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22:1-14
The Parable of the Wedding Guests
Jesus was still in the Temple courts, surrounded by a large number of
people. Having exposed the Jewish religious leaders thoroughly, he decided to
tell one more (his third) parable, in order to reveal another aspect of their
wickedness. This time he went for their exclusivism - that is, their
narrow-minded attitudes.
"There was once a king who arranged a marriage for his son. The king
wanted to have a large number of guests at the wedding, so he sent his servants
out, with special invitations to selected people, who lived in a nearby city,
inviting them to come. But when these people received their invitations, they
ripped them up or threw them away.
"The king was disappointed, but he didn't give up. He told his
servants to go back to all those people and explain to them something of the
celebrations. "Perhaps", he thought, "They have missed the point?
They may not realise what a wonderful time they will have when they come?"
"Look!" said the servants on their second visit, "The king
wants you to know that it will be tremendous fun at this wedding. He has ordered
a huge dinner, with roast beef and fruit, and sweets, and dozens of delicious
puddings! Please come and enjoy yourselves!"
But the response was the same everywhere. Mockery and contempt. Some of
the servants were beaten up, and a few were actually killed!
When the king heard that his servants were being killed he became
furious! he mustered his army and marched across the land, rounding up and
killing every person who had attacked his servants, and then he burned their
city.
"For a while the land was quiet. The smoke from the city rose into
the sky, and the people of the land waited and wondered. Then the king decided
what to do. He called his servants together again and addressed them :
"I'm sending you out with another stack of invitations" he
said, "Only this time you are to give them to anyone you meet. You can
invite the rich or the poor, or people in rags - it doesn't matter who they are
- the main thing is that we have a good crowd at the wedding."
"So away went the servants, handing out the invitations, and the
special robes, to anyone who was interested in coming. All these people had to
do to enjoy the feast and celebration was accept the invitation and slip on the
robes.
"And so the wedding began. The music played, the food began to flow,
and the guests milled around the tables, picking whatever delicious meal or
drink they desired from the sumptuous spread.
"After a while, the king came to the feast, and began to move
amongst the guests. Many of them shouted praise to him, while all bowed in
appreciation. But suddenly the king saw a man who was dressed in normal clothes.
He went to the man.
"My friend" said the king, "Why are you not wearing the
robe?"
The man opened his mouth, but he had no excuse, so no sound came out. He
went pale and began to tremble. He had received his invitation and the robe, but
he had thrown the robe away, and decided he was fit enough to come without it.
The king realised that this guest was there under false pretences, so he
called for a guard and had the man marched from the room.
"Take him away!" said the king, "Put him in shackles and
throw him into the dungeons! He can lie there and think about what he has
done!"
"Do you see what I'm saying" said Jesus, "Many people are
invited to the wedding feast, but not everyone will come."
This parable is about the Jewish nation, to which God sent many servants,
with invitations to a glorious event - the inauguration of His Kingdom! But the
first and second invitations were refused. The prophets were rejected, and the
disciples were rejected too. Both phases of the invitation period were met with
the same negative response.
God's response to this was to destroy the city. He sent general Titus in
70 AD to destroy Jerusalem, and burn it to the ground.
Having failed to draw the Jewish nation to the wedding feast, God decided
to invite everyone in the world to it. With each invitation there is also a
robe, which is the righteousness which comes through trusting in Jesus -
2Cor.5:21. Without this robe, there is no place for a person in the kingdom. The
Law convicts all people of sin - Rom.3:19 so they have no defence, but Jesus
presents to all who believe a perfect pardon.
22:15-22
Paying tax to Caesar
The Pharisees, fed up and angry, parted with the crowd and went outside
for a while. They hated the way Jesus constantly pointed at himself as the
Messiah, and they resented the way he repeatedly pointed at them as the enemies
of God. They went to see the Herodians, (probably the political arm of Herod's
supporters) who were normally their enemies, and discussed various ways of
trapping Jesus in what he said. Eventually they had a plan, so they gave
instructions to their disciples, and sent them back to Jesus.
When the opportunity came, these dangerous emissaries posed a question to
Jesus.
"Teacher" they said, "We know you are sincere, and you
always speak the truth . . . and you work for God . . .
and you aren't afraid of anyone . . . and we know you don't care what
people think . . . so, could you please tell us whether we Jews should pay the
tribute poll-tax to Caesar or not?"
(This was a politically loaded question. If Jesus said "No" he
would be accused of inciting rebellion against Rome. The Pharisees would report
to Herod that Jesus was encouraging people not to pay tax, and the Roman
soldiers would arrive to arrest him. But if he said "Yes" he would
antagonise many Jews, who hated having to pay tax because it meant that they
were a subjugated people. It was a clever trap, and if Jesus did not deal with
it correctly, he would be deserted, arrested, and removed before he could finish
his ministry.
But Jesus knew the implications of the trick question.
