1744 | Matthew 22:5
5 “ But they paid no at ten tion and went off — one to his field , an other to his busi ness . 6 The rest seized his ser vants , mis treated them and killed them . 7 The king was en raged . He sent his army and de stroyed those mur der ers u and burned their city .
8 “ Then he said to his ser vants , ‘ The wed ding ban quet is ready , but those I in vited did not de serve to come . 9 So go to the street cor ners v and in vite to the ban quet any one you find .’ 10 So the ser vants went out into the streets and gath ered all the peo ple they could find , the bad as well as the good , w and the wed ding hall was filled with guests .
11 “ But when the king came in to see the guests , he no ticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes . 12 He asked , ‘ How did you get in here with out wed ding clothes , friend x ?’ The man was speechless .
13 “ Then the king told the at ten dants , ‘ Tie him hand and foot , and throw him out side , into the dark ness , where there will be weep ing and gnash ing of teeth .’ y
14 “ For many are in vited , but few are cho sen .” z
22:7 u Lk 19:27 22:9 v Eze 21:21 22:10 w Mt 13:47 , 48
22:12 x Mt 20:13 ; 26:50
22:13 y Mt 8:12 22:14 z Rev 17:14 22:16 a Mk 3:6 22:17 b Mt 17:25 22:21 c Ro 13:7 22:22 d Mk 12:12
22:23 e Ac 4:1 f Ac 23:8 ; 1Co 15:12
22:24 g Dt 25:5 , 6
Paying the Imperial Tax to Caesar
22:15-22pp — Mk 12:13-17 ; Lk 20:20-26
15 Then the Phar i sees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words . 16 They sent their dis ci ples to him along with the He ro di ans . a
“ Teacher ,” they said , “ we know that you are a man of in teg rity and that you teach the way of God in ac cor dance with the truth . You aren ’ t swayed by oth ers , be cause you pay no at ten tion to who they are . 17 Tell us then , what is your opin ion ? Is it right to pay the im pe rial tax a b to Cae sar or not ?”
18 But Jesus , know ing their evil in tent , said , “ You hyp o crites , why are you try ing to trap me ? 19 Show me the coin used for pay ing the tax .” They brought him a de nar ius , 20 and he asked them , “ Whose image is this ? And whose inscription ?” 21 “ Caesar ’ s ,” they replied . Then he said to them , “ So give back to Cae sar what is Cae sar ’ s , c and to God what is God ’ s .” 22 When they heard this , they were amazed . So they left him and went away . d
Marriage at the Resurrection
22:23-33pp — Mk 12:18-27 ; Lk 20:27-40
23 That same day the Sad du cees , e who say there is no res ur rec tion , f came to him with a question . 24 “ Teacher ,” they said , “ Mo ses told us that if a man dies with out hav ing chil dren , his brother must marry the widow and raise up off spring for him . g 25 Now there were seven broth ers among us . The first one mar ried and died , and since he had no chil dren , he left his wife to his brother . 26 The same thing hap pened to the sec ond and third brother , right on down to the sev enth . 27 Fi nally , the woman died . 28 Now then , at the resurrection , whose wife will she be of the seven , since all of them were mar ried to her ?”
a 17 A special tax levied on subject peoples , not on Roman citizens
these invitees prove at best extraordinarily rude and at worst murderous . By acting the way they do , they are essentially rejecting the king ’ s rule . 22:7 – 10 The insurrection must be squelched , and the king does so violently . But the party must go on , so he orders his servants to fill the wedding hall with whomever they can find , even with the riff-raff off the streets . Some have thought that these verses predict the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 , but it was primarily the temple that was burned then , not the entire city . More likely these verses anticipate the fire of final judgment ( cf ., e . g ., Amos 1:2,7,12 ; 2:2,5 ). 22:11 – 13 Perhaps the new guests are given time to go home and put on the proper clothes . Perhaps the king has the appropriate wedding attire to loan to those who cannot supply their own . At any rate , the speechless response of the man without the wedding garment suggests he knows he has no excuses . Not only overt rejection but also refusing to come to the banquet in the appropriate way excludes a person from the festivity . One must enter God ’ s kingdom on his terms rather than ours . 22:14 invited . Can also be “ called ,” but not in the sense Paul will later use it ( e . g ., Rom 8:29 – 30 ). Jesus ’ call here can obviously be rejected . chosen . In this context refers to those who accept and do so on God ’ s terms . 22:15 – 46 Three more groups of questioners try to trap Jesus in his words ( vv . 15 – 40 ), but he turns the tables on them ( vv . 41 – 46 ). The use of the Greek word for “ test / trap / tempt ” suggests a link with Satan . 22:15 – 22 Pharisees objected to paying taxes to Rome . Herodians , who were supporters of the line of Herods Rome had installed as client kings in Israel , supported paying them . However Jesus answered their question , one of these groups would be upset . The preface to their question ( v . 16 ) was simply an attempt to curry favor . Jews paid the imperial tax to Rome as well as their own tithes and temple tax . Jesus ’ reply “ amazed ” them ( v . 22 ) as he declared , “ So give back to Caesar what is Caesar ’ s , and to God what is God ’ s ” ( v . 21 ). While some think that Jesus was prohibiting any form of tribute to the state because ultimately nothing belonged to the emperor but everything belongs to God , this would have meant he sided entirely with the Pharisees . More probably , Jesus was endorsing support of the state as part of obedience to God ( cf .
Rom 13:1 ). But if the two conflict , God ’ s will always supersedes the demands of human authorities ( Acts 5:29 ). 22:23 – 33 Sadducees were the one group of Jews who did not believe in bodily resurrection , just immortality of the soul , because they thought doctrine had to come from the law ( Genesis – Deuteronomy ). They mock the very concept of bodily resurrection with the extreme example of a woman who had seven husbands , all brothers , because none had fulfilled the intention of the levirate laws by which a childless widow would marry a brother of the deceased to raise up children and preserve the family line ( Deut 25:5 – 10 ). To whom would she be married in the age to come ? Jesus replies with two points : ( 1 ) The example is baseless because people will not be married in heaven . Presumably this renders sexual and family relationships obsolete because all God ’ s people will enjoy perfect fellowship with each other . ( 2 ) Support for resurrection from the dead comes from Exod 3:6,15 – 16 . If God in the time of Moses speaks of himself as the God of the patriarchs , they must be alive , because “ he is not the God of the dead but of the living ” ( Matt 22:31 ).