Matthew 22

The parable of the banquet is an interesting one. The king is God. He is inviting everyone to a wedding banquet for His Son (Jesus). He initially invited Israel, but they rejected Him, so He invited the gentiles instead and sent His troops to destroy all who reject Him. At the wedding He saw a man not wearing wedding clothes and cast him out into the outer darkness.

The last part might be a bit hard to understand. Back in those days the host would usually provide wedding garments for the guests to wear. Not everyone had a closet full of clothes, let alone suits and dresses, so the host provided the clothes for the guests to wear at the party. Refusing to wear the clothes provided by the host was an insult to the host.

The man attending the wedding but not wearing the wedding clothes represents a person who acts like a Christian, but does not actually have faith in Jesus. He is at the wedding but does not actually honor the host.

The parable of the taxes is a great representation of performing your earthly duties and also honoring God. Keeping the two things in their proper place will help you avoid stumbling blocks.

The Sadduccees tried to trap Jesus in a parable of thier own. They were the most legalistic sect of the Jews, and didn't believe in anything spiritual. Their power and influence was primarily political in nature. Jesus corrected their misunderstanding of the resurrection, saying that people will not get married, but then He addressed the more important issue for them, that they didn't believe in the resurrection, which shows the hypocrisy of their question since they were trying to trap Jesus in a question which they themselves did not believe the premise of.

The Pharisees should have been pleased that Jesus silenced the Sadduccees by correcting them about the resurrection, but instead of asking Him to go further into that teaching, they flipped the conversation back into the Sadduccees court by asking Jesus about the law. Jesus's answer is one that we should all follow - to love God with all we are, and love each other as we love ourselves.

Then Jesus asked a question of His own. Who's son is the Messiah? The correct answer is God's but the Pharisees answered David's. Jesus corrected them by pointing out that even David called the Messiah Lord.