"You hypocrites! he said, "The only reason you have come is to
test my patience!" (They were hypocrites because they paid the tax
themselves, so they already knew the answer to their question. Of course it was
"lawful" to pay it.)
"Show me the tribute money" said Jesus. (This was the poll-tax,
which every citizen of Rome had to pay as part of the general census.)
A coin was produced - a denarius - the correct coin. It was Roman because
it had an image and inscription identifying it as Roman.
"Whose image and subscription are these?" said Jesus, holding
up the coin.
"Caesar's" said the young men.
"Then you should pay to Caesar whatever is his, and also, don't
forget to pay to God whatever He requires!"
The disciples of the Pharisees and Herodians were amazed at the way Jesus
had switched the question round. They hurried back to their masters and told
them what had happened.
(The answer which Jesus gave shows us that Christians have
dual-citizenship. They are responsible to obey and financially support, and pray
for human government, and they are not to speak ill of it. Of course, if there
is a conflict of interests, God's ways must be preferred - Acts 5:29.)
22:23-33
The resurrection
It was the Sadducees who next tried to trip Jesus up. They started from
their personal assumption that there was no resurrection after death, so their
question was built on a pre-conceived idea.
"Master" they said, "In the Old Testament Law it says that
if a man marries but has no children, and then dies, his brother is expected to
marry his wife and have children by her. But what if the brother dies too?
Suppose there were seven brothers, who all married the same woman and then died
. . . if there was a resurrection, which man's wife would that woman be?"
(These Sadducees were typical of many people who, because they find
something in the Bible difficult to understand, quickly label it 'unreasonable',
or 'stupid', and then start to make fun of it.)
"You have made several mistakes here" said Jesus, "The
first one is your ignorance of the Bible, and the second one is your lack of
understanding about God.
"As to the first mistake, you have the Scriptures, but you refuse to
read them carefully. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the husband-wife
relationship continues after the resurrection! That is just your assumption. Men
and women will be there, but they will be like the angels - living for ever.
"Now as to the second mistake, you have reduced God to a small,
powerless deity. Do you think He is too weak to raise the dead?
"In Genesis 6 God said : "I am the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob" yet all these men were not alive at the same
time. Even when they were dead, God referred to them as if they were still
alive. You see, death is not a difficulty to God. The resurrection is a reality,
because through it God will bring back to life all who have died. There is no
limit to his power! He thinks so little of death that He speaks of the dead as
if they are still living."
When the people standing round heard these things they were astonished,
Jesus spoke with perfect logic. He also brought out meanings from the Bible
which made sense. Of course, they said, God could not keep his promises to
Abraham, Isaac or Jacob if there was no resurrection. The Sadducees were talking
nonsense!
22:34-40
The greatest commandment
The Pharisees were disappointed to see the Sadducees beaten, but they had
their own plan, so when the crowd had quietened down again they approached Jesus
and tried their own tricky question on him.
A Pharisee lawyer got Jesus' attention. Now this man had spent a long
time preparing his tricky question, and he had masses of clever arguments ready,
but he had completely underestimated the wisdom of his opponent.
"Teacher" said the lawyer, "What is the greatest
commandment in the Law?"
(Out of some 600 laws, many of them seem to be very important. Honouring
parents, for example, or being honest, or refusing to lie. To many Jews there
was no difference between the laws - they were all equally important. In fact,
it could be seen as impudent to single any one law out and set it up as more
important than the others.)
Without hesitation, Jesus quoted Deut.10:5, 6:12 and 30:6. "You
shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart, and soul and mind. This is the
most important command in the Law, but there is another one just like it which
says "You shall love your neighbour as much as you love yourself."
These two commandments together are a summary of the whole Law, and they
encapsulate everything which all the prophets have written."
The Pharisee lawyer was stunned. He could not argue with Jesus in any way
because what Jesus had had was absolutely logical. He went away with his head
spinning as the full impact of what Jesus had said sunk in.
22:41-46
Jesus and David
The questions stopped coming for a while, but Jesus had one of his own.
He went over to where some Pharisees were standing and asked them a general
question about the Messiah.
"When the Messiah comes" said Jesus, "Who will he be
descended from?"
"From king David" said the Pharisees. (Correctly)
"Then tell me this" said Jesus, "Why does David call the
Messiah his Lord? If you read Psalm 110:1 you will see the words . . .
"Jehovah said to the Messiah, "Sit on my throne with me while I subdue
all your enemies under your feet."
"So now you have a problem - from David's line we have the Messiah,
but David calls the Messiah his "Lord" so the Messiah must come before
David!
(This is a very curious problem. It involves a man who speaks to his
Creator, but from the man comes the Creator, so which is first? If we say
"the man", we have to ask where he came from. If we say "the
Creator", we have to ask the same question. Apparently they both came from
each other! The only way to resolve the problem is to see that the Messiah is
both David's Lord and David's son.)