A king throws a wedding feast that nobody invited wants to attend, a coin with Caesar’s face on it settles a trap question in a single sentence, seven brothers and one widow expose the Sadducees’ whole theology as too small for the God they claim to serve, and a question about David’s own greater Son leaves every scheming questioner in the temple speechless at once.
A study in Matthew 22 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 24 min read
Bid To The Marriage
This site’s own study of Matthew 21 ended with the parable of the wicked husbandmen still ringing in the priests’ own ears. Jesus is not finished. A third parable follows immediately, aimed at the same audience.
“And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.”
Matthew 22:1-3
“The call to the feast is a king’s invitation. It proceeds from one who is vested with power to command. It confers high honor. Yet the honor is unappreciated. The king’s authority is despised. While the householder’s invitation was regarded with indifference, the king’s is met with insult and murder. They treated his servants with scorn, despitefully using them and slaying them.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 307
A second and more urgent invitation goes out, and the response only worsens — from indifference to open violence.
“Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.”
Matthew 22:4-6
Judgment falls on those who murdered the king’s messengers, and the invitation itself does not stop — it simply widens to reach people who were never on the original guest list at all.
“But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.”
Matthew 22:7-10
“The third call to the feast represents the giving of the gospel to the Gentiles. … The king’s servants who went out into the highways ‘gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good.’ It was a mixed company.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 309
An open invitation is still not the same thing as an automatic pass, and the parable’s own sting is saved for a guest already seated inside the hall.
“And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Matthew 22:11-14
“By the wedding garment in the parable is represented the pure, spotless character which Christ’s true followers will possess.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 310
“Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us meet to appear in God’s presence. This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 311
The garment was offered freely to every guest at the door; this man’s silence when asked about it is the whole verdict against him — he had nothing to say, because refusing the king’s own provision left him nothing to say.
Render Therefore Unto Caesar The Things Which Are Caesar’s
“Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?”
Matthew 22:15-17
“They did not send the old Pharisees whom Jesus had often met, but young men, who were ardent and zealous, and whom, they thought, Christ did not know. These were accompanied by certain of the Herodians, who were to hear Christ’s words, that they might testify against Him at His trial. The Pharisees and Herodians had been bitter enemies, but they were now one in enmity to Christ.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 601
The trap is a perfect pincer: say yes, and He alienates every patriot who resents Roman taxation; say no, and He can be reported to Rome as inciting rebellion. Jesus asks for the coin itself and lets it answer the question.
“But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Cæsar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”
Matthew 22:18-21
“Christ’s reply was no evasion, but a candid answer to the question. Holding in His hand the Roman coin, upon which were stamped the name and image of Caesar, He declared that since they were living under the protection of the Roman power, they should render to that power the support it claimed, so long as this did not conflict with a higher duty.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 602
“When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.”
Matthew 22:22
The coin bears Caesar’s image because it belongs to Caesar’s kingdom; every human being bears God’s own image, which settles, in the same breath, to whom the greater debt is owed.
God Is Not The God Of The Dead, But Of The Living
“The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.”
Matthew 22:23-28
The Sadducees reject the resurrection outright, and this question is designed to make belief in it look absurd — a woman with seven consecutive husbands, all reunited at once in eternity.
“The Sadducees reasoned that if the body is to be composed of the same particles of matter in its immortal as in its mortal state, then when raised from the dead it must have flesh and blood, and must resume in the eternal world the life interrupted on earth. In that case they concluded that earthly relationships would be resumed, husband and wife would be reunited, marriages consummated, and all things go on the same as before death, the frailties and passions of this life being perpetuated in the life beyond.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 605
Their whole scenario assumes resurrected life is simply mortal life resumed unchanged. Jesus corrects the premise before He ever answers the question they actually asked.
“Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.”
Matthew 22:29-33
“God counts the things that are not as though they were. He sees the end from the beginning, and beholds the result of His work as though it were now accomplished. The precious dead, from Adam down to the last saint who dies, will hear the voice of the Son of God, and will come forth from the grave to immortal life. God will be their God, and they shall be His people.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 606
God spoke of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as His own in the present tense, centuries after all three had died — proof, Jesus argues, that in God’s own reckoning they are not gone at all, only asleep and certain of waking.
Thou Shalt Love The Lord Thy God
“But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Matthew 22:34-36
“The first four of the Ten Commandments are summed up in the one great precept, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.’ The last six are included in the other, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ Both these commandments are an expression of the principle of love. The first cannot be kept and the second broken, nor can the second be kept while the first is broken.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 607
Rabbinic tradition had counted 613 separate commandments in the law, and arguments over which mattered most were common; Jesus does not pick a winner from the list so much as name the root every other commandment grows from.
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Matthew 22:37-40
“Since all the commandments are summed up in love to God and man, it follows that not one precept can be broken without violating this principle. Thus Christ taught His hearers that the law of God is not so many separate precepts, some of which are of great importance, while others are of small importance and may with impunity be ignored.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 607
Mark’s own account of this same conversation records the lawyer agreeing wholeheartedly, and Jesus telling him he was “not far from the kingdom of God” — the one entirely honest exchange in a chapter otherwise built from traps.
How Is He His Son
“While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David.”
Matthew 22:41-42
“This question was designed to test their belief concerning the Messiah,—to show whether they regarded Him simply as a man or as the Son of God. A chorus of voices answered, ‘The Son of David.’ This was the title which prophecy had given to the Messiah.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 608
The answer is not wrong, only incomplete, and Jesus’s own follow-up question exposes exactly how incomplete it is — quoting the very Psalm every Pharisee in the crowd would have recognized as David’s own words about the Messiah.
“He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.”
Matthew 22:43-46
A son does not outrank his own ancestor, yet David himself, writing under inspiration, calls this coming descendant “my Lord.” The only answer that resolves the riddle is the one none of them will yet say aloud: David’s greater Son is also David’s God. After four consecutive traps sprung and four consecutive failures, the questions finally stop.
