Mountain of glory (Matthew 17:1-13) - MP3 recording

Recording of this week's sermon preached at the Chinese Church on Sunday, 6 January 2013, which also happens to be Epiphany Sunday in the traditional church calendar.



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View transcript (From a bible study led in March 2012)

The final question (Matthew 22:41-46)

Every teacher, every politician and every pastor wants to know the secret of verse 46: “No-one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no-one dared to ask him any more questions.” How did Jesus do that? What did he say that made his strongest opponents go, “You got us there, Jesus. You win.” Actually, if you look at it again, they didn’t say anything at all. They were speechless! How did Jesus do that?

The problem is when we do look back to what Jesus said in verse 45, we still don’t get it. “How can he be David’s son?” that is what Jesus asks the Pharisees. Some of us don’t get it because we’re wondering, “Who’s David?” But even those who do know about David; who do know what Jesus is getting at, you are probably thinking, “Meh, so what? What is the big deal?”

So, the challenge for us today is not so much to understand the answer, but to get the question. Jesus gives us the answer first to think about, and then gives us a question to chew over. To help us do that, we are going to walk through today’s passage in three steps; looking at three questions:

1. What do you think? (verses 41-42)

2. Who is the Lord? (verses 43-44)

3. Who is your Lord? (verses 45-46)

1. What do you think?

Jesus begins by asking the Pharisees to think.

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus them, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,” they replied.

Matthew 22:41-42

To the Pharisees, this was a basic Sunday School question. How many disciples did Jesus  have? How many books are there in the bible? Where was Jesus born? It was the kind of question that had a standard answer. And the answer than they gave Jesus would have gotten them an A+ in Sunday School.

Now in case some of us here didn’t go to Sunday School - I didn’t, by the way, so you are in good company - the word “Christ” means God’s chosen king. Thousands of years ago, God promised King David in 2 Samuel Chapter 7, that one of his sons would inherit a kingdom that would last forever. And for thousands of years after that, all the prophets kept pointing forward to the coming of this king, called the Messiah in Hebrew, and the Christ in Greek. They taught their kids, “One day, God will send us a king like David. He will be the Christ. He will be the Son of David.” So, that’s the quick background.

When Jesus asked, “Whose son is the Christ?” These religious teachers who grew up in Sunday School, who were themselves Sunday School teachers... they didn’t have to open up their bibles. They didn’t have to go on Wikipedia and look up the history or the Greek word or the Hebrew translation. Every single hand in class shot up. “Ohh! Oooh! I know the answer. It’s David. He is the son of David!”

But they missed the question. Jesus was not asking them what they knew. He was asking them to think. “What do you think about the Christ?” The Pharisees gave an unthinking answer. Similarly today, if I were to ask the kids in our Sunday School, and go, “Jesus is the Son of....” every kid would probably go, “God!” That would be a right answer and a good answer. But at some point, we as Sunday School teachers and bible study leaders need to ask our friends “What do you think about Jesus as the Son of God?”

That is the question Jesus is really asking. And even though the Pharisees give him the standard Sunday School answer, Jesus doesn’t give up. He presses them further and asks them, “Who is the Lord?”

2. Who is the Lord?

He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,

“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord:
‘‘Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
under your feet.”’

Matthew 22:43-44

Psalm 110 is the most popular psalm in the entire bible. Psalms are songs of praise, and Psalm 110, composed by none other than King David himself, was the kind of song that was played on every radio station. You heard it everywhere. Twenty-seven times, the New Testament writers quote from this single psalm, Psalm 110. Why? Because Psalm 110 is a song about the Christ. Only here, David doesn’t call him the Christ. He calls him “Lord.”

Jesus’ question is, “How can David call his son, Lord?” to which most of us today would go, “What’s the big deal? Why shouldn’t he call him Lord?” The word “Lord” can mean king, but it can simply mean, “Boss,” or as we would say in Cantonese, Lo Sai. Back home in Malaysia, I would call the owner of the coffee shop, “Boss, one cup of iced tea, please.” Nothing wrong with that. “Boss” is a term of recognition and respect.

But you see, here we do have a problem. A very big one, I might add. David was addressing his son as Lord. Today, if a businessman’s son does better than his father, we would call that good upbringing. His father would be proud to have a son who is more successful, more powerful, more wealthy than himself. A good father would want even better things for his son to inherit and to enjoy. But his son would still be his son. He would still be his father. The son should still honour his father and submit to his father. What he happening here in Psalm 110 is the direct opposite: David submits himself to his son. And Jesus’ question is: How can David do this?

