(Mat 22:1)  Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:

Following on directly from chapter 21, Jesus is still speaking in parables and teaching the people in the temple courts in the hearing of the Pharisees and scribes.

(Mat 22:2)  "The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.

In this parable the king represents God and Jesus is His Son. The wedding banquet prepared by God stands for the eternal blessings made available to men by God through Christ, the blessings which are received through salvation (Eph. 1:3).

(Mat 22:3)  He sent his slaves to summon those who had been invited to the banquet, but they would not come.

The servants of God were sent to invite those whom he wished to welcome as guests at this banquet. The gospel of salvation is for all men, and God is not willing that any should perish (2 Pet. 3:9). In this parable Jesus makes clear that it was to the Jewish nation and to the keepers of the law that the message of salvation was first sent. Indeed, the words of this verse “summon those who have been invited” imply that the invitation had already been given through the writings of the prophets, and that the apostles of the New Testament were merely announcing that the time had come for these prophetic writings to be fulfilled. (Mark 1:15).Unfortunately, by and large those who heard the heralds refused to respond to the invitation. We must bear in mind that this gospel was first spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 2:3). It was the invitation of the son himself that the Pharisees refused, though later they also rejected that of the apostles. (1 Thess. 2:15). The sin here is of obduracy, hardness of heart, and disobedience as they refused to listen, obey and come.

(Mat 22:4-5)  Again he sent other slaves, saying, 'Tell those who have been invited, "Look! The feast I have prepared for you is ready. My oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet." ‘But they were indifferent and went away, one to his farm, another to his business.

More messengers were sent. Again and again God appeals to lost souls to receive his son Jesus Christ, and is longsuffering. But those portrayed in this verse are those who are indifferent to the things of God. They thought nothing of the fact that God has prepared everything for them. The king in the parable had slaughtered his oxen and fattened cattle and prepared everything, they did not even need to pay for admission; they only had to bring themselves. God has done everything required for our eternal blessing and salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, who has died and who is raised again, so that whoever responds to his call and comes to him in faith just as they are will be saved.So little did these men esteem the invitation of the king that they considered manual labour to be more important. In point of fact there is nothing more important than the salvation of our souls and we should give more earnest heed to the things that are spoken and ensure we obey to the saving of our souls (Heb. 2:1-3).

(Mat 22:6)  The rest seized his slaves, insolently mistreated them, and killed them.

Just as seriously some of those who rejected the invitation abused and murdered the messengers of the king (see Luke 11:49). If the rejection of Jesus Christ were not serious enough, the murder of his servants will not go unpunished either.

(Mat 22:7)  The king was furious! He sent his soldiers, and they put those murderers to death and set their city on fire.

God’s wrath was aroused by the people’s rejection of his son and his servants, and determined to repay them for their sin. Significantly, Jesus said that he burned their city with fire –which is exactly what happened to Jerusalem when it was raised to the ground by the Romans in AD 70.

(Mat 22:8-9)  Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but the ones who had been invited were not worthy. So go into the main streets and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.'

The wedding was so important, and the desire of the king so great for his son’s honour, that the original rejection of the people did not deter the king from continuing to invite others, indeed all people were invited. When Jesus says those who were invited were not worthy he means that they made themselves unworthy (Acts 13:46). Notice that those who rejected the message received the same genuine invitation as those who accepted it. It was not God who rejected them. God’s concern is that his servants should go everywhere and invite everyone (Mark 16:15 and John 3:16).

(Mat 22:10-12)  And those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all they found, both bad and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.  But when the king came in to see the wedding guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.  And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' But he had nothing to say.

