Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 -- John Karmelich

1. My title for Chapter 22 is, “the silence is deafening”.

a) That’s an old cliché that means the lack of a verbal response by a person or a group can say as much as if the person did verbally respond.

b) In Chapter 22 we have 5 stories. All five end with a “very loud silence” from the crowd.

i) The first is Jesus telling a parable about a wedding feast.

a) The purpose is to tell who is and who is not coming to heaven.

b) The purpose was to put-down the religious Jews and to show their lack of faith in Jesus will cost them their eternal salvation.

c) What is noticeable about this parable is a lack of response by the Pharisees.

d) At the end “their silence is deafening”.

ii) The next story is Jesus answering the question, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?

a) The Pharisees sent their disciples to try to trap Jesus into taking sides on a controversial debate.

b) When Jesus gave his answer, again “their silence is deafening”.

(1) The text has a very “loud” lack of a response to Jesus’ answer.

c) The Pharisees’ disciples didn’t comment any further after Jesus’ answer.

iii) The next story is about the Sadducees asking about the resurrection.

a) The Sadducees were a Jewish “denomination” that didn’t believe in the concept of the resurrection.

b) They were attempting to trap Jesus with their question.

c) Again, when Jesus gave his answer, again “their silence is deafening”.

iv) The next story is some Pharisees asking, “which is the greatest commandment?”

a) This may have been another attempt to trick Jesus as the Pharisees debated among themselves which is the greatest of all the bible commandments.

b) Again, the text has a very loud lack of response to Jesus’ answer.

v) The final story is Jesus asking the Pharisees about just who is the Messiah.

a) Let’s look at the last verse of this chapter, Verse 46:

b) “No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.”

c) One can see, in summary why I call this chapter, “The silence is deafening”.

i) In every case, you can see how Jesus is the final authority in a debate.

2. There are other lessons for us to pick up as well in this chapter:

a) One cannot “out debate Jesus”, or the word of God for that matter in proving Jesus is the promised Messiah.

i) The mistake we make is we try to use our own wits to defend Christianity as opposed to the bible itself. The internal evidence from the bible is enough to support Jesus as the Messiah. We don’t have to add anything to that.

ii) The reason people refuse to believe is because it means changing their lifestyle, and that is what they refuse to do.

b) Notice also when the crowd tries to pin Jesus in a debate question, Jesus “rises above” the debate itself and points out the underlying cause of the debate. We’ll cover that more through the chapter.

c) The first story in particular has more great lessons on just what is required for salvation.

i) We’ll take that one on more in a page or two.

d) Several of these stories also give us a few clues as to what life in heaven is like.

i) The first parable about the wedding banquet teaches us who is invited to heaven.

ii) The third story talks about lack-of-marriage in heaven and how we are “like angels”. We will discuss that point when we get there.

3. Chapter 22, Verse 1: Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:

a) Chapter 22 opens with a parable.

i) In the last part of Chapter 21, Jesus was addressing some Pharisees in the crowd along with his disciples.

ii) Chapter 21, verses 28-46 had two parables:

a) The parable of the two sons (one did what father wanted, other did not).

b) The parable of vineyard tenants who killed the vineyard owner’s son when that son came to collect the rent.

iii) Chapter 22 now opens with the 3^rd parable in this trilogy.

iv) In the first 2 parables, Jesus commented after each one how they are illustrations about salvation. Jesus was specifically addressing the Pharisees in the crowd who were trusting in their own religious works as opposed to their belief in Jesus.

v) In this parable, you will notice there is no follow-up comment by Jesus, nor by the Pharisees. It gets back to my “silence is deafening” comments.

b) Let’s summarize the parable before I dissect it and analyze it to death. J

i) The story is about a king who prepares a banquet for his son’s wedding.

ii) The king sends invitations to lots of people.

iii) All those people make excuses and refuse to come.

iv) When the king sends more messengers, those invitee’s kill the messengers.

v) The king then kills the invitee’s.

vi) The king, who wants people at the celebration, then gives the orders to invite anyone else willing to come. The newcomers then come to the wedding.
(Gee, after watching the first group get killed, I’d be there real quick. J)

vii) Finally, there is the story-within-the-story of one of the guests who wasn’t wearing “a wedding gown”. This person gets thrown out of the wedding banquet.
Jesus then compares that person to one who is going to hell.

4. Verse 2: "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.

a) The term “kingdom of heaven” has several meanings in the bible.

i) It can refer to those who are saved, here on earth.

ii) It can also refer to our next life in heaven.

iii) Either way, it is about the same group of people.

b) Near the end of the book of Revelation, there is the fact that there is going to be a wedding banquet for Jesus. We, as believers in the church, are the “bride” of Christ.

i) “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb (Jesus) has come, and his bride (us) has made herself ready.” (Rev. 19:7, NIV)

ii) “Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”” (Rev. 19:9a, NIV)

iii) My point is that this parable, here in Matthew, is about eternal salvation and the plans for us in heaven.

c) Religious Jews also understood that that the Jewish nation is referred to in the Old Testament as the “God’s bride” in the sense that even though they have been unfaithful many times, God is committed to Israel despite of her faults.

i) The book of Hosea teaches on the illustration how God loves Israel “like a bride”.

ii) “The LORD said to me (Hosea), “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes (the raisin cakes refers to other gods).” (Hosea 3:1, NIV)

iii) This is another reason why I take the view that God’s commitment to the nation of Israel is unconditional. Most Jews of that day did not see salvation as they refused to accept Jesus. There will come a day where God once again will turn his focus back on Israel due to that unconditional relationship with the nation.

