Episode 245: The wedding garment

Matthew 22-23

The parable of the wedding banquet (and the psycho king)

22 ¹ Jesus told another parable, saying,

² The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a marriage banquet for his son.

³ He sent out his servants to invite people to the banquet, saying, ⁴ "Come to the marriage feast."

⁵ But they didn't want to go. One went to his farm, another to his store.

⁶ Others took the servants and killed them.

⁷ When the king heard what had happened, he was angry, and sent out his armies to kill them and burn their city.

⁸ Then the king then said to his servants,

The wedding is ready, but those I invited weren't worthy.

⁹ So go into the streets and invite everyone to the marriage banquet.

¹⁰ So the servants went out to the streets and gathered whoever they could find, both bad and good.

¹¹ When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man without a wedding garment.

¹² He said to the man,

Friend, why did you come here without a wedding garment?

But the man didn't answer.

¹³ Then the king said to his servants,

Tie him up, take him away, and cast him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

¹⁴ For many are called, but few are chosen.

Pay your taxes

¹⁵ The Pharisees met to devise a way to get Jesus to say something that would incriminate him.

¹⁶ They sent some of their disciples with the Herodians, saying, ¹⁷ "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?"

¹⁸ Jesus saw their wickedness, and said, ¹⁹ "Show me the money."

²⁰ He said to them, "Whose image and inscription are on the coin?"

²¹ They said, "Caesar's'".

Then Jesus said to them,

Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and give God the things that are God's.

There is no marriage in heaven

²³ Then the Sadducees, who don't believe in an afterlife, asked Jesus,

²⁴ Master, Moses said that if a man dies without children, his brother must marry his wife and raise children for him.

²⁵ Now what if there were seven brothers, and the first, after marrying, died without children. So his brother took his wife.

²⁶ Then the second brother died, and the third died without children, etc. to the seventh.

²⁷ And then the wife died.

²⁸ In the afterlife, which of the seven brothers will be her husband?

²⁹ Jesus said,

³⁰ In the afterlife, no one marries, but are like the angels in heaven.

³² God isn't the God of the dead, but of the living.

The greatest commandment

³⁵ One of the Pharisees, a lawyer, asked Jesus, "Master, what is the greatest commandment?"

³⁷ Jesus said,

Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment.

³⁹ And the second is like the first: Love your neighbor as yourself.

⁴⁰ These two commandments are the basis for all the laws and the prophets.

Jesus is not the son of David

⁴¹ When the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, "Whose son is Christ?"

⁴² They answered, "The son of David."

⁴³ Jesus said,

Why then did David call him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴ The Lord said to my Lord,

Sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool?

⁴⁵ If David called him Lord, how is he his son?

⁴⁶ No one could answer him, and no one asked him any questions after that.

Woe to scribes and Pharisees!

23 ¹ Then Jesus spoke to his disciples and to the crowd, saying

^2-3 Do as the scribes and Pharisees say, not as they do.

⁵ They wear large phylacteries and have fancy tassels on their robes.

⁷ The scribes and Pharisees love to be greeted in the markets with "Rabbi, Rabbi".

⁸ But none of you should be called Rabbi.

⁹ Don't call anyone on earth father. Your only father is in heaven.

¹⁰ And don't call anyone on earth master. Your only master is Christ.

¹¹ Whoever is greatest among you will be your servant.

¹² And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

¹³ Woe to you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites!

¹⁵ You travel all over land and sea to make one convert, then make him twice as worthy of hell as you are.

¹⁷ You blind fools!

²⁷ You are like whited tombs that appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are filled with dead people's bones and all unclean things.

³¹ You are the children of those who killed the prophets.

³³ You serpents, you generation of vipers, how will you escape the damnation of hell?

³⁴ I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes, and you crucify some of them, scourge them in your synagogues, and persecute them in the cities.

³⁵ You are guilty of all of the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias.

³⁶ All these things will come upon this generation.

³⁷ O Jerusalem, you kill the prophets, and stone those who are sent to you. How often I would have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you refused!

³⁸ Your house will be desolate.

³⁹You won't see me again until you say, "Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord."