Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Home Page: Quantum Study Bible

Matthew 22

The Parable of the Wedding Feast

Matthew 22:¹ And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said:

Matthew 22:² “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son,

• Note: The king is God the Father. The marriage is for Jesus (the third person of the Godhead) the Son of the Father.

Matthew 22:³ and (the king) sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come.

• The servants are prophets, disciples, apostles and anyone who hears the word of God and does it.
• Those who were invited are the Jews to whom Jesus is now speaking.
• A wedding is the union of two backgrounds. In this parable it speaks of the union of God (spiritual) and the nation Israel (physical). (All Jews are invited)
• God was “espoused” to His Jewish wife in Exodus on Mt. Sinai with the agreement of the contract between Him and the Jews. The contract was the Ten Commandments. This is similar to Joseph being “espoused” to Mary. It is the promise of the marriage to come. However; the people are still considered a wife.

Matthew 22:⁴ Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.” ’

• God has provided everything for this wedding. It is free for the attendees.

Matthew 22:⁵ But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business.

• “they” are the Jews.
• What does it mean to make light of something? It means to ignore the seriousness and authority of the situation.
• Reference verse: Hebrews 2:3 how shall we escape if we neglect (make light of) so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,
  • Note: The Hebrew name of Jesus is “Yeshua”. Jesus is the Greek translation. Yeshua in Hebrew means “salvation”.
  • If Hebrews 2:3 were written in Hebrew it would say: “How shall we escape if we make light of so great a Yeshua (Jesus) (salvation)”

Matthew 22:⁶ And the rest (of those who were invited to the wedding) seized his servants, treated them spitefully (insolently), and killed them.

• The rest are the leaders who killed the prophets (like John the Baptist). They plotted to kill Lazarus, and they also plotted to kill Jesus (the Son of God) and accomplish it.
• The leaders include the Pharisees, the Scribes, the Herodians, the Chief Priests, the Sadducees, Herod the king, and the Elders.

Matthew 22:⁷ But when the king (the Father) heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

• Note: Jesus is telling them their future: Titus destroyed Jerusalem and burned up their city in 70AD, approximately 26 years after Jesus’ death. Not one stone was left upon another.
  • Reference Verse: Matthew 24:² And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

These Stones are Huge!

https://engediresourcecenter.com/ 

Matthew 22:⁸ Then he (the king) said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.

• The bride is the City of Jerusalem, loved by Jews and Christians.

Matthew 22:⁹ Therefore go into the highways (outside of Israel), and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’

• Those on the highways are the gentiles (non-Jews). Now, they will be invited.

Matthew 22:¹⁰ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

• These servants are the apostle Paul and those who became believers. Everyone was invited. Now the hall is filled! The guests are the participants of those who who accepted the invitation.

• The Jews rejected Jesus, but His kingdom will be filled with Gentiles (with Jewish exceptions). Yes, the Jews are still invited, but they are by and large still rejecting Jesus as their Messiah.

Matthew 22:¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment.

• A wedding garment is Linen, symbolic of righteousness.
• Reference verses:
  • Revelation 19:8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
  • Leviticus 16:4 He (the Priest) shall put the holy linen tunic and the linen trousers on his body; he shall be girded with a linen sash, and with the linen turban he shall be attired. These are holy garments. Therefore he shall wash his body in water, and put them on.

Matthew 22:¹² So he (the king) said to him (the interloper), ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.

• This is a description of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This man pretended to be righteous but his motives were evil, like many of the television evangelists and pastors. He tried to “sneak in”, but was revealed.
• Reference verse:
  • Matthew 7:21 [I Never Knew You] “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Matthew 22:¹³ Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

• Outer darkness is a place of no light. Since God is light, they are cast far away from God into a suffocating place of isolation.
• The weeping and gnashing of teeth is agony: A regret from which the person will never be able to recover.
• Reference verse
  • Isaiah 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”
• They should have accepted the invitation to the Wedding Feast.

Matthew 22:¹⁴ “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

• To be chosen is to “choose to be chosen”. It is accepting the invitation.

The Pharisees: Is It Lawful to Pay Taxes to Caesar?

Matthew 22:¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.

• The Pharisees are part of the leaders who plot to kill Jesus in the wedding parable of Matt 22:6.

• It is impossible to twist truth. Truth is, but lies must be invented. The Pharisees cannot twist the righteous tongue of Jesus, but they can invent lies.

