Jesus continues speaking to the religious leaders in parables. As the Word of God in the flesh (John 1), He is acting as the sword that divides the sheep and the goats. He is the stone the builders rejected, and His words will never be a snare to those who believe Him; but His words will always trap those who don’t believe Him. In fact, by the end of this chapter, Jesus will have confounded all the groups of religious leaders, leaving them befuddled and without any further hope of trapping Jesus in His words (v15). Let’s take a look:
1) V1-14 – 1Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. 4Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ 5But they paid no attention and went off – one to his field, another to his business. 6The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. 13Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Jesus had just completed 2 parables in Matthew 21 that explained His authority and taught the religious leaders that they were failing in their task to shepherd the flock of God by denying the identity of Jesus, that he is in fact the Christ who was foretold to come. And here He adds another parable, the story of the king and the wedding banquet. One commentator notes, “A lot of modern commentators think that this parable and the one in Luke 14:16-24 are two separate tellings of the same tradition. Of course, Jesus Himself could have used the same, or similar parables at different times in His full teaching ministry; but these commentators usually mean that Jesus told the parable once, and the Gospels re-used it with changes. The differences between Matthew and Luke are significant though. In Luke the story starts with ‘a certain man,’ but here it is the King. In Luke it is a great supper, but here it is a wedding banquet. In Luke there is one invitation, but here there are two. In Luke the invited guests make excuses, but here they refuse and turn violent. In Luke the invited guests are passed by, but here they are destroyed. These are major differences. Each passage fits its context very well, and so if one were to conclude that it was originally one story, there would have to have been significant editing to make the parable work in the contexts. Matthew’s parable is harsher than Luke’s, but then it comes later in Jesus ministry in Matthew, at a time when He was facing severe opposition from the Jewish leaders. It is most likely that this parable was a separate story, not a re-telling of the one in Luke, although in some ways the two are similar.”
The king here is God the Father, and the king’s son, of course, is Jesus. The wedding banquet is like the coronation party, the celebration of the arrival of the Kingdom of God. The bridegroom has arrived for His bride! The servants of God, the prophets, announced this coming for centuries leading up to it, and now that it’s here, the special invitees, disinterested, refuse to come. More servants are sent to invite the guests, yet they don’t even pay attention, choosing rather to tend to their own business. Some of those who were invited to the wedding banquet (to enter the Kingdom of God) went so far as to mistreat and kill those who were inviting them to come! As you would expect, v7 informs, “The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” Righteous indignation – wrath – is justified for this rebellious non-action of these people! To refuse the king is to invite death.
So the king still has a party set up, but no worthy guests to welcome. Such is the case for the Kingdom of God; there are none worthy to enter. So the king has his servants “go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone [they] find” (v9), foreshadowing the open door to the Gentiles. This is the gospel: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. In v10, we read, “The wedding hall was filled with guests…both good and bad.” Behavior can’t get you in or keep you out of the king’s party. Will you come in when invited?
So far, this is what we who have experienced the grace of God in salvation through faith in Christ would expect; but the surprise comes in v11-14. The king comes fashionably late to his own party “to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.” So coming into the party requires certain attire, which is given to those who are invited upon their acceptance of the invitation. “No shirt, no shoes, no service” is a sign we might have seen on retail stores and restaurants around town, and that’s what’s going on here. This man was unprepared; we could say that he had not truly repented and believed. So behavior isn’t the issue; rather, heart preparation is what Jesus is getting at with this man in the story.