The answer is, there is a second Lord in the room. A greater Lord. “The Lord said to my Lord.” Did you notice that. One Lord is speaking to another Lord. One Lo Sai is speaking to another Lo Sai. We know that the second Lord is the Christ. The question is, who is the first Lord?

To answer that question, have a look at Psalm 110 itself. Do you notice anything peculiar about the first line?

The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”
Psalm 110:1

The first LORD is spelled out in capitals, see that? It is actually God’s name which was considered so holy and so awesome that anyone reading their Jewish bibles would have been too afraid to saying it out loud. So instead, they would say ADONAI, which, surprise, surprise... means, “My Lord.”

What is going here? God is the LORD who is speaking to the Christ, the second Lord. And what he says is, “Sit at my right hand.” You are going to rule by my side in my kingdom. Not only that, God says to him, “I will make your enemies bow down before you.” You see, in this vision that David writes down as Song 110, he sees God as the father and the Christ as his Son. And David bows down before them both and calls them, “Lord.” David submits to his son and calls him, “My Lord.”

Here is a king who would rule God’s kingdom. Notice as well, that this king has enemies. Unlike David, who conquered his enemies in order to establish his kingdom, what does God say to his Son? Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Meaning, the Christ will ascend first, the Messiah will rule first, and only after that will his enemies be conquered. In fact, verse 2 of Psalm 110 reads, “You will rule in the midst of your enemies.”

Earlier on, I mentioned a problem. A big problem. How can the son not submit to his father? Jesus gives us the answer: This Son is submitting to his Father, only his father isn’t David. His father is the LORD. God the Son sits at the right hand of God the Father. He listens to his voice of instruction. At the same time, God the Father gives his authority to his Son to rule and to reign.

Stepping back, Jesus is giving us a picture of the Trinity - of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, in relationship with one another. The Father exalts the Son and gives him glory over to him. The Son submits to the Father, ruling by his side. The Spirit bears witness to the Son, enabling David to testify to what he has seen and heard in scripture. This is the Trinity and it is a pretty amazing thing to behold.

Jesus is asking us, Do we see this? Do we see him as Lord? He is the one who willingly submits to God, his true Lord and his true heavenly father.

3. Who is your Lord?

Finally, we come back to big question. The question of questions.

“If then David calls him ‘Lord’, how can he be his son?” No-one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no-one dared to ask him any more questions.

Matthew 22:45-46

Why were they speechless? Most of them were speechless because they were probably shocked. It never occurred to them that the Christ was such a big deal. Some of them were probably flipping through their bibles furiously trying to find a response but unable to come up with a good answer - How can the Christ be David’s son?

But I wonder, if some of them were speechless because they realised what Jesus was really asking them to do. He was trying to get them to think... of David’s relationship to this Christ, and maybe even, their own relationship to the Christ. Of David’s relationship to God and their own relationship to God. Jesus was a in a room full of Sunday School teachers and he was saying to them, “This stuff that you are teaching your kids, do you believe it yourself?”

When David composed this song thousands of years ago, he wasn’t writing a kids song for his church’s Summer Holiday Club. This was worship. It was an overflow of his love for God. And when David considered God’s promise to him that one day, a son of his would inherit a throne and a kingdom that was infinitely more glorious than his own, David bowed down and worshipped. “My Lord.” That’s what he called him.

This week has been a tiring one. We had fifty-plus kids join us at our Summer Holiday Club. Teachers, helpers, organisers, cooks, teaching-assistants, parents all worked hard to bring the kids together and help them to know Jesus. I think Jesus would ask you today, as he did with the Sunday School teachers in his day, is the bible just another syllabus to cover? Is it just another thing we do every year, once a year, to keep the children occupied? Is it hard work and that’s it?

Or... is it worship? Sadly, I think in Jesus’ day, they didn’t get it. The Pharisees were speechless because they were outmatched. But I hope we do. David saw the Christ and called him Lord. Meaning, are we bowing down before Jesus as our Lord? That’s what Thomas did after the resurrection, do you remember. He said, “My Lord and my God!” What did Jesus reply to him? “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Thomas saw Jesus in the flesh, David saw Jesus in the spirit, but as for us here today, we haven’t seen. What does Jesus say to us? “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” How are we to do this? John tells us:

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John 20:31

In the book of Acts, Peter quotes this exact psalm, Psalm 110 - the exact same words - and says to the crowd, “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” He was using Psalm 110 to explain what happened on the cross. By dying on the cross, Jesus proved that he was the true king. To be sure, Jesus was a totally unexpected king. He was the King who died for his enemies. He was the kind of Lord who served his subjects. Peter says to the crowd, “It is this same Jesus whom you rejected and crucified, but whom God raised to be Lord and Christ.”

