Jesus wanted this man to invite certain types of people to a feast because Jesus wanted God to reward them in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus sent his servants to call those who had been invited to this feast. He was talking about the Jews. He wanted the Jews to believe in him, but they rejected him. When he spoke about the king, Jesus was speaking about himself. He also wanted to say that the Jews did evil things to the apostles. When he spoke about those who were not invited, he was speaking about the Gentiles. The Gentiles believed in Jesus and would be rewarded. When Jesus spoke about the man not wearing wedding clothes, he was speaking about someone who wanted to be rewarded by God, but who rejected Jesus. Jesus will punish this man.
Jesus said that many people were called but few people were chosen. He wanted everyone to believe in him, but only a few people believed in him. Everyone could believe in him and be rewarded, but most people reject him.
Some scholars say the “resurrection of the just” is the first resurrection of two resurrections. That is, at the end of the world God will make the just people alive again. The second resurrection is when God will make everyone else alive again (see: Revelation 20:5-6). Other scholars say Jesus talked about only one resurrection here. That is, God will make all people alive again at the end of the world. However, God will judge the people who reject him (see: Acts 24:15).
The Jewish leaders tried to trap Jesus. That is, they tried to get Jesus to say something that would cause someone to be angry with him. They wanted Jesus to speak against the leader of the Roman Empire. They did this by asking Jesus about paying taxes to the ruler of the Roman Empire. The Jewish leaders asked Jesus about paying taxes. The Romans made the Jews pay taxes to them every year. The Jews had to pay the Romans to rule them. The Jews did not like having to pay this tax. The Jews would have been angry if Jesus said that the Jews should pay this tax to the Romans. The Romans would be angry if Jesus said that the Jews should not pay this tax to the Romans.
The things that belonged to Caesar were all things that allowed him to govern Rome. This included taxes that must be paid to his government. The coins, at that time, had the face of Caesar imprinted on them.
Scholars think Jesus was speaking about people’s hearts when he spoke about the things that belonged to God. That is, a person should live according to faith. They should love, worship, and obey God. God is the creator of everything. He is rules everything. Therefore, all things belong to God.
The Sadducees did not think that people would be resurrected. That is, they did not think people would go to heaven or hell when they died. They did not believe in many things taught in the Bible.
The Sadducees tried to trap Jesus by asking this question. They wanted Jesus to say something that would make people angry. They thought their question proved that no one would be resurrected.
When Jesus told the Sadducees they did not “know the scriptures or the power of God” he meant they had not understood the scriptures correctly. That is, they did not understand what the Bible taught about resurrection. They also did not understand God’s power to raise a person from the dead and give them a new body.
Jesus told the lawyer that the two greatest commandments were to love God and to love other people. That is, if a person loved God and people the way the Bible told them to, then they obeyed all of the Law of Moses.
Scholars think that when David said, “the Lord said to my Lord” he was speaking about the messiah whom God sent. In other words, David said, “God (Yahweh) said to my Lord (Messiah).” David said that Jesus is God. God will also make the messiah’s enemies his footstool. That is, one day God will defeat all of the messiah’s enemies.
Matthew wrote that people stopped asking Jesus questions. This was because they knew they could not trap Jesus by asking him questions because of the way Jesus answered them.
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