Matthew 22:7
“But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.
(a) The king was enraged. This good king is patient, but he has his limits. Kill his messengers and you’ll make him angry. Scorn his son and there will be consequences (see Heb. 10:29–31). In both the old covenant and the new, God is revealed as a consuming fire (Deut. 4:24, Heb. 12:29). His fiery wrath is against his enemies and those things that harm his beloved children.
(b) His armies. The heavenly host or angels (Matt. 26:53, Luke 2:13).
(c) Destroyed those murderers. The wrath of the king refers to a coming day of wrath, when the angels will separate the righteous from the wicked (Matt. 13:39–40, Rom. 2:5).
This is not a picture of what God will do to sinners, for the king in the story is a friend of sinners. He invites them to his party and gives them good things. The wrath of God is not directed at sinners, but towards the ungodliness and unrighteousness of those who suppress the truth (Rom. 1:18). His wrath is for those who stubbornly oppose him, persecute his children and kill his messengers.
Jesus is engaging in nonlinear story-telling. He wants to finish with the feast, not the fire. He tells us how the king’s enemies will meet their end before circling back to the wedding banquet.
(d) Set their city on fire. The City of Man will be thoroughly destroyed.
God created man and entrusted us with the task of building a civilization. Tragically, sin corrupted that endeavor which is why manmade civilization, the “City of Man” or Babylon, is broken and corrupt. While people can be saved, the Satanic system that enslaves people is irredeemable. It will be replaced by a new civilization, the City of God, a.k.a., the Jerusalem that comes down from above (Gal. 4:26, 2 Pet. 3:13, Rev. 21:1–2). The heavenly city is the believer’s true home.
Some argue that Jesus was referring to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70. They interpret the Roman siege as God’s wrath visited upon the Jews for the murder of his Son. Such an interpretation is inconsistent with the gospel of grace and the testimony of Christ. How can Christ say “love your enemies” one minute and burn them the next? Jesus died for the Jews, they didn’t die for him.
The destroyed city is not Jerusalem, the Catholic Church, or America. It is the City of Man that stands opposed to Zion, the heavenly City of God (Heb. 13:14, Rev. 18:2). It is the fallen kingdoms of earth that defy the everlasting kingdom of God. The City of Man is Satan’s home from where he has exported untold misery and pain. In this city lies “the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth” (Rev. 18:24). This bloodstained town is the home of hurt and the seat of suffering. At the end of days the King of kings shall send his heavenly armies and burn that hellish city.
Further reading: “The City of Man”
(e) Fire. Jesus often spoke of fire in connection with Judgment Day (Matt. 5:22, 13:42, 50, 18:9, 25:41, Mark 9:43, Luke 17:29–30, John 15:6). He did not dread this fire but he looked forward to it knowing that it would spell the end of sin and usher in eternity (see entry for Luke 12:49).
Further reading: “The Grace Bible: The Parables of Jesus” – coming soon!
Matthew 22:19
“Show me the coin used for the poll-tax.” And they brought Him a denarius.
Show me… a denarius. Those who were trying to trap Jesus found themselves trapped. Why were these religious men carrying coins with the image of Caesar in the temple? Had they forgotten that the Ten Commandments forbade all graven images (Ex. 20:4)?
Matthew 22:20
And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”
Whose likeness. In other words, “Whose graven image are you holding there, you lawbreakers?”
Matthew 22:29
But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God.
Scriptures. In the New Testament, “Scripture” refers to the Hebrew Scriptures a.k.a. the Old Testament. The Jews placed enormous significance on the written words of Scripture – the law, the psalms and the prophets (e.g., Jos. 1:8, 8:31). This reliance on the written word was carried over into the New Testament by the Gospel writers (e.g., Matt. 2:5, Mark 1:2, Luke 3:4, John 6:31), Peter (Acts 1:20, 1 Pet. 1:16, 2:6), Stephen (Acts 7:42), James (Acts 15:15, Jas. 2:8, 23, 4:5) and Jesus himself (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10, 21:42, John 7:38, 10:34–35, 13:18). The devil also quoted scripture on occasion (Matt. 4:6). But no one quoted the old scriptures more than Paul (Acts 13:33, 23:5, Rom. 1:17, 3:4, 10, 4:17, 8:36, 9:13, 33, 10:15, 11:8, 26, 12:19, 14:11, 15:3, 9, 21, 1 Cor. 1:19, 31, 2:9, 3:19, 9:9–10, 10:7, 14:21, 15:45, 2 Cor. 8:15, 9:9, Gal. 3:10, 13, 4:22, 27, Heb. 10:7).
Matthew 22:35
One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him,
A lawyer was an expert in the Law of Moses. Mark refers to this lawyer as a scribe suggesting there was little difference between the two occupations (Mark 12:28).
Matthew 22:36
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
The Law refers to the law of Moses. See entry for The Law.
Matthew 22:37
And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’
(a) Love the Lord. Under the old law-keeping covenant, you were commanded to love the Lord your God with all your heart (Deut. 6:5, 10:12). The flow was from you to the Lord. But in the new covenant of grace, we love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). It is because we know the love of Christ (Eph. 3:19) that we are able to walk in his love (Eph. 5:2), keep ourselves in his love (Jude 1:21), and remain in his love (John 15:9, 10, 1 John 4:12, 16).
(b) The Lord your God. Most of the time when Jesus spoke about God, he called him Father (see entry for Luke 2:49). But when speaking to those under the law, he sometimes called him Lord and God.
(c) With all your soul. The original word for soul is psuche, from which we get the word psychology. This word is sometimes used in scripture to describe the soul-life we inherited from Adam, as opposed to the zoe- or spirit-life we receive from Jesus. See entry for New Life.
Matthew 22:38
“This is the great and foremost commandment.
It is the first and greatest of the Ten Commandments, but it is not the law of Christ. (see entry for John 13:34).
Matthew 22:39
“The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’
(a) Love your neighbor. This law, which comes from the law of Moses (Lev. 19:18), was quoted by Jesus more than once (Matt. 19:19, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27). James called it the royal law (see entry for Jas. 2:8).
Further reading: “Is ‘love your neighbor’ part of the new covenant?“
(b) As yourself. “Loving others as yourself” can be contrasted with “Loving others as I have loved you” (see entry for John 13:34).
Under the old covenant, you provided the love and whatever else was needed to fulfil the law. But in the new covenant, we are able to love others because of the love we have from God (1 John 4:19). Under the old, you were the supply, but in the new, God supplies all our needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Php. 4:19).
Matthew 22:40
“On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
The Law refers to the Law of Moses, the commandments, ordinances, punishments, and ceremonial observances given to the nation of Israel through Moses (Jos. 8:31). This law is sometimes referred to as the law of commandments (Eph. 2:15) or the law of the Jews (Acts 25:8). See entry for The Law.
Matthew 22:42
“What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They said to Him, “The son of David.”
(a) Whose son is He? The religious leaders expected the Messiah to be born in the line of David.
(b) The son of David was another name for the Messiah. See entry for Matt. 1:1.
Matthew 22:43
He said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying,
Lord. Fathers don’t call their sons Lord, yet David referred to the Messiah as Lord in the psalms (see next verse).
Matthew 22:44
‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET”’?
(a) The Lord. Jesus quoted Psalm 110:1 to show that David referred to the Messiah as Lord.
(b) Sit at my right hand. When Jesus ascended to heaven, he was exalted and given a Name above all names and now he sits at the right hand of God (Eph. 1:20, Php. 2:9, Col. 3:1). This right hand seat is not merely a place of high honor, or the second seat. It is the place of power (Mark 26:64) and intimacy (Acts 2:25). “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). The Son shares his Father’s throne.
The vindicating image of the One who was rejected by men being exalted to the right hand of God is repeated all through the New Testament (Matt. 26:64, Mark 12:36, 14:62, 16:19, Luke, 20:42, 22:69, Acts 2:25, 33, 34, 5:31, 7:55, 56, Rom. 8:34, Eph. 1:20, Col. 3:1, Heb. 1:3, 13, 8:1, 10:12, 12:2, 1 Pet. 3:22).
(c) Enemies. God the Father says to God the Son, “You have been rejected and despised by men, but you are the conquering King. Now sit with me and watch as I subdue your enemies.”
Matthew 22:45
“If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?”
See entry for Matt. 22:43.
Matthew 22:46
No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.
The Messiah is more than David’s descendent, he is David’s Lord. He is more than the Son of David, he is the Son of God.
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Hi Paul, just a small typo. In Matt 22:44(b) – “I ‘am’ the Father are one” (Jn 10:30). ‘am’ should be ‘and’. Blessings, Steve
Thanks Steve. Fixed now. I just sent you an email.