< Matthew 22 >

Jesus’ parable of the marriage feast well illustrates God’s purpose with his people, Israel, who made light of his call to the marriage feast of his Son, so the invitation was extended to everyone in the world. In due course the King took action against his recalcitrant people, and two specific events are represented: the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D.70 when the Jews’ city was burned up; and the return of Christ at the time of “the wedding feast” when judgment will be executed.

The Jewish rulers rejected Jesus’ teaching and attempted to trap him into making statements they could use to convict him. The Pharisees and Herodians tried a trick question concerning taxes, hoping to cause him to fall foul of either the Roman authorities or the Jews, but Jesus avoided the trap and taught them a valuable lesson on duty to God and man.

The Sadducees, the ruling Jewish sect who denied the resurrection, put to him an hypothetical case of a woman with seven husbands. In his answer Jesus showed the Sadducees’ true position before God and the reasons for their unbelief: they knew neither the scriptures nor the power of God. The same two causes prevent many people today from believing the resurrection: they do not know the word of God and they limit his power. Jesus cited evidence from the scriptures for the resurrection and he himself would be raised from the dead by God’s power to give all men the assurance that they too could be raised to immortality and become equal to the angels.

This verbal trouncing of both the Pharisees and the Sadducees, normally bitter rivals, led to their co-operation to effect Jesus’ death. A lawyer then put a further question to Jesus which prompted him to declare the two vital commandments which encompass all God’s law: love God with all our being, and love our neighbour as ourselves.

Following these challenges to Jesus, he asked the Pharisees concerning the prophecy in Psalm 110v.1Waiting for response for Matthew 22:1 which expressed a thousand years beforehand God’s words to Jesus when he went to heaven after his resurrection: “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool”. Here David called the Messiah who is his descendant “Lord”, a title which no Jewish father would use to address his son. The Pharisees were unable to explain this but the simple answer is that while Christ is the son of David through his mother he is nevertheless David’s Lord because he is also the Son of God.