Daily Bible Reading (Tuesday, January 30th)

16

Matthew 22 (ESV)

 

The Parable of the Wedding Feast

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants[a] to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Paying Taxes to Caesar

15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. 16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.[b] 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.[c] 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” 22 When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.

Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

23 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”

29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

The Great Commandment

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Whose Son Is the Christ?

41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
    until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Footnotes:

  1. Matthew 22:3 Or bondservants; also verses 46810
  2. Matthew 22:16 Greek for you do not look at people's faces
  3. Matthew 22:19 denarius was a day's wage for a laborer

16 Comments

The great commandment is the backbone of our spiritual service and worship of God. For years I heard this and the emphasis was always only on the love of neighbor. And that almost always was understood to be just general kindness and equity.

But the 1st is often as difficult as the second, and absolutely impossible for the unconverted man. To love the Lord with all your heart, we strive to "comprehend with all the saints the height and depth" of God's love for us just so that we might express some fraction back to Him. I doubt that anyone can say they love God as he ought to be loved. The Luke account includes an additional modifier "love the Lord with all your... strength." Because every day is a day to strive for the love of God and Neighbor. If it was achievable to love God sufficiently then we could just move on to neighbor like the fella who then asked, "who is my neighbor?".

Love of neighbor is not the lesser half of the command, but I pray we would be increasing in love and knowledge of God in obedience to the great commandment.

Verse 29: You know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. It's easy for us to shake our heads at the Sadducees and their gross misunderstandings. But I wonder how many of our struggles come about because we fail to know (and I mean fully experience, not just possessing intellectual information) the Scriptures nor the power of God. May we be quick and thorough in applying God's truth to our lives, and totally confident in His power at work in our lives.

“.The Lord said to my Lord.....”. This portion of verse 44 is wonderful! I love reading that!

I agree with many, Christ's patience and condescension is amazing, how grateful I am that he loves us and wants us with Him for eternity!

In parallel, I happened to be reading in Mark the same storyline. In Mark 12:12 he states that the Pharasies, Sadducees, and scribes understood these parables. Their hearts chose to ignore even after Jesus explains one in Matthew 21 to them. It amazes me how Jesus knew this would happen and yet had the patience to endure their unbelief for the larger plan of the Father at hand. Pastor Blakely, I like how you pointed out how Jesus uses questions. That causes me to rethink how I share the gospel. Instead of just supplying answers, asking questions instead. Spurring unbelievers to question and seek answers.

Continuing to speak to the Pharisees, Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is like a wedding feast: the religious leaders were invited to the kingdom by the king, but treated the king and his followers with indifference, contempt, and persecution, and so the king would send troops to burn their city and kill them. In their place, anyone the servants could find was invited to the wedding feast, but only those clothed in righteous garments could enter. (--This is an amazing teaching and fits exactly with what happened historically.)

Knowing that Jesus was speaking against them, the Pharisees plotted to entangle Jesus in his words with questions about taxes, the resurrection, the law, but failed and are stumped themselves with the identity of the Christ.

“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” It is interesting to note how often the Lord asked questions to force people to think about the truth. This question is the most important, "Who is Christ?" That's a question we could ask people as well. Jesus is both David's son and his Lord. That points to the incarnation. The Son of God took on flesh and became a man so that men could become sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. I am thankful today for Christ's sacrifice on my behalf and I pray He will be honored in my life today.

Verse 14 puts an exclamation point on the doctrine of election. In verses 15 through the end of the chapter, I see Jesus allowing Himself to be tested in every way possible—this is divine patience of an intimate scale.

As the Pharisees and the Sadducees demonstrate in this chapter, unbelievers can come up with a multitude of things to distract from the main thing. Jesus demonstrates how we should "destroy arguments and every lofty opinion" as instructed in 2 Corinthians 10. Go to the Word. We don't need to engage in foolish debates using our own ideas or strategies, but by bringing the truth to them and letting the power of God's word work on their hearts.

Throughout the whole chapter different people are trying to stump Jesus and catch Him in His words. Jesus answers them all with other-worldly wisdom but gets to the heart of the matter in V.29 when He says to the Sadducees “You know neither the scriptures nor the power of God”. Jesus recognized that these were people who’s main problem was not a lack of knowledge that he would solve by answering their question but a separation from God and His power. Despite this, Jesus still answers each one of them so perfectly that everybody is scared to ask Him any more questions. Lord, Your wisdom is so high and above the wisdom of man, please remind us of the greatness of Your wisdom today as we hear so many around us in the world doubting God. And give us the boldness to know that in the gospel and the scriptures we have something with which the world cannot measure up to in their philosophies and ideas.

Ok, Matthew 22 verses 36-40 sums up the discourse concerning the commandments in the Law from God.

As I've said before, he is the most patient person I've ever known Sarah.

Did you hear the question? What is the greatest commandment? I must remind myself that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind. Everything else flows from this. Jesus will not tolerate anything in my life that competes for His affection. I thank God for the Holy Spirit who can help me to love God as He deserves and commands.

I am struck by Christ's unending patience in this passage. Here these men who know who He is keep rejecting Him by trying to ensnare Him, the Lord of creation. Yet, Christ remains patient with them! I think this highlights how patient He is with us... Praise the Lord! If it weren't for His patience I wouldn't be here today.

Jesus is so wise. As I continue to read through Matthew I’m struck with how quickly and intentionally he is able to answer every question fired at him. This is convicting because I recognize my need for knowledge and dependence on the Lord when asked tough questions! God, thank you for calling me into your kingdom; give me the words to speak when I am asked challenging or uncomfortable questions. Thank you for your example on earth and your word!

Good morning. I love Matthew 22. So those who are called and invited to come to the wedding feast paid no attention. Verses 5 and 6 is despicable. Verse 7 is vengeful, and rightly so. Verse 8 is unfortunate. Verses 9 and 10 was very inviting. However, verses 11 to 13 is very sad. The first time I read those verses sometime ago I felt sorry for the man. And then there’s verse 14, sad but true. I just love verses 41-46. Thank you Lord for revealing Your Son Jesus Christ. Holy, holy, Holy Spirit come!

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