The evangelists went out to plead with all men and great crowds gathered in the wedding hall, the place where the wedding was to take place. Yet, as the wedding was about to begin, the king spoke personally to one man who was not wearing wedding clothes .These special clothes were a gift provided by the king for all of his guests. It was a serious affront to a king not to wear his gifts.The significance of these verses lies in the fact that our salvation in Christ is provided for us as a gift of God (Rom. 6:23). Just as the king provided the wedding clothes, so it is God himself who clothes us with the garments of salvation and arrays us with the robe of righteousness (Isa. 61:10). When we receive Jesus Christ as our saviour he removes our filthy garments of sin, which he nailed to the cross, and gives us in their place the robe of his own righteousness (Jer. 23:6). We cannot hope to enter heaven any other way than the one which he has provided. Jesus is saying that if we want to enter his wedding banquet than we must first accept his gift. Being in the wedding hall, or among the congregation of God’s people, by joining a church, is not what saves us; receiving the God’s gift of eternal life does. You can spend your entire life among Christians, you may have been born to Christian parents, but one day you will have to personally meet with and be examined by God. Are you sure that you have received his gift of righteousness through faith in Christ?

(Mat 22:13)  Then the king said to his attendants, 'Tie him up hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!'

The end for all those who do not accept the free gift of salvation through faith in Christ will be eternal punishment, in outer darkness where there is endless regret and pain.

(Mat 22:14)  For many are called, but few are chosen."

We should understand this concluding verse of the parable in the context of the whole parable. Many had been called, the invitation went out to all equally, but only those who responded in the affirmative received the wedding garments and so were chosen. God has sovereignly prepared the salvation banquet; he was not forced any man to attend. God has sovereignly announced the means of salvation, yet man can of his own free will choose to accept or reject that which God offers. The false teaching that grace cannot be resisted is contradicted by this parable.

(Mat 22:15)  Then the Pharisees went out and planned together to entrap him with his own words.

The Pharisees knew in their hearts that they were among those who rejected the king's messengers and were plotting the death of his son, were cut to the heart by Christ’s words. They hated him for exposing the truth. Those who are enemies of God will always hate those who are truly his servants. They plotted to trap Jesus in something he might say for the sole purpose of handing him over to the power of the Roman Governor (Luke 20:20) that he might be put to death. This was the motive behind the following question.

(Mat 22:16-17)  They sent to him their disciples along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are truthful, and teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You do not court anyone's favour because you show no partiality.  Tell us then, what do you think? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"

The Pharisees united with their enemies by sending their disciples with those who were loyal to King Herod to trap Christ in his words. They begin, as those who hate us often will, with lying and flattery, before asking Christ to answer a controversial question. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? The Herodians were puppets of Rome and would have supported the tax, whilst the Pharisees were known to be opposed to it, hypocritically describing the money as idolatrous (whilst at the same time they loved money).

(Mat 22:18)  But Jesus realized their evil intentions and said, "Hypocrites! Why are you testing me?

The Lord of Glory knows all things and is never taken in by the deception of men. He denounces them as pretenders and confronts them with the truth - that they were trying to trap him.

(Mat 22:19)  Show me the coin used for the tax." So they brought him a denarius.

Jesus nevertheless answers their duplicitous question. He demands to be shown the coin used for the tax, not because he had never seen one, but in order to make his point.

(Mat 22:20-21)  Jesus said to them, "Whose image is this, and whose inscription?" They replied, "Caesar's." He said to them, "Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

Again, Christ knew whose image and inscription was on the coin, he wanted to hear it from the mouths of his questioners. If the money was minted by Caser as a means of exchange and taxation, then they should not refuse to give to him what is his own. Christians are commanded to pay their dues both in terms of taxation and service to the civil authorities (Rom. 13:1-7). Nor should they, like the men in the parable, refuse to give God what is rightly his - the complete obedience of their hearts and lives (Rom. 12:1).

(Mat 22:22)  Now when they heard this they were stunned, and they left him and went away.

The men were stunned, for they had never imagined that Christ could answer their question without incriminating himself, let alone silence them with his wisdom and absolute authority. They decide it is best to beat a hasty retreat.

(Mat 22:23)  The same day Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to him and asked him,

The Sadducees were like the Pharisees, an influential religious group in Jerusalem, but unlike the Pharisees they did not believe in the resurrection or even in angels. Christ had often referred to resurrection, and had raised a number of people from the dead, most recently Lazarus (John 11). The Sadducees oppose and wish to discredit Christ’s teaching by means of an absurd question.

(Mat 22:24)  "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and father children for his brother.'