When the king asked how the man, whom he ironically addressed as “friend,” entered the party without proper attire, he was speechless, revealing his guilt. The king rightly had him bound and thrown “outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (v13). Why would the king, who is so gracious to welcome the good and the bad, inviting anybody his servants could find, send this man out, effectively into hell, just for lacking proper apparel? Jesus reveals the answer in v14, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” He explains in a little more detail in John 10, when He speaks of entering the sheep pen by the gate. God is gracious to all, but to receive the grace of God, you must come to Him through the Christ. Because we have no righteousness of our own (even our good deeds are filthy rags to God), we must wear the provided garment, the righteousness of Christ. Many are invited (the call of the gospel goes out to all kinds of people), but only those who are chosen come to Christ. The apostle Paul explains it this way, saying, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
One commentator says, “The matter of the wedding garment is instructive. It would be a gross insult to the king to refuse to wear the garment provided to the guests. The man who was caught wearing his old clothing learned what an offense it was as he was removed from the celebration. This was Jesus’ way of teaching the inadequacy of self-righteousness. From the very beginning, God has provided a ‘covering’ for our sin. Adam and Eve tried to cover their shame, but they found their fig leaves to be woefully scant. God took away their handmade clothes and replaced them with skins of (sacrificed) animals (Genesis 3:7, 21). In the book of Revelation, we see those in heaven wearing ‘white robes’ (Revelation 7:9), and we learn that the whiteness of the robes is due to their being washed in the blood of the Lamb (verse 14). We trust in God’s righteousness, not our own (Philippians 3:9). Just as the king provided wedding garments for His guests, God provides salvation for mankind. Our wedding garment is the righteousness of Christ, and unless we have it, we will miss the wedding feast. When the religions of the world are stripped down to their basic tenets, we either find man working his way toward God, or we find the cross of Christ. The cross is the only way to salvation (John 14:6).”
So it appears that this man in the parable was invited with the outward call but never with the inward call, and therefore not counted among the chosen, so the fact that he showed up is interesting. Calvin says, “God finds nothing in us but wretchedness, and nakedness, and abominable filth, but adorns us with magnificent attire [Ezekiel 16:6]. We know also, that there is no other way in which we are formed anew after the image of God, but by putting on Christ (Romans 13:14; Galatians 3:27). It is not, therefore, the declaration of Christ, that the sentence of casting them into outer darkness will be executed on wretched men who did not bring a costly garment taken from their own wardrobe, but on those who shall be found in their pollution, when God shall come to make a scrutiny of his guests.” This man represents the hypocrites among us, those who will say to Jesus, “Lord, Lord,” and those to whom Jesus will reply, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” He also represents the religious leaders, just as much as those who refused their invitation. They think they are welcome at the party, but they reject the wedding attire that the king provides, and that may very well be worse than not coming at all. As Calvin concludes, “The external profession of faith is not a sufficient proof that God will acknowledge as His people all who appear to have accepted of His invitation,” for we must do away with sinful behavior (2 Timothy 2:19).
2) V15-22 – 15Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap Him in His words. 16They sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know You are a Man of integrity and that You teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because You pay no attention to who they are. 17Tell us then, what is Your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 18But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap Me? 19Show Me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought Him a denarius, 20and He asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” 21“Caesar’s,” they replied. Then He said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” 22When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left Him and went away.
The Pharisees understood what Jesus was saying, and so they wanted to fight fire with fire, laying “plans to trap Him in His words” (v15), just as He was using words to humble them. Strangely, they unite with the Herodians here in an attempt to confound Jesus. The Pharisees despised the kingship of Herod’s dynasty, because Herod and his successors constantly tried to appease the Roman government in the region. They would have fought hard against taxation by Caesar. The Herodians, on the other hand, strongly favored the lineage and reign of the Herods, even to the point of seeing Herod as Messiah, the political savior of the Jewish nation, and they favored the tax policies, knowing that Herod was strengthened through it. So these two opposing political parties within Jewish religious leadership unite in this effort to trap Jesus, coming to Him subtly and with flattery. But He knew “their evil intent” (v18) without difficulty and responded to their trip in perfect wisdom. J.I. Packer said, “Wisdom is, in fact, the practical side of moral goodness,” which Jesus exhibited perfectly, for out of heart, the mouth speaks, and Jesus’ words were always pure goodness.
