Bible Commentaries
Matthew 22

Verse 2

Kingdom of heaven ; the Messiah’s reign in the gospel dispensation, and the lot in the judgmentday, both of those who receive and those who reject it. See Matthew 3:2 .

A marriage ; a feast at the marriage of his son. This represented the blessings of the gospel. The provisions of God for the happiness of men are most abundant and free, and his invitations to them to come and receive according to their wants, are most urgent and sincere.

Verse 3

His servants ; those ministers of his who were first sent to invite the Jews to embrace the Messiah.

Would not come ; representing their rejection of him and his salvation.

Verse 4

Other servants ; other ministers, whom he afterwards sent.

Verse 6

Entreated them spitefully-slew them ; this represents the treatment which the apostles and other ministers of the gospel received from the Jews.

Verse 7

Destroyed , those murderers ; representing the destruction of Jerusalem, as foretold by our Lord. Luke 21:6-24 . Though men have the power and the disposition, yet they have no right to reject the invitations of God, or to stay away from him and perish. It is a great dishonor to him, as well as a great wrong to themselves.

Verse 9

Highways ; representing the offering of the gospel to the Gentiles and people of all descriptions.

Verse 11

Wedding - garment ; it was customary for the man who made a wedding-feast, to provide wedding-garments for those whom he invited. If they would not come, or if they did come, but would not put on the wedding-garment, it was a great dishonor to the master of the feast. By this incident of the parable, our Lord shows that an outward acceptance of his gospel is not enough. We may join ourselves to the number of his visible followers; but if our souls have not the wedding-garment of faith, love, and holiness, we shall be cast out. A time is coming when God will examine into every man’s character, and when those who have trusted to their own righteousness, without submission to or acceptance of the righteousness of Christ, will, with hypocrites and the openly vicious, be cast into outer darkness, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Verse 12

Speechless ; knowing that he was inexcusable.

Verse 13

Outer darkness ; the darkness without the illuminated banqueting hall. The banqueting hall represents heaven with its joys; the outer darkness, hell with its anguish.

Verse 14

Called ; invited to receive the blessings of the gospel.

Chosen ; by accepting its provisions to enjoy its benefits. None would accept the gracious invitations of the gospel, and be for ever blessed, if God had not from the beginning chosen them to salvation, through the sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth. While those who reject Christ and are lost owe their destruction wholly to themselves, those who are saved are indebted for salvation to the riches of grace.

Verse 16

Herodians ; they held that it was lawful to pay tribute to Cesar, or to the Romans, who had conquered and governed Judea. The Pharisees held that it was not, but was contrary to the divine law. Deuteronomy 17:15 . Wicked men for evil purposes sometimes make great professions of respect to preachers of the gospel, and pretend to have an earnest desire to know the truth; yet when the truth is exhibited, as revealed by God, they reject it; thus showing that their real character was not that of sincere inquirers, but of objectors and hypocrites.

Verse 17

Tell us ; settle the question so much disputed among us.

Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cesar , or not? if he should say it was not lawful, they meant to accuse him to the civil authority as an enemy to the Romans; if he should say it was lawful, they meant to accuse him to the people as opposed to the law of God.

Verse 18

Perceived ; he saw their hearts, their motives, as plainly as he did their faces.

Verse 19

Tribute - money ; the Roman coin in which the civil taxes were paid.

Verse 21

Cesar’s ; this showed that as they were under his government, and enjoyed its protection, they ought to assist in supporting it; while, at the same time, they ought to obey God.

Verse 22

Marvelled ; they were astonished at his wisdom in escaping their snare. Neither could accuse him, for he had maintained the rights of the government and the rights of God.

Verse 23

No resurrection ; of the body after death. They denied any existence of the soul after death, and consequently any reunion of soul and body in a future resurrection.

Verse 24

Seed ; children, who should be called after his brother, that no family in Israel might become extinct.

Verse 28

Whose wife ; they thought the resurrection absurd, and that this difficulty would prove its absurdity. The difficulties which men bring forward, in order to show that doctrines revealed in the Bible are false, are often difficulties of their own making, and spring from ignorance of the Scriptures, not from these doctrines as God has revealed them.

Verse 29

The doctrines of the immortality of the soul and of the resurrection of the body were both taught in the Old Testament; as was also the obligation of men to love God with all the heart, and their neighbors as themselves. By Christ these truths were revealed with greater clearness, but the great requirements of both Testaments are substantially the same.

Verse 31

Toughing the resurrection ; in proof from the Bible of the resurrection.

Have ye not read , Exodus 3:6 ; Exodus 3:15 . The manner in which God spoke of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, showed they were still alive, in opposition to the doctrine of the Sadducees. And as Jehovah was then the God of their living souls, he would in due time raise their bodies incorruptible and immortal.

Verse 33

Astonished ; to witness his acquaintance with the scriptures, and the wisdom and justice of his application of them.

Verse 35

A lawyer ; an expounder and teacher of the divine law.

Verse 36

In the law ; the law of God.

Verse 37

Jesus said ; Deuteronomy 6:5 .

Verse 38

First ; in importance, as it requires the duties we owe to God, which are the foundation of all true goodness.

Verse 39

The second ; Leviticus 19:18 ; requiring the duties we owe to men.

Verse 40

These two ; they comprehend the substance of all that is required in the Old Testament scriptures.

Verse 42

The Bible, received as all given by inspiration of God, presents insuperable difficulties to those who reject the divinity of Christ, or consider him as possessing but one nature. They cannot rightly explain many things which, to those who embrace the truth, are perfectly plain.

Verse 43

In spirit ; speaking under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Psalms 110:1 .

Verse 44

Right hand ; as sharing with me the throne of heaven.

Thy footstool ; till thou set thy feet upon thine enemies, as utterly vanquished.

Verse 45

How ; how is Christ both David’s Lord and son?

Verse 46

No man was able ; the reason was, they did not rightly understand his character. If they had understood it, they could have answered. As man, he was David’s son; and as God, he was his Lord.