Matthew 22:1-46
22:1 Jesus is going to continue to use parables because He believed that the best way to teach someone about a difficult concept was to relate it to circumstances they are familiar with. So He continues teaching in parable.
22:2 God arranged a union between His son, Jesus and the people of the world. Unfortunately, the people of the world refused to unite with Jesus and everything He was teaching them.
22:3 God sent people to teach others about how wonderful God and Jesus are. He sent people to lead the way by being kind, honest, wise and fair but people refused to be those things. They chose wealth, power and greed.
22:4 God continued to send people to try to bring them into His comfort. He sent people to tell them that God was ready and prepared to heal and comfort everyone... but even with this information, people refused.
22:5 Jesus is telling us something important here, something we can relate to today. Everybody says that they like justice, kindness, and honesty but everybody does not exhibit those traits. In fact, many people are unjust, mean and deceitful. Why? People are cruel because they look out for themselves even if it is at the expense of others. For people like this, what Jesus taught seems like a nice concept to them... but they do not follow it. They choose not to follow it because they think that they can get further, faster, if they use different methods. Jesus came to teach us that our lives on Earth are short and sometimes difficult but that a kind person will live with ease for an eternity. Some people do not try to understand this. They return to their business or home and continue living by their own selfish rules. Be careful that you don't trade kindness for selfishness. The greedy method of living does not yield positive results.
22:6 While some people just ignored the message, others went out of their way to destroy the message -- but killing the messengers (even though they were faultless).
Allow people to have their own opinions, even if you do not agree with them. If they are not harming another person, animal, or institution you can offer your opinion, kindly, but you should not mute theirs. If they are truly wrong, God will communicate with them after their life.
22:7 God will return to clean out the unkind, the murderers... everything that contradicts His sweet and loving world will be eliminated.
22:8 God does not cancel the wedding just because the guests refused to show. He throws the party anyway -- He brings heaven, peace and eternity regardless of the actions of the evil. Awful people will never ruin anything God creates or plans.
22:9 Instead of cancelling the event, God invites everyone to the wedding (not just the people who claim to love Him, because He found out by their refusal to be kind that they truly did not love Him). God invites everyone to join Him in the eternity because He knows that even non-believers can have kind hearts. If you live by God's advice, even if you can't bring yourself to understand the concept of Him, He wants to bring you into His house. He loves loving people. He loves kindness and justice and truth. He throws the party for people who live their lives with those traits regardless of their religion, occupation, mistakes,...He welcomes the broken.
22:10 And guess what? God gathers so many people with His kindness that His eternal house, his party is full and exuberant. It lacks nothing and no one. All of the loving, pure hearts are there.
22:11 There will always be an evil person trying to enjoy the benefits of the people who really deserve them. At this party, God notices someone there who has not done the work to earn it.
22:12 God gives every person their chance to explain themselves -- in a way, this is done by God understand the nature of our true hearts. This party guest however, cannot explain himself... he cannot explain himself because he knows he does not belong. He knows that he was cruel and unfair during his lifetime -- and he knows that he did not apologize for it. This person knows that they did not even want to apologize. And for this reason they will not be allowed to live with the kind.
22:13 When God sees somebody who is trying to attend the party, but has not lived an honest life, He removes them. Completely. They are not allowed to pretend and enjoy the same benefits of those who actually do work to do and be good.
22:14 God reminds us that He has invited everyone to come to His party -- to share in His eternal life. God also reminds us that although he has invited everybody, there is a much smaller group of people that He, personally, hand-selects to be there. Not many people work to be special to God. Although God loves everyone equally, some people are so kind of heart that He can trust them to take on the responsibility of spreading His great word. There are many ways you can spread God's message -- your art, your thought, your compassion towards others... Use the talent and opportunity He has given you to be chosen to do wonderful things for others.
22:15 The Pharisees are still looking for a way to discredit Jesus. They despise Jesus because they are not kind or fair and Jesus is disrupting the strength of their power. Jesus is educating the people they control and have power over and because of that they are threatened by Him. They want Him out of their way and they won't stop. Mean people can be persistent, so you also must be resilient. Continue to come alive, continue to be brave under God's love and protection. Nobody can take anything away from you that God cannot replace. And God's replacements are everlasting... they are so much better than anything you had before.
22:16-17 This verse can be a bit confusing, here is what the pharisees actually mean to say: They trying to use Jesus' words against Him. Jesus constantly teaches that He does not bow or pray to any man because He knows that the true creator, the true Father is God. Jesus teaches us this so that we will never sell our souls to a corrupt man. The pharisees try to trick Jesus by saying: Well, if you don't listen to laws of any man, should people stop paying their taxes?
They pharisees are doing several things wrong in this argument but one of them is this: they are trying to confuse the word of Jesus. Jesus was not teaching people that they should be anarchists who aren't participants in fair societies... He was teaching people not worship, revere or become slaves to any man. He told us this for our own good -- humans often are not fair or kind and God does not want us trapped under anyone's evil control. God does not want us to run around like hooligans refusing to participate in organization while we are here on Earth -- He just does not want us to become entangled in religion and thought that is corrupt.
22:18 You cannot fool Jesus, or God. Jesus knew that the pharisees true intention was just to confuse Jesus and His followers and therefore discount their beliefs... but Jesus is too smart, too perceptive to be tricked by deception.
Jesus calls them hypocrites. Jesus knows that the pharisees are trying to make Him seem evil... but they are actually the evil ones... they are aware of their own sin... and yet are trying to pin it on others. It won't work with God-- He seems right through their schemes.
22:19 Jesus wants to teach a clear message -- He asks for a piece of the tax money (for a lesson).
22:20 Jesus asks a question He already knows the answer to, the ruler's image is on the coin.
22:21 Jesus is telling them this: participate in your social system (government) if you believe it is running fairly and honestly. God does not want or require your money -- God is above money. Way above. Jesus is telling them that what God wants is your love, compassion, your kindness, your honesty... those are the payments you make to Him. Therefore, by paying taxes, you are not appointing a new god (you are not doing anything wrong).
22:22 The Pharisees marveled at Jesus' ability to shut them down so quickly and efficiently. When even your enemies are amazed by your abilities... you know that you're working with God. He makes us wise, courageous, successful in our endeavors.
22:23 Jesus' next group of adversaries wants their turn to try to trick Him -- it won't work. These people in particular do not believe in Heaven... or in any kind of life after death. They are going to try to make Jesus' message invalid...but they will fail, because Jesus' message is truth and valid.
22:24 Moses instructed the people that if a brother dies, his sibling should take care of the wife after he leaves. Moses learned this from God -- God wants everyone to be taken care of. God wants a sibling to absorb the responsibility of feeding and caring for the family that is left behind. Simple as that. God wants a family member to support another family member in the time that they require it.
22:25-28 The Sadducees ask Jesus this: If all of the brothers eventually die, each having had the responsibility of caring for the wife, whose wife is she when heaven comes?
By asking this question, the Sadducees are hoping to confuse the idea of heaven but actually there is an explanation!
22:29 Jesus tells them this first: you are mistaken. He wants them to know that they misunderstood the message. First of all, the message is not about marriage or husbands or wives. God just wants to make sure everyone is taken care of. A wife does not belong to anyone except God.
But there's more.
Jesus tells them that they do not understand the power of God. What does He mean by this? Let's examine it in the next verse.
22:30 In heaven there is no marriage. The union in Heaven is the union of God with His children. God becomes our provider, our protector, the person who most loves us. Therefore, even in technicality, the woman is none of the men's wife. She, like all of us, belong to our sweet God.
In heaven, we do not do the same things we do on Earth. Our lives are so much more brilliant...they are elevated above the traditions we have on Earth. It might be hard for us to understand now, but know that in Heaven marriage isn't necessary -- we are united with God, we arrive at our spiritual home. We will never experience the amazing love of God before His house and when we have it, we will not need anything to supplement it.
22:31 Jesus reminds them (and us) that in Heaven there is no such thing as death!
22:32 God is a God of the LIVING... when we leave Earth we immediately enter Heaven. We immediately come alive in a new form. God is a creator of LIFE and he only destroys that which destroys or corrupts life.
22:33 Again, Jesus band of enemies walks always astonished. He is brilliant and wise, they cannot win against Him.
22:34 They're back. The Pharisees are going to continue to try to get Jesus out of their way.
22:35 Here we see that someone who was likely in a high position of society (wealthy and powerful), as a lawyer, wants to test Jesus.
22:36 He wants to know what the special commandment from God is.
22:37-38 Jesus tells him (and us) that we should love God with our everything... with everything we have we should love him. God wants us to love Him because when we decide to love Him, it means we have decided to love his message -- it means we have decided to be kind, fair and compassionate. God is always looking out for US... not for Himself. He knows that if we live our lives as good people we will find happiness, safety, determination, motivation, love, friendship...
22:39 Jesus explains that the second special commandment is that we love others as we love ourselves. We should protect and nurture other people with the same compassion we have for ourselves. When another is cold, we should desire desperately to give them heat... when another is hungry, we should feed them as if we were starving...We should protect others are we protect ourselves. We should put others' needs in the forefront of our minds and hearts because LOVE is life and LIFE is love. Compassion is so important because it denies selfishness and greed -- the things which corrupt the world and ruin it for others.
We should not separate ourselves from others -- they are our siblings. We are all part of each other.
The pharisees were hoping that Jesus would not be able to choose a commandment that encompassed all of them -- but Jesus did. By loving God and by loving others, you cover the important messages from God.
22:40 Jesus tells us that we should always keep those commandments and utilize and refer to them in everything that we do.
22:41 Jesus switches the perspective -- He has a question for the pharisees. Jesus knows everything, He just wants to teach them something.
22:42 Jesus is confirming with them that Christ came from David's genealogy.
22:43-45 Jesus is teaching us that even though He was born through David... Jesus is still the Lord's son, shared with David's family and the Earth for teaching. David still calls Jesus Lord.
22:46 Jesus' enemies were done questioning Him because they knew that He was right and they they could not triumph against Him.
