Year 3, Day 196: Matthew 22

Parable of the Wedding Feast

This is an incredible parable with several layers of meaning.  Quickly, let’s start off on the surface.  I believe that this parable of the wedding feast is a parable of the future.  It is describing the time when Christ comes back and calls His church to Him.  That is a time that is often compared to a wedding feast.

If this is the case, then it would seem that this parable is still looking into the future.  So let’s look at what is to happen here.  When the feast is ready – God is ready to call all people into account and bring the faithful into His eternal presence – the people for whom the banquet was made ready will not be ready.  In other words, when Christ returns, there will be Hebrew people who simply will not be ready.  So God will reject them and pull in those who are ready. 

Those would be the Gentiles – the poor beggars on the street who don’t deserve to be invited but find themselves invited through the grace and mercy of the Father.  The servants of God went out among the people, redeeming the “good” and the “bad.”  To be fair, how many of us really fall into the category of “good?”

However, let me go another step deeper into this parable.  Notice what the invited guests did when the invitation went out?  Sure, some take the servants of the Father and beat them or kill them.  But not all of them do this.  Some people simply go to their farms.  Some people simply go to work in their businesses.  Rejecting God is rejecting God.  There are violent ways to reject God – mistreating God’s people, for one.  But there are passive ways of rejecting God – not giving Him any time.  One doesn’t have to be antagonistic to God to reject Him.  To reject God, one simply just needs to not make time for Him in your life.

Then there is the matter of this fellow at the end of the parable who is tossed out.  Contextually speaking, the wedding host in those days would provide garments for the guests.  In this way, one’s status would become irrelevant as all would be dressed alike.  Therefore this is not a case of someone not having the right clothing.  This is the case of someone refusing to put on the clothing God offered.  We are told throughout the New Testament that we are to “put on Christ.”  We are told often and in various ways that we are crucified with Christ and it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us.  This is an issue of a person coming to God, but refusing to “put God on.”  This is a person who talks the talk, but never learns to walk the walk.

You see, grace is a gift.  None of the poor people deserved to be invited to the feast, but there they found themselves.  But grace is also a responsibility.  We receive grace and are then called to obey.  Those who believe obey; those who obey believe.  You cannot ever separate the gift from the responsibility without going against God’s will.

Taxes

The Pharisees then come to trap Jesus.  In fact, we should actually see this as a counter-attack.  Jesus had just given three parables that put the Hebrew people in their place.  Now the Pharisees come to catch Jesus and put Him in His place.  They attempt to do it by putting Jesus in a place of pitting the crowd against Rome.  If Jesus says to pay the taxes, He’ll be a supporter of Rome and lose favor with the crowd.  If Jesus says to not pay, then He’ll be an enemy to the emperor.

What is Jesus’ solution?  Jesus reminds us that the things of this world are merely that.  You can’t take money with you, as the old adage goes.  If something is of this world, then it is not worth getting upset about.  If the government wants to tax something that is not directly from God, do they not have that right?  {Yes, I do believe that everything is God’s by virtue of creation.  However, we human beings are the ones that assign levels of wealth within creation.}

Resurrection of the Dead

Now it is the Sadducees time to counter attack.  They come to Jesus with a convoluted story regarding the resurrection.  Here’s the sad truth about the Sadducees.  They didn’t believe in the resurrection.  They also didn’t believe that any book of the Bible except the Pentateuch (Genesis – Deuteronomy) was divinely inspired.  This is why Jesus says specifically to them that they know neither the power of God nor the scriptures.

What’s interesting about this is that Jesus answers them by basically saying that their focus is off.  We cannot ever approach heaven from the perspective of what life is like here on earth.  We cannot assume that because things work a certain way here that they will also work that way in heaven.  This is a created world; heaven is dwelling with God.  There may be some similar things, but we must assume that in God things will be different.

What I love about this passage, though, is the connections that Jesus makes.  When we deny the Word of God, we naturally end up at the wrong conclusion.  When we pick and choose what to believe, we end up at the wrong conclusion.  But that’s not the worst part.  I don’t mind being wrong.  What I don’t want to do is miss out on the power of God!  You see, when we ignore the Word of God, we not only come to the wrong conclusions but we don’t see what God is doing in our life.  That’s the real tragedy of this story.

Up, In, Out

As we get to Matthew 22:34-40, I see a familiar concept staring me in the face.  Jesus is asked about the two greatest commandments.  He says, “Love the Lord your God…”  That’s Jesus teaching about the importance of focusing on a relationship with God.  Lately, I’ve been calling those moments “Up” moments.  Moments where I find myself relating to God in His infinite love are “Up” moments.

But then Jesus says that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.  And who is our neighbor?  I’m reminded of the story of the Good Samaritan when I ask that question.  You see, our neighbor is our spiritual family.  Our neighbor is also that person to whom God is calling us in order that we might introduce them to God.  Our neighbor is also that person to whom God is calling us even though they are going to reject God.  Our neighbors are the world.

When we love our spiritual family, those are “In” moments.  In moments are the moments that we feel God drawing us close to one another in Christ.  When we love the world – whether they love us back or not – those are “Out” moments.  Out moments are when we act upon the love of God in the direction of the world.

In the Great Commandments we can see God pulling us in three directions.  We are to love God and be focused upwards on Him.  We are to love our spiritual neighbors and be focused inwardly to the body of Christ.  We are to love our non-spiritual neighbors and be focused outwardly to the world.

Son of David

The last passage is a very deep and confusing passage.  I’m going to try and summarize it here as nicely as I can.  Jesus asks the Pharisees who the Messiah is, and they respond, “The Son of David.”  But Jesus wants them to think bigger.  After all, when they use the term “Son of David” they are thinking along an earthly line.  They are thinking about an earthly king to rule the world.  The term Son of David was a Messianic term that focused on worldly accomplishments and worldly goals.

Jesus reminds the Pharisees that David calls the Messiah “Lord.”  The Messiah is not here to accomplish a worldly agenda.  The Messiah is here to accomplish a godly agenda.

This passage is about getting the Pharisees to think that there is more to the Messiah than subjugating the nations under the Jews.  The Messiah is about God’s agenda.   The Messiah is about bringing peace to the relationship between God and the whole world.

<><