Had Jesus told them not to pay taxes, the Herodians would have been angry and turned Him in to the government as a rebel traitor. Had Jesus told them to pay taxes, the Pharisees would have gained a leg up on Him with the majority of the people, who still listened to them as their leaders. But Jesus’ response, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s,” amazed everyone. The Pharisees hated Caesar, but Jesus commanded them to “Give to Caesar.” The Herodians had forgotten about God, and Jesus told them to “Give to God.” There was no trap on this day, and in disgrace, “they left Him and went away” (v22).
3) V23-33 – 23That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him with a question. 24“Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. 25Now 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. 26The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27Finally, the woman died. 28Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?” 29Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31But about the resurrection of the dead – have you not read what God said to you, 32‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ [Exodus 3:6]? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” 33When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.
The Sadducees take a turn at trying to trap Jesus, and we’re reminded in v23 that they don’t believe in the resurrection. This religious political party might be summed up by the Joel Osteen book title, Your Best Life Now. They operated with a carpe diem mentality that saw this life as all there is, and they were at odds with the Pharisees as a result. They pose a complex question to Jesus, pretty much mocking those who affirm resurrection, including Jesus (as made clear in v28). They want to show how ridiculous the doctrine of resurrection is, given obedience to the Law of Moses, by asking which of the 7 brothers who married a woman will be her husband in the end. And I can see the Jesus shake His head in an irritated manner, saying, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (v29).
The Sadducees were wrong, first, because they didn’t know the Bible well enough. Jesus will momentarily quote Exodus 3:6, in which God spoke to the very same Moses to whom they refer in their question, referring to Himself as the God of the living (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), thereby proving the truth of eternal life. They were also wrong, because they didn’t know the power of God, and with this statement, Jesus is referring to resurrection. The Sadducees were wrong in their questioning, because they didn’t believe in the resurrection to which they referred. From the perspective of an evolutionist, it might be like having a creationist come and ask about the origin of the first human. The question would be wrong, from their faulty perspective, because that’s not a concern to the evolutionary framework or worldview. Conversely, the Sadducees come from a faulty position to the One who knows all, and their question reveals their ignorance to the power of God. The doctrine of resurrection is truthful, and “at the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven” (v30).
In conclusion, the crowds were astonished at the logical teaching of Jesus, who pointed out to the Sadducees the error in their understanding of God’s word. If God is the God of men who died long ago, then they are still alive, because God is their God. If He was their God, then that language would convey the fact that they died and no longer live. But since God is their God, they must still live, even though they died.
4) V34-46 – 34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with this question: 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ [Deuteronomy 6:5]. 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ [Leviticus 19:18]. 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” 41While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42“What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” “The son of David,” they replied. 43He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls Him ‘Lord’? For he says, 44‘The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet’’[Psalm 110:1]. 45If then David calls Him ‘Lord,’ how can He be his son?” 46No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask Him any more questions.
Once again the Pharisees unite to test Jesus. One of the experts in the law, since Jesus seemed to have a mastery of it, asks Him which commandment is the greatest (v36). Jesus gave a two-part answer. The greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (v37; Deuteronomy 6:5). And the primary way you show that you are obeying that most important commandment is to likewise follow the second part of Jesus’ answer: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (v39; Leviticus 19:18). Jesus effectively sums up the entire Law and Prophets with these two commands (v40).
As they ponder His remarks, Jesus then goes on the offensive in v41-45, asking about the identity of the promised Messiah, the Christ who was and is to come. They acknowledge that He is to be “the Son of David” (v42), and without refuting their answer (since it is true that the Christ is the son of David), Jesus expands their mind to consider that the Christ must be more than merely the son of David. By referring to David’s own words in the most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament (Psalm 110:1), Jesus shows that the Christ must be David’s Lord, as well as his son, meaning that the Christ must be God. And no one had a response, because they realized what He was teaching. He had another level of understanding. He was out of their league, and they dared not test Him again. It was time to remove Him from their presence; Jesus, a threat to their leadership, would have to die.
Jesus passes every test, in every way. As both the son of David and Son of God, He is worthy to be praised and worshiped as Lord, God, Savior, and King.
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