PASSION WEEK: Tuesday
Today we’ll look at some things Jesus said (probably on Tuesday) that only Matthew and Mark record.
PARABLE OF THE WEDDING FEAST
This parable appears only in Matthew’s Gospel. And that makes sense because Matthew is aiming primarily at a Jewish audience and tends to feature events, information, and sayings of Jesus that point to Him as the promised Jewish Messiah.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a wedding banquet, but the invited guests won’t come. Jesus is going to absolutely go off on the Pharisees about this in Matthew 23. For right now, one verse will suffice to show that Jesus is speaking of His own people, and in particular their leaders, when He speaks of invited guests who won’t come.
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”
Matthew 23:13 ESV
Jesus speaks of the meal. The fattened calves have been slaughtered and prepared. Even after Jesus has given His flesh as the sacrificial Lamb and provided Himself as the food for the feast, they still will not come at the preaching of the Apostles. When we get to Acts, we will see these same leaders throwing the Apostles in prison and killing some of the leaders of the early Church.
“while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.”
Matthew 22:6 ESV
The Medieval and Reformation-era churches tended to be very anti-Semitic. And that was quite wrong of them. But I’m concerned that today some believers tend to glorify the Jews, which likewise ought not be done. Jesus alone is worthy of praise and honor, not man, whether Jew or Gentile. It’s uncomfortable, but the fact is that the Jews rejected their Messiah and Jerusalem was destroyed for it. That’s what this bit in the parable is about:
“The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.”
Matthew 22:7 ESV
Remember back when the LORD warned through the prophets that He would send “His army” to destroy Jerusalem? His army turned out to be the Babylonians. Notice that Jesus says the king sent “his troops.” It’s VERY uncomfortable but Jesus is saying that the Roman Legion that destroyed Jerusalem and its temple in 70AD was “sent” by God Himself.
“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’”
Matthew 22:8-9 ESV
This verse sounds almost identical to what Paul said to the Jews in Antioch of Pisidia when they rejected the Gospel.
“And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, ‘It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.’”
Acts 13:46 ESV
“And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.”
Matthew 22:10 ESV
There were, and continue to be, “bad apples” in the Church. They think Church is a group you join or an event you attend. They have not actually been born into the Family of God through spiritual regeneration. They are not “clothed with the garments of salvation,” (Is. 61:10) or robed in the righteousness of Christ.
The wedding garment is not something that the guest makes or buys for himself. It is provided by the King. It is the father who provides the robe for the prodigal son when he returns home.
God says about Zion (the Heavenly City):
“Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy.”
Psalm 132:16 ESV
And the garment isn’t some external thing. The Lord IS the garment.
Paul used the language “put on Christ” in Romans 13:14 and Galatians 3:27. Sometimes he called this “the new man” as in Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10. Paul also described putting on Christ as “armor” in Romans 13:12, 1 Thessalonians 5:8, and most famously in Ephesians 6:11-17. The “Armor of God” doesn’t just mean that the armor belongs to God. God IS the armor. The armor OF GOD.
The saints who enter into the Kingdom are clothed in Christ Himself. It’s like Tony Stark being clothed in the Iron Man suit. It’s the suit that makes him Iron Man.
Paul also calls this clothing “armor of light,” Rom. 13:12. The Light of the world (Christ) is the armor. And you are IN Him if you are born again.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
If a person is not IN Christ, then he is not in a wedding garment. He is not clothed with salvation as a priest.
“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”
1 Corinthians 15:50 ESV
The only way to enter into the Kingdom is to be alive in Christ. Flesh and blood cannot go in. The perishable will not access it.
Now is the time to get your wedding garment/new man/armor on. Die to self. Trust in Jesus. Give yourself utterly to Him. Obey Him as LORD of your life, even when it hurts.
“The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.”
Revelation 3:5 ESV
THE GREAT COMMANDMENT
Yesterday we read in Luke about the wild question of the Sadducees about the woman who was (hypothetically) married to seven brothers.
“But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?””
Matthew 22:34-36 ESV
It’s like people lined up to have a go at arm-wrestling the champ or play chess against the guy who is beating all his opponents.
👳🏻♂️ Joe Pharisee: “Ha! I bet I can take him.”
Now, unless you have strong philosophical or theology-nerd tendencies, you may have trouble grasping why men would devote HOURS, nay, YEARS to discussing and writing about granular theological ideas like how many angels could occupy the space on the tip of a needle – which came to be satirized as “How many angels could dance on the head of a pin?” When I was in Bible college, and a theological discussion would get way down into the weeds, we would jokingly refer to it as “teasing out every strand of hair on the God-head.”
There were two main “schools” of Torah interpretation in the late 2nd Temple era: The House of Hillel and The House of Shammai. The House of Shammai was very strict and rigid in their interpretation while The House of Hillel was more lenient and gracious. The Rabbis Hillel and Shammai had lived a century before Jesus and there were some entertaining stories about them (probably a bit embellished) that are preserved in the Babylonian Talmud [Shabbat 30b-31a- The Patience of Hillel]
One of those stories in particular is similar to Jesus being asked about the greatest commandment. It goes like this:
On another occasion it happened that a certain heathen came before Shammai and said to him, “Make me a proselyte, on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.” Thereupon he repulsed him with the builder’s cubit which was in his hand.
When he went before Hillel, he converted him. He said to him, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it.”
Jesus sums up the whole Law in 2 commandments; both about love. The first is to love God. The second is to love your neighbor. The 10 Commandments are divided into 2 sections. The first 4 are concerning one’s relationship to God.
- No other gods before YHWH
- No graven images
- Not taking God’s name in vain
- Keeping the Sabbath holy
The remaining 6 commands have to do with one’s relationship to others.
5. Honor father and mother
6. Do not murder
7. Do not commit adultery
8. Do not steal
9. Do not lie
10. Do not covet
God first, neighbor second. They have to be in that order because love of neighbor flows out of love of God, and also the fear of God.
“On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:40 ESV
Hillel said that the whole Torah was not doing to your neighbor what was repulsive to you.
But the One Who gave Moses the Torah said it was loving God and loving your neighbor.
To The Reader 