◀ All Reading Plans / New Testament in a Year / Matthew 22:1-22 (New American Bible (Revised Edition))

Prev Day

February 3, 2016

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

February 2016
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29

Return to today's reading

New Testament in a Year

Read the New Testament from start to finish, from Matthew to Revelation.

Duration: 365 days

Matthew 22:1-22

Chapter 22

The Parable of the Wedding Feast.^[a] ¹^(A)Jesus again in reply spoke to them in parables, saying, ²“The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast^[b] for his son. ³^[c]He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. ⁴A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’ ⁵Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. ⁶^(B)The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. ⁷^[d]The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. ⁸Then he said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. ⁹Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ ¹⁰The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,^[e] and the hall was filled with guests. ¹¹^[f]But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. ¹²He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. ¹³^[g]^(C)Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ ¹⁴Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Paying Taxes to the Emperor.^[h] ¹⁵^(D)Then the Pharisees^[i] went off and plotted how they might entrap him in speech. ¹⁶They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians,^[j] saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status. ¹⁷^[k]Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” ¹⁸Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? ¹⁹^[l]Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin. ²⁰He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” ²¹^(E)They replied, “Caesar’s.”^[m] At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” ²²When they heard this they were amazed, and leaving him they went away.

The Question About the Resurrection.^[n]

Footnotes

22:1–14 This parable is from Q; see Lk 14:15–24. It has been given many allegorical traits by Matthew, e.g., the burning of the city of the guests who refused the invitation (Mt 22:7), which corresponds to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70. It has similarities with the preceding parable of the tenants: the sending of two groups of servants (Mt 22:3, 4), the murder of the servants (Mt 22:6), the punishment of the murderers (Mt 22:7), and the entrance of a new group into a privileged situation of which the others had proved themselves unworthy (Mt 22:8–10). The parable ends with a section that is peculiar to Matthew (Mt 22:11–14), which some take as a distinct parable. Matthew presents the kingdom in its double aspect, already present and something that can be entered here and now (Mt 22:1–10), and something that will be possessed only by those present members who can stand the scrutiny of the final judgment (Mt 22:11–14). The parable is not only a statement of God’s judgment on Israel but a warning to Matthew’s church.
22:2 Wedding feast: the Old Testament’s portrayal of final salvation under the image of a banquet (Is 25:6) is taken up also in Mt 8:11; cf. Lk 13:15.
22:3–4 Servants…other servants: probably Christian missionaries in both instances; cf. Mt 23:34.
22:7 See note on Mt 22:1–14.
22:10 Bad and good alike: cf. Mt 13:47.
22:11 A wedding garment: the repentance, change of heart and mind, that is the condition for entrance into the kingdom (Mt 3:2; 4:17) must be continued in a life of good deeds (Mt 7:21–23).
22:13 Wailing and grinding of teeth: the Christian who lacks the wedding garment of good deeds will suffer the same fate as those Jews who have rejected Jesus; see note on Mt 8:11–12.
22:15–22 The series of controversies between Jesus and the representatives of Judaism (see note on Mt 21:23–27) is resumed. As in the first (Mt 21:23–27), here and in the following disputes Matthew follows his Marcan source with few modifications.
22:15 The Pharisees: while Matthew retains the Marcan union of Pharisees and Herodians in this account, he clearly emphasizes the Pharisees’ part. They alone are mentioned here, and the Herodians are joined with them only in a prepositional phrase of Mt 22:16. Entrap him in speech: the question that they will pose is intended to force Jesus to take either a position contrary to that held by the majority of the people or one that will bring him into conflict with the Roman authorities.
22:16 Herodians: see note on Mk 3:6. They would favor payment of the tax; the Pharisees did not.
22:17 Is it lawful: the law to which they refer is the law of God.
22:19 They handed him the Roman coin: their readiness in producing the money implies their use of it and their acceptance of the financial advantages of the Roman administration in Palestine.
22:21 Caesar’s: the emperor Tiberius (A.D. 14–37). Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar: those who willingly use the coin that is Caesar’s should repay him in kind. The answer avoids taking sides in the question of the lawfulness of the tax. To God what belongs to God: Jesus raises the debate to a new level. Those who have hypocritically asked about tax in respect to its relation to the law of God should be concerned rather with repaying God with the good deeds that are his due; cf. Mt 21:41, 43.
22:23–33 Here Jesus’ opponents are the Sadducees, members of the powerful priestly party of his time; see note on Mt 3:7. Denying the resurrection of the dead, a teaching of relatively late origin in Judaism (cf. Dn 12:2), they appeal to a law of the Pentateuch (Dt 25:5–10) and present a case based on it that would make resurrection from the dead ridiculous (Mt 22:24–28). Jesus chides them for knowing neither the scriptures nor the power of God (Mt 22:29). His argument in respect to God’s power contradicts the notion, held even by many proponents as well as by opponents of the teaching, that the life of those raised from the dead would be essentially a continuation of the type of life they had had before death (Mt 22:30). His argument based on the scriptures (Mt 22:31–32) is of a sort that was accepted as valid among Jews of the time.

New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.