5. Verse 3: He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

a) A custom of that time for a king’s banquet is to have a “double-invitation”.

i) First, the invitations are sent saying the king is going to have a banquet and give the rough time (as opposed to exact time) of the banquet.

ii) Next, comes the “second invitation” when the wedding announcers say, “Come on everyone, now is the time.

b) The last phrase of Verse 3 is one of the saddest in the chapter: “but they refused to come.”

i) It is hard for me to imagine anyone not wanting to go to a king’s banquet.

ii) Imagine an American president who you really hated.

a) You turn down an invitation to his party, because you can’t stand the king.

iii) The point is Jesus is “the king’s son”, and even though Jesus is legitimately the king’s son, the resentment by Pharisees of that fact means they wouldn’t come.

6. Verse 4: "Then 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.'

a) These two verses show the patience of God.

i) In the story, we have the king saying in effect, “Well, maybe they won’t come because my messengers said something to offend them. Just to make sure, I’ll send some more messengers and tell them the food is all ready.”

ii) God knows all things. God knows in people’s hearts that they refused the initiation. But out of God’s love, he is pleading with those who were invited to please come. God understands the consequences of eternal hell better than those who were invited.

b) This parable refers to the Nation of Israel.

i) One has to remember that because God “picked” the Nation of Israel to bring the Messiah into the world, they get the first invitation to the “wedding banquet”.

a) Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” (Romans 1:16, NIV)

ii) What if the Jewish nation accepted Jesus?

a) Would Jesus then set up his eternal kingdom at that point?

b) We don’t know the answer. We do know that God knows all things in advance, and knew they would reject Jesus. That was part of God’s “overall plan” to have people of all races as believers in Christ.

7. Verse 5: "But they paid no attention and went off--one to his field, another to his business.

a) The people invited to wedding were more interested in “their business” than the kings.

b) Nothing has changed much today. People are more interested in “making a buck” than going to church. Look today at the majority of the world (or a majority of Americans) who refuse to accept Jesus because they are “too busy going about their own business”.

8. Verse 6: The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.

a) I take the view the largest number of people in hell will be those who simply “ignored” Jesus and tried to be neutral. Those are the people in Verse 5.

b) Verse 6 represents another group: Those who actively opposed the Gospel message.

i) The group in Verse 5 “paid no attention.” The group in Verse 6 “killed them.”

ii) The majority of non-believers don’t make a big deal about it. They make statements like, “Well, your religion is good for you, but I have my own views” or something to that nature. Verse 6 is the vocal-atheist or the zealous cult-member that does his utmost to tell people that Jesus is not God.

c) Verse 6 also represents those who don’t want to hear the Gospel message.

i) They don’t want anyone to convict them of their sins, so they “kill the messenger”.

9. Verse 7: The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

a) Well, that’s not good. J

b) This verse implies that non-believers only get “so many chances” and that’s it.

i) How many “chances” they get is God’s decision and not ours.

ii) Our job is to be a witness to them and pray for them.

c) Remember that the people who refused to come were busy “doing their business”.

i) Here in Verse 7, the king burned their city.

ii) Stop and think of all the effort people do to “have more stuff”. They work so hard as to ignore God to get more stuff. Now the king is “burning their stuff”. This verse is another reminder of how futile material items are in comparison to a relationship with God.

a) I’m not saying we have to take a vow of poverty. We just have to have the proper perspective of life on this earth as compared to eternal rewards.

10. Verse 8: "Then he said to his servants, `The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' ¹⁰ So 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.

a) Notice in Verse 8 it says, “those I invited did not deserve to come.”

i) Jesus was speaking to people who spent their life studying the Old Testament.

ii) They did their best to obey the laws of God the best they could.

iii) Yet, the message is they don’t’ deserve to come.

iv) That’s the Gospel message. Your entrance into heaven is not based on how good you are, but on the question, “What have you done with my son Jesus?”

b) Verses 9-10 say in effect, “I’m the king and I’m having a party and a party needs guests. Go get anybody who’s willing to come. I don’t care what they are like as long as they are willing to come (notice the phrase “good and bad” in verse 10).

i) Remember that Matthew wrote this to a Jewish audience.

ii) Their view of heaven is that it is only for Jews or Jewish converts. Further, it is only for those Jews who obey God’s commandments.

iii) For Jesus to imply that “anyone” could come to heaven simply by accepting the kings (God’s ) invitation is a difficult concept to accept.

iv) Personally, I picture Matthew smiling as he wrote this quote. Remember that Matthew was Jewish, but was also a tax collector. He was despised as a traitor for his past life. He is getting reassured that despite his past, he is getting acceptance.

