Verses 1-3 And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, 2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, 3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.
Remember that, originally, each Bible book was one continuous writing, and that verses and chapters were placed in the Bible books many years later. So this chapter is a continuation of chapter 21 and Jesus is still speaking to the chief priests and Pharisees/elders with the multitude listening to the conversation. He continues to use parables (an earthly story that has another meaning, often doctrinal or spiritual) to get His point across to those who are plotting to kill Him. If the Jewish leadership had heeded these parables, they would have never tried to murder the One who could give them eternal life in Heaven.
Application: No leader would ever refuse to attend an event of an earthly king to which they were invited. That would mean political suicide and, back in Roman days, could also mean a loss of one’s life. But in this parable, the fictitious king had rebellious subjects that refused to honor his invitation. For hundreds of years, God had been inviting the Hebrew people to come to Him and follow Him and they refused. They were rebellious. They wanted to govern and live their lives their way and not the LORD’s way. Now Jesus was standing in their midst, the King of kings and Lord of lords, inviting them to be part of His spiritual kingdom and they would not come. The old adage, “if the shoe fits, wear it” describes the Jewish leaders precisely and accurately. They knew the parable was about them and for them. They and their fathers had rejected God’s communication to them via His prophets.
Verses 4-5 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. 5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:
This fictitious king kept trying to get his subjects to come to him, but their commerce, careers, and choices took precedence. They did not take God’s Word seriously.
Verses 6-7 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. 7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
“And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; of whom the world was not worthy: they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” Hebrews 11:36-38
“Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.” Matthew 23:31
“Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.” Luke 11:47
Application: Jesus was telling the Jewish leaders that they were going to be destroyed and their city burned if they continued to behave as their fathers had and kill the prophet in order to kill the message. Jesus was functioning as a prophet. A prophet in Scripture is not a fortune teller or a prognosticator, but someone who brings forth the Word of God to the people. Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman army.
Verses 8-10 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. 9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. 10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
Application: Because the Gospel message and the rulership of Jesus was rejected, God sent the Gospel to the Gentiles and the Church was born and continues to this day. These were those who the servants found in the highways and these came willingly to the king and participated in the wedding and in the marriage.
The metaphor of the wedding is that, in the physical world, two completely different people become “one” in the sight of God. Spiritually, two completely different entities, mankind and God, became “one” through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. “There is one body, and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” Ephesians 4:4-6 Because the Holy Ghost/Spirit resides in each Christian believer, spiritually they are one with God.
Verses 11-14 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
Application: The wedding garment is metaphor for being covered by the blood of the LORD Jesus Christ so that sins are forgiven and the person is born again and appears to be clothed in white which represents purity, righteousness and holiness. The man in the parable who was not dressed appropriately was a fake believer, someone passing himself off as a “guest”. There has always been fake believers in the Christian church. If a person pretends to be a believer like the man pretending to be a guest, his/her final destiny is Hell. Only one who is truly converted and spiritually in the LORD’s kingdom will inherit eternal life.
Application: In the days of Jesus’ ministry it was the custom for the host of a wedding to provide a garment or some type of cloth for all the guests to wear, showing that they were part of the celebration. In the parable above, one man refused to wear this garment. Since the garment is representative or metaphor for Jesus Christ, how does one put on Jesus? It is commanded in Romans 13:14. “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof”. One puts on Jesus Christ when one obeys the Gospel: the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. How does one obey the Gospel? One dies to self through repentance of sin which results in not following after the lusts of the flesh, the world, and the temptations of the Devil. Then water baptism in the name of the LORD Jesus Christ, which is commanded and not an option, is a type of burial, coming out of the water as a new creature, the old man being passed away. And the resurrection is when one is filled with the Holy Ghost/Spirit and the converted Christian believer becomes one with the LORD. “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ”. Galatians 3:27 So repentance followed by water baptism leads to being filled with Jesus’ Holy Ghost and is essential in order to put on Christ and therefore have a spiritual wedding garment that is seen by God. The man in the parable above was not converted and not obedient to the Gospel, and he was cast out.
Verses 15-17 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. 16 And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. 17 Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?
Note that the Pharisees had disciples also. The Greek word translated as “disciples” is “mathetes” and it means a learner or a pupil. So there is no mystery or special significance in the 12 disciples, etc. Technically all Christian believers are disciples as they should be constantly learning from Scripture and from the Holy Ghost/Spirit. However, there is a distinction between a disciple and an apostle. An apostle is a messenger or one that is sent forth for a specific purpose. The term “apostle” is significant in relation to the 12 disciples originally chosen by Jesus Christ as these men were sent out into all the world with the Gospel message and started churches where ever they traveled. A disciple was a student. Jesus chose 12 men to be discipled by Himself, and these in turn discipled others and became the apostles of Jesus Christ. It is not known how many disciples of the Pharisees were sent to try and trap Jesus by His spoken words.