They begin by quoting the Law of Moses. It was in order to keep the family land in the family that this law was written. One can imagine the difficulties involved when a landed man died if his wife remarried and the new husband acquired rights to his land. This might be catastrophic for other dependents, such as elderly parents. Of course, if the dead man had children, they would inherit the land and so the problem would not arise.

(Mat 22:25)  Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children he left his wife to his brother.

The Sadducees are not concerned about the validity of this point of law, but simply use it to discredit Christ’s teaching about the resurrection. They claim that one woman was married to seven brothers in the same family, a story which is unlikely to be true. When the woman eventually died, whose wife she will be in the resurrection, since all seven had her? To their minds, this question reveals the absurdity of the idea of a resurrection, how could she live again with all of her seven husbands? So we must bear in mind this was not a genuine enquiry but an argument against the truth. 

(Mat 22:26-29)  The second did the same, and the third, down to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her." Jesus answered them, "You are deceived, because you don't know the scriptures or the power of God.

Jesus immediately answers that the reason they are blinded by such error is their ignorance of the scripture and their lack of any experimental knowledge of God’s power. Had they experienced the power which raises a soul from death to life, they would have little trouble believing in the power that will raise dead bodies to life (John 5:25-29).

(Mat 22:30)  For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

In one short sentence, Christ states what Paul spends several verses explaining in 1 Cor 15. When the dead are raised they are raised with immortal, incorruptible bodies, and are no longer subject to the laws we are familiar with on earth, such as the laws of gender and marriage.

(Mat 22:31-32)  Now as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living!"

Christ illustrates from scripture that God is the God of resurrection, as he referred to Abraham Isaac and Jacob as LIVING when they had been dead for hundreds of years. God is the eternal God and to Him all live.

(Mat 22:33)  When the crowds heard this, they were amazed at his teaching.

Although the crowds were amazed by this teaching, you will observe that Matthew does not allude to any Sadducees changing their hardened view as a result of it, although Christ had confounded and silenced them.

(Mat 22:34)  Now when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they assembled together.

The Pharisees try again. One of their highly educated experts of the law tested Christ with a question. Which was the greatest law? 

(Mat 22:35-40)  And one of them, an expert in religious law, asked him a question to test him: "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus said to him, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

Jesus is never stumped by a question. He knows all things. He is the wisdom of God. That which comes from his mouth is perfect knowledge and wisdom. Even as a child of 12 he had astounded these same men with his comprehension of the reality of God. In two short sentences Jesus expresses the whole law; in the first he speaks of man’s relationship to God, and in the second his relationship with his fellow men. Behaving in a way that agrees with the love of God will result in the fulfilment of all these laws (Rom. 13:10). The Pharisees were unable to trap him in this answer.Whose Son is the Christ?

(Mat 22:41-46)  While the Pharisees were assembled, Jesus asked them a question: "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said, "The son of David." He said to them, "How then does David by the Spirit call him 'Lord, ‘saying, 'The Lord said to my lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet" '? If David then calls him 'Lord,' how can he be his son?" No one was able to answer him a word, and from that day on no one dared to question him any longer.

Now it was Christ’s turn ask a question of his opponents. He knew that they considered the Christ to be the son of David, and that they were opposed to his claim to be the Christ, the son of God. So he asks: how it can be that in the prophetic writings of the psalms, David refers to the Christ as Lord? Lord is one greater, one in authority, and David, King of Israel knew only one Lord, and that was the Lord God. David was sat on the throne of Israel but not at the position of honour and power in heaven at the right hand of God. David’s Lord would be given all power and authority with every enemy placed under his feet by God. Who could such a lord be? Certainly not a lesser than David, who never ascended to the throne of god, and who never once enjoyed the whole world bowing down to him. It is Jesus Christ who has been highly exalted, given the name above every name, and who is ascended to heaven to sit at God’s right hand until the time that he takes up his authority and returns to earth to reign. God has made him Lord of all men, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow (Phil. 2:9-11).Such revelation had not yet been given and was certainly unknown to Christ’s enemies, although he spoke to them again about it at his trial (Matt. 26:63-64). 

Although not convinced of his Lordship, they were confounded by his teaching and did not dare to question him any more.