11. Verse 11: "But 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.

a) First of all, this is not a fashion comment. Jesus is not saying you don’t make it into the heaven based on your choice in clothing. (“I’m sorry, that belt does not go with those shoes. You can’t come in here.” J)

b) A wedding banquet of that time, especially one given by the king, required special wedding clothes. There is a garment-at-the-door waiting for you as you come in.

c) For someone to not where that garment, you are making the statement, “I’m here, but I don’t want to be here.” Another statement is, “Yes I’m here to check it out, but I don’t like the king, nor his son, so I’m not wearing the garment out of protest”.

d) A few verses back, we had those who refuse to come be killed. So in this parable, who does this not-dressed-properly person represent?

i) Most commentators argue that it represents false believers within the church. It represents those who come to church but don’t really have a heart for Jesus.

ii) It can refer to cult members, or false-teachers or simply anyone claiming to be a Christian, but denying the fundamental facts about God the Father and Jesus.

iii) In this parable, the person is “kicked out” of the wedding.

iv) Some people compare this to the church “kicking out” non-believers.

v) Other commentators compare this to God refusing to let someone in heaven just because he was “religious”.

vi) Either way, we are still discussing non-believers.

e) Going back to my opening theme, notice that when this not-dressed-properly person is questioned about it, “He is silent”.

i) When we approach God for the wrong reasons (i.e., trying to please him on our own efforts, there is nothing we can say in our defense.

ii) God is perfect by definition. A perfect God requires us to be perfect to spend eternity with Him. We become “perfect” by accepting Jesus as a perfect substitution on our behalf. To come to God any other way is to show our lack of perfection. Non-believers who are aware of Jesus will have no excuse for eternity.

a) Paul said, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
(Romans 1:20, NIV)

12. Verse 13: "Then 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.'

a) The term “weeping and gnashing of teeth” has already been used three times by Jesus previously in the Gospel of Matthew (ref.: 8:12, 13:42 and 13:50).

i) In each of those previous cases, Jesus was talking about eternal hell.

ii) My personal view of eternal hell is not a fire pit, but complete darkness. Imagine being deep in a large cave with no light. I think that eternal separation from God is what causes the weeping and the gnashing of teeth in pain.

13. Verse 14: "For many are invited, but few are chosen."

a) If you want a good balance between “pre-destiny and “free-will” there it is in Verse 14.

b) God gives us the free will to choose to be with him for eternity.

i) That is the “many are invited” aspect.

ii) Our salvation requires us, in our free will to choose to accept God’s free gift of salvation through Jesus.

c) God is perfect. A perfect God cannot learn anything or he wouldn’t be perfect. If he cannot learn, he must know all things. Therefore, God knows in advance who will choose to accept Jesus as their Savior. In that sense, all Christians are “chosen” by God. That is the “pre-destiny” aspect of Christianity.

d) There is an expression I always liked that applies here: “The river of truth runs between the banks of the two extremes”.

i) There are some who are obsessed with the free-will aspect of Christianity.

ii) There are some who are obsessed with the pre-destiny aspect of Christianity.

iii) Christianity requires both aspects, even though it is difficult to reconcile.

14. Verse 15: Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. ¹⁶ They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. (I’m stopping in the middle of Verse 16).

a) Notice the Pharisees didn’t go themselves. They sent their own disciples.

i) By this time, Jesus would recognize their faces. In order to trap Jesus, they had to send others Jesus would not recognize.

b) History is a little vague on who are the “Herodians”.

i) They were probably Jewish people who were pro-Roman Empire.

ii) Remember King Herod ruled over this territory, thus the name “Herodians”.

iii) Also remember that King Herod had John the Baptist killed. Herod’s territory did include the Galilee region, but not Jerusalem. That was Pilate’s territory.

c) The Pharisees hated Rome and wanted Israel’s independence. They hated Jesus so much they were willing to work with political enemies (The Herodians) in order to trap them.

i) Yassar Arafat is famous for the quote, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. It is amazing to think what people will do out of their hatred of Jesus.

15. Verse 16b: "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. ¹⁷ Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"

a) Notice how these guys tried “buttering up” Jesus before asking the question.

i) It is a quick reminder to us to not be so trusting to strangers who compliment us.

b) The Pharisees thought they got Jesus in a trap.

i) If Jesus says he is in favor of paying the taxes to Caesar (i.e., Roman Empire) than he would be against the Jewish independence.

ii) If Jesus says he is against paying the tax, the Pharisees could turn Jesus over to the Romans for being a traitor and someone wanting to overthrow Rome.

c) They asked this question in front of Jesus’ followers in order for him to answer publicly.

16. Verse 18: But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? ¹⁹ Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius, ²⁰ and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?" "Caesar's," they replied. Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

a) First of all, Jesus knew that their compliments were insincere and that they were trying to trap him. Jesus knew that they weren’t sincerely interested in His opinion, which is why Jesus called them hypocrites.

b) It is only after pointing out their sin that Jesus dealt with the question itself.

c) Jesus gave the answer “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.”