The Herodians were believed to have been men sympathetic to the rulership of the Herods: Herod the great (74 BC – 4 BC) who ordered the killing of all the babies as recorded in Matthew 2, Herod Antipas (22 BC – 40 AD) who beheaded John the Baptist, Herod Agrippa I (10 BC – 44 AD ) who imprisoned the Apostle Peter and killed the Apostle James, and Herod Agrippa II (27 AD – 93 AD) who heard the witness of the Apostle Paul as recorded in Acts 25. They were a Jewish political group that stayed clear of the two religious parties, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and who supported the governmental policies of the kings. Since the Herods wanted to destroy Jesus as they perceived Him to be a threat to their throne, the Herodians were only too happy to join the religious groups in an effort to discredit the LORD and find something for which they could seek the death penalty. It is thought that they may have been lawyers as well, and the manner in which they addressed Jesus as recorded above seems to support this idea. They started their dialogue complementing Jesus, but their hearts betrayed them. They were not interested in finding fault with the Jewish religious laws, but were attempting to find Jesus violating political laws.
Verses 18-22 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? 19 Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. 20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? 21 They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s. 22 When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.
A hypocrite is an actor or a pretender. Jesus knew the Herodians were merely pretending to want Him to enlighten them regarding the issue of taxes. Taxation has and always will be a divisive political and economic topic, so what better way to trap a person into breaking a territorial or municipal law than to engage them in this discussion. Remember that there was a multitude of people standing around Jesus listening to this dialogue. Assuming that the multitude was made up primarily of Jews, they would most likely have negative feelings toward the taxation they received at the hand of the Roman government, an occupational foreign country that was controlling their freedoms. If Jesus agreed that paying taxes was a good thing, the people would reject Him. If Jesus disagreed with paying taxes, He would be an “enemy of the state.” The Herodians believed that their question was one that Jesus could not answer without trapping Himself. But Jesus never discussed taxation. His is a spiritual kingdom and not a worldly one and so His answer reflected this and shut the Herodians down for good.
Verses 23-28 The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, 24 Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 25 Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: 26 Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. 27 And last of all the woman died also. 28 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
The Sadducees were the other major religious group in Israel at the time of Jesus’ ministry. They denied the resurrection of the body, the immortality of the soul and the existence of spirits/angels. In other words, they believed that what they had and experienced on Earth was all that there was. Their beliefs and teachings were contrary to the Old Testament teachings, the Word of God. So of course, in order to try and trick Jesus who was/is the Word, they asked a question about the resurrection, something that they did not believe in. Notice they were familiar with Moses’ writings as they knew about a brother being required to take a deceased brother’s wife in lawful marriage to raise up children in the brother’s name.
Verses 29-30 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
Jesus’ answer is amazing. Why? Because He did not need time to think of a response and answered them immediately, showing authority and absolute knowledge. Because He gently insulted these leaders that thought they were so knowledgeable and better educated than the multitude, but did so in a manner to which they could not be offended. And because He then in just a few words educated them about the resurrection: that it existed and that angels existed also. This was the beginning of the end of the Sadducees as a religious party in Israel.
Application: Why did God create male and female and the institution of marriage? To procreate and populate the Earth. Why “in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage”? Because Heaven is for spiritual beings and not fleshly and there will be no need to populate Heaven by birthing children. “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” 1 Corinthians 15:50 A physical person must be born again spiritually and shed the fleshly body through physical death in order to enter into Heaven. Angels were/are created beings or spirits and all the angels that exist have been created. They cannot reproduce because they are created spirits. Please retain this thought so that when you, the reader, are confronted with the misinformation that is going around in churches, internet sites and media sources that claims that the angels bred with human women back in the days recorded in the book of Genesis and that this union produced giants and serpent people, you can counter the information with Scriptural facts. The angels, good or fallen, are asexual and cannot reproduce themselves. Believers when they reach Heaven without their fleshly bodies will also not be able to create offspring. Everyone in Heaven is a child of the King, the LORD Jesus Christ.
Verses 31-32 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto 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.
This verse confirms that believers live on after physical death. God, who cannot lie, told Moses many times, as recorded in the book of Exodus, that He was the God of people who had died centuries before Moses had been born. Because the Sadducee’s religious doctrine rested on there not being any resurrection of the dead, Jesus destroyed their religious system in just two sentences.
Verses 33-36 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine. 34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Perhaps desperation caused the Pharisees to call in the lawyers. All their questions had done nothing to discredit Jesus in front of the multitude.
Verses 37-40 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Application: Jesus summed up all the law and all the statutes and the 10 commandments into two commandments. If a person loves God and loves others, that person will not lie, cheat, steal, covet, murder, disrespect, harm, slander, gossip about, charge usury to, commit adultery, move boundary markers, withhold help, fail to give generously, fail to help the poor, fail to meet the needs of the widow and orphan, and so forth when interacting with others. In other words, the person will not sin against God or against others.
Verses 41-46 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. 43 He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, 44 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? 45 If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? 46 And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. (Matthew 22)
Remember that the Jews were looking for a messiah that would be descended genetically from King David and who would rescue them from Roman rule and occupation. They were not looking for a spiritual kingdom or a Messiah that would rescue them from the wages of sin which is physical death and Hell following. So they could not understand how their messiah could be both a descendant of King David and the lord of King David at the same time. This was probably one of those verses in Scripture that was skipped over by these religious leaders as it didn’t fit the Pharisees’ doctrine and they did not understand its meaning or significance. But not to be too hard on the Pharisees, believers today also skip over verses that do not fit in with their church’s man-made doctrines and that they do not really understand. But as stated before, every word in Scripture is important and needs to be understood since these words were written by Jesus through His servants and were written for His people to understand.