The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
Matthew 22Again, Jesus spoke them in parables, saying, “The Empire of Heaven is like a human king, who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding banquet, but they were unwilling to come. Then he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Y’all tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Y’all come to the wedding feast!”’ But they paid no attention and went away, one to their farm, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
“The king was enraged! He sent his soldiers to destroy those murderers and burn down their city.
“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those who were invited weren’t worthy. So y’all go to main streets and invite anyone y’all find to the wedding banquet.’ Those servants went out into the streets and gathered together as many as they could find, both bad and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t dressed in wedding clothing. He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothing?’ The man was speechless. Then the king said to the deacons, ‘Y’all bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.’ For many are called, but few chosen.”
Giving Proper Tribute
Then the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might trap Jesus in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are truthful and that you teach the way of God in truth. You are not concerned about anyone because you don’t focus on the face of humans. Tell us then, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
But Jesus, perceiving their evil intentions, said, “Hypocrites! Why are y’all trying to trap me? Y’all show me the coin used for the tax.”
They brought him a denarius.
He asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
They said to him, “Caesar’s.”
Then he said to them, “So then y’all are to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
When they heard this, they marveled. So they left him and went away.
Marriage After Resurrection
On the same day the Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, came to him to ask a question. They said, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies without having any children, his brother must marry the wide and raise up offspring for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second, and the third, all the way to the seventh brother. Last of all, the woman died. Now then, in the resurrection whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had married her.”
But Jesus answered them, “Y’all are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t y’all read what God said to you*, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’+Exo 3:6 Hᴇ is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
When the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
The Greatest Commandment
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with a question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied to him, “‘You are to love the Lord [YHWH] your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’+Deut 6:5 This is the first and great commandment. The second is like it, ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’+Lev 19:18 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Jesus Explains the Son in the Psalms
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, “What do y’all think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”
They said to him, “The son of David.”
He said to them, “Then how does David, by the Spirit, call him ‘Lord’? He says,
‘The Lord [YHWH] said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’+Psa 110:1“If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?”
No one was able to answer him a word. And from that day forward, no one dared to ask him any more questions.