 19:18. Psalm 110 was attributed to David.
Who’s in this chapter
Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees
Pharisees send disciples and Herodians to trap him; Sadducees try with resurrection.
The Herodians
Supporters of Herod's family and Rome, brought in to sharpen the tax trap.
The Sadducees
The priestly party who denied resurrection.
A lawyer
An expert in the law who asks the greatest-commandment question.
David
Quoted in Psalm 110, calling the coming king "my Lord."
The crowds
Astonished at his teaching.
Talk it through
- The invited guests refuse and the invitation goes to everyone. What does that say about who the invitation is for?
- The tax question was built to trap Jesus whichever way he answered. What does his answer do to the trap?
- Jesus says the Sadducees know neither the Scriptures nor God's power, then answers from the burning bush. What is he doing with that passage?
- Jesus says the whole law and prophets hang on loving God and loving neighbor. What changes if you read the rest of Scripture through those two?
Read Matthew 22
World English Bible
1Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables, saying, 2“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who made a wedding feast for his son, 3and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4Again he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner. My cattle and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding feast!” ’ 5But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise, 6and the rest grabbed his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
8“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited weren’t worthy. 9Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the wedding feast.’ 10Those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good. The wedding was filled with guests. 11But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn’t have on wedding clothing, 12and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?’ He was speechless. 13Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.’ 14For many are called, but few chosen.”
15Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how they might entrap him in his talk. 16They sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are honest, and teach the way of God in truth, no matter whom you teach, for you aren’t partial to anyone. 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.”
They brought to him a denarius.
20He asked them, “Whose is this image and inscription?”
21They said to him, “Caesar’s.”
Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
22When they heard it, they marveled, and left him, and went away.
23On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him, 24saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘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 married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh. 27After them all, the woman died. 28In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.”
29But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. 30For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God’s angels in heaven. 31But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which 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 the God of the dead, but of the living.”
33When the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. 34But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together. 35One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
37Jesus said to him, “ ‘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. 39A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
41Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42saying, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?”
They said to him, “Of David.”
43He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying,
44‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?’
45“If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
46No one was able to answer him a word, neither did any man dare ask him any more questions from that day forward.
Text: World English Bible, Public domain. About our sources