Parable of the Wedding Feast
As was His custom, Jesus teaches using parables and gives such a parable about a wedding feast. There were those who were invited to the celebration, but were too preoccupied with their own lives that they devalued its great importance. These represent individuals in the Church who know better but don’t want obey. When the King sent them summons to the festivities, some murdered the messengers. These also represent the Israelite people who were already on the guest list to be invited to partake of the Kingdom of Heaven. They took it lightly and they were not worthy. As a result, the King sends for bad and good to come in to the wedding. Many gentiles were called. However, those weren’t willing to come cleanly and properly with the correct wedding garment to celebrate so they weren’t chosen to remain as a honored guests. They were instead thrown out.
The Pharisees Try to Entrap Jesus
Those who tried to trap Jesus are rebutted in truth by Jesus. But Jesus supernaturally knows their cunning scheme. They want to entrap Him by causing Him to say something against the governing authorities. But Jesus encourages us to give to the government what they require, but give to God all that He requires of us. We have an obligation to do what is required of the government we live in, but an even great obligation to give to God of ourselves what is due him, because we were created in His image.
Marriage and the Resurrection
The Sadducees took what the Old Testament said about providing an heir for a deceased relative out of context to support their doctrinal tradition about Resurrection. Even then people were grossly misappropriating the scriptures to support their opinions. But Jesus said their observations were not according to scripture nor were they interpreted through the power of God.
The Greatest Commandment
When the Pharisees saw that Jesus had shut the Sadducees down, they decided to take a turn at trying to test him by asking what the greatest of all the commandments was. Jesus summed all the Law and the Prophets up in one word: love. Loving God with every passion of the heart, all the energy of the being and with every thought within is the 1st and the 2nd is like it: love your neighbor the same way you’d love yourself.
Summary
- Do not neglect the call of Christ (1-13)
- Be prepared for your calling (1-13)
- Whose image is on your heart (20-22)
- Serve Christ with a willing heart (3, 6)
- There is an open place at the table of mercy (9)
- Understanding scripture is by the power of God (29)
- Don’t take light the calling of Christ (5)