Matthew 22:¹⁶ And they (the Pharisees) sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard (literally meaning is: look at the face of) the person of men.

• Note: The Herodians were those who believed Herod was the promised Messiah.

• Notice how they lie and flatter with their tongue.

• Reference Verse:
  • Matthew 15:⁸ ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.

Matthew 22:¹⁷ Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

• Uh-oh. If Jesus says no, they have reason to accuse Him. He will be arrested and killed by the Romans. But if Jesus says yes, then He is supporting the Romans whom the Jews hate.
• How will He respond?

Matthew 22:¹⁸ But Jesus perceived (knew) their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?

1. Note: the Hebrew meaning of the word “hypocrite” is “actor”. A person who pretends to be one thing when he is really another. That is, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. These hypocrites are the ones trying to sneak into the kingdom of heaven’s wedding as righteousness men while their intentions are evil. They are the self-righteous.
2. Jesus is the good shepherd. These leaders are worthless shepherds. They lead the sheep over a cliff. They are the spiritually blind leading the spiritually blind.

• Reference verses:
  
  • John 10:11 “I (Jesus) am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
  • Zechariah 11:16-17 I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in pieces.
    “Woe to the worthless shepherd, who leaves the flock!
    A sword shall be against his arm and against his right eye
    His arm shall completely wither, and his right eye shall be totally blinded.”
  • Matthew 15:14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”
    
• Sheep have a propensity for following a leader without thinking for themselves: They will even jump off cliffs.

 

Published July 8, 2005
Last Update January 13, 2015
450 Turkish Sheep Leap to Their Deaths

By | Associated Press

• ISTANBUL, Turkey – First one sheep jumped to its death.
  
  Then stunned Turkish shepherds, who had left the herd to graze while they had breakfast, watched as nearly 1,500 others followed, each leaping off the same cliff, Turkish media reported.
  
  In the end, 450 dead animals lay on top of one another in a billowy white pile, the Aksam newspaper said. Those who jumped later were saved as the pile got higher and the fall more cushioned, Aksam reported.
  
  “There’s nothing we can do. They’re all wasted,” Nevzat Bayhan, a member of one of 26 families whose sheep were grazing together in the herd, was quoted as saying by Aksam.
  
  The estimated loss to families in the town of Gevas, located in Van province in eastern Turkey, tops $100,000, a significant amount of money in a country where average GDP per head is around $2,700.
  
  “Every family had an average of 20 sheep,” Aksam quoted another villager, Abdullah Hazar as saying. “But now only a few families have sheep left. It’s going to be hard for us.”
  
  https://www.foxnews.com/story/450-turkish-sheep-leap-to-their-deaths

Back to the Pharisees and Jesus’ answer whether or not it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar:

Matthew 22:¹⁹ (Jesus tells them) Show Me the tax money.”

• Jesus is ready to turn the tables on these hypocrites and teach them a spiritual lesson; just like He taught them a lesson when He turned over their money changing tables in the temples. These money tables made the chief priests filthy rich. Their focus was on the money instead of God. Their money was being threatened so they plotted to kill Jesus with even more sin added to their dirty deeds, instead of just repenting.

So they (the Pharisees) brought Him a denarius.

Matthew 22:²⁰ And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”

Matthew 22:²¹ They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” (Tiberius Caesar).

And He said to them, “Render (pay) therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

• God doesn’t care about man’s money but the leaders do! In the kingdom of God, gold is nothing more than pavement for tarring the street. In the kingdom of God that which is valuable are the souls of the righteous. They are the precious gems in the building of God’s kingdom.

• Reference verse:
  Revelation 21:19-20 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.

Matthew 22:²² When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

• They left perplexed, and even more determined to trap Him.

The Sadducees: What About the Resurrection?

Matthew 22:²³ The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him,

• The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, the Scribes, the Chief Priests and Herod are all part of the leaders of the Jews who take part in Jesus’ demise.

• The Sadducees don’t believe that the dead are raised, but Jesus raised Lazerus from the dead. (They probably didn’t believe it but are furious that people are not only saying it is so, but are spreading the word about this amazing miracle and getting others to agree). Jesus is a threat to them as well as the rest of the leaders.

Matthew 22:²⁴ saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.

Matthew 22:²⁵ Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother.

Matthew 22:²⁶ Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh.

Matthew 22:²⁷ Last of all the woman died also.

Matthew 22:²⁸ Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.”

Matthew 22:²⁹ Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken (deceived), not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.

Which scriptures? Where?

1. Speculation…

1. Angels took the form of flesh (actual incarnation) to engender offspring with women, thus “Giants” came into being (Nephilim). … This theological position from Genesis 6 is common — that fallen angels had sex with humans to create a race of giants …
   1. If angels had unions with women, then they have the ability to do so.
   2. Therefore; in this case, angels would not necessarily be neutral beings.
   3. Then there may be another explanation for not marrying and not knowing the power of God.
2. The purpose of marriage:
   1. Companionship
   2. Protection
   3. Completion
   4. Pleasurable Production
3. In heaven is companionship, production, or completion necessary? The answer is an absolute no.
4. What about pleasurable production? If so, in heaven is it necessary to be married since none of the above matter?
5. On the other hand, there is also the power of God. Is marriage or even sex necessary for pleasure? I believe being in God’s presence is a pleasure far beyond anything man can image.

Matthew 22:³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.

Matthew 22:³¹ But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying,

Matthew 22:³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

• God told Moses His name is “I Am that I Am”.

Matthew 22:³³ And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

The Scribes: Which Is the First Commandment of All?

Matthew 22:³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

Matthew 22:³⁵ Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,

Matthew 22:³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

• Why is this question a test? What danger is there for answering this question?
• Regardless of which law he chooses to quote, He will be minimizing the other laws. But there is one law that covers all the other laws: the first and great commandment. Without it, the second law cannot be accomplished. Without the first and second law, all the other laws fail also.

Matthew 22:³⁷ Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

Matthew 22:³⁸ This is the first and great commandment.

Matthew 22:³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Matthew 22:⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

• The two great commandments represent two arms of a man. The right arm is to love God. The left arm is to love men.

• Each arm has a hand with five fingers. These five fingers from each hand pattern the Ten Commandments. The first five commandments are about loving God. The last five are about loving men.

The Ten Commandment cannot save, or keep a person saved. They are the perfect vision of relationships with one’s Creator and fellow man.  These Laws convict a man of his imperfections.

Jesus: How Can David Call His Descendant Lord?

Matthew 22:⁴¹ While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,

• Now Jesus is asking the questions…

Matthew 22:⁴² saying, “What do you think about the Christ (the promised Messiah who would save the Jewish nation)? Whose Son is He?”

They said to Him, “The Son of David.”

• This is physically the right answer, but spiritually the wrong answer. Once again, they are focusing on the physical and not on the spiritual.

Matthew 22:⁴³ He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:

Matthew 22:⁴⁴

‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool” ’? (Psalm 110:⁴⁴)

• Acts 2:²⁵ For David says concerning Him:‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face,For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.

Matthew 22:⁴⁵ If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?”

• They do not recognize that Jesus is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. The Messiah in Greek is called the “Christ”.
• Jesus is trying to make the point, that it is He who is the Messiah.
  • Jesus is both the Creator and the Messiah in the flesh. He existed before David as the Creator and the Son of David in the flesh.

In the above verse, the Father God is speaking to His Son, both looking into the future when Jesus will become man in the flesh and one day reign on earth during the millennium. See timeline below ▼.

From the beginning, Jesus is the Creator God, Jesus was crucified and risen from the dead in 31 AD. Jesus sat down at the RH side of the Father (Acts 2:33) Jesus will return and reign for 1,000 years on earth during the Millennium. Jesus is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega.

Matthew 22:⁴⁶ And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.

What is the overview of Jesus’ mission?

1. Jesus rode into Jerusalem the same day the Passover lamb was chosen to sacrifice in order to atone for the sins of the nation.
2. For the next three days, in the temple, the priests check the Passover lamb to make sure it doesn’t have a spot or blemish. Also in the temple, Jesus is teaching while the Pharisees are checking Jesus’ words for a spot or a blemish that may conflict with the Word of God. With Jesus, there is no spot or blemish, but like the Passover lamb, they are plotting to kill him.
3. Jesus is hung on the cross the exact same day the Passover lamb is killed.

There is no accident in the timing. John the Baptizer called out “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus is the Passover lamb of the Old Testament predestined from creation to die on the cross and rise again to atone for man’s sins.

What does that say about the Jewish feasts that haven’t yet been fulfilled and what do they mean?