Every knee will bow

What does this mean for us? Well, let me ask you again the three questions I have asked us to think through.

A. What do you think?

The reason we read our bibles is not to find answers, but to think through the answers. You might have read Matthew’s gospel before. Read it again. You might have heard the gospel before. Hear it again. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:7, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” God’s word shapes and reshapes our mind. His voice refreshes and renews our spirits. Jesus isn’t looking for good little boys and girls who will score 100% in bible quiz. He is calling his sheep who know his voice and obey his will.

B. Who is Lord?

Who calls the shots in your life? To call Jesus Lord is to submit to him as our King. What he says goes. He calls us to live holy lives. He calls us to speak boldly for the gospel. He calls us to love the church. Not simply because these are good things to do that will get us into heaven. But because we love him and we submit to his lordship.

C. Who is your Lord?

When someone looks at your life, do they see someone living selfishly just for themselves. Do they see someone complaining about their boss? Or do they see worship: Someone who does what they do out of joy and thanksgiving for all that Jesus has done for them?

Maybe some of you look at Jesus as say to yourselves, “I don’t want this King. I don’t want him to be Lord.” Remember Psalm 110. This King is already enthroned. Jesus is already Lord sitting at the right hand of his Father in heaven. One day, God will make all his enemies bow down before Jesus and confess him as their Lord. “Every knee shall bow, in heaven, on earth, under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,” Paul says (Philippians 2:10-11). But that is not the invitation of today. Today, we have the opportunity to say to Jesus, “You are my Lord.” To do so willingly and thankfully. Today, we can still come to him at the cross, in his death and in his forgiveness and receive from him forgiveness, life and love.

Jesus Christ is Lord. One day every tongue will confess him as Lord. But today, we have the opportunity to respond together with David, to look to the cross, and say, “My Lord... and my God.”

My Lord, what love is this
that pays so dearly

That I the guilty one,
may go free

Amazing love oh what sacrifice

The Son of God giv’n for me

My debt He pays and my death He dies

That I might live, that I might live

(“Amazing Love”, Graham Kendrick)

The God of the living (Matthew 22:23-33)

[Download MP3 Recording]

Cause they’re so sad, you see?

I don’t wanna be a Sadducee,

I don’t wanna be a Sadducee,

‘Cause they’re so sad, you see?

I don’t wanna be a Sadducee.

The reason why they are sad, you see, is because the Sadducees “say there is no resurrection” (verse 23). That is, Sadducees believe that God will not raise you from the dead. Now it is important to note that these weren’t atheists. The Sadducees believed in God and moreover, they believed in the bible. Yet, what differentiated them from the Pharisees, whom we’ve been meeting these past few weeks, is that the Sadducees only accepted the first five books of Moses from Genesis to Deuteronomy. Which is why their question begins with Moses.

“Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. Now there were seven brothers among us.  The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died.”

Matthew 22:24-27

They begin with a command from Moses about levirate marriage, where the Hebrew word levir refers to the “husband’s brother”. The command says that in the event of a man’s death, the man’s brother is to marry the widow for two reasons - to provide for her, but also, to bring up children in the dead man’s name. That’s what Moses told them to do, say the Sadducees, but then the ask Jesus: What if. They propose a what-if scenario, where there is a family of seven brothers. The reason I call this a what-if scenario is because even in Jesus’ day, this law was no longer practiced. Still, it may be that this scenario really happened, because in verse 25, they say to Jesus, “There were seven brothers among us.” And the scenario is this: The first brother dies without any kids, so the law kicks in: the second brother steps up  to marry the widow. But then he dies, and she gets passed down to brother number three. But he dies as well. This happens seven times such that the poor widow ends up getting married to seven men and mourning over seven husbands. The saddest verse is, I think, verse 27, which reads, “Finally, she dies.” Childless and alone, she goes to the grave.

“Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

Matthew 22:28

Hence, the question from the Sadducees about the resurrection. “Whose wife will she be?” It isn’t just a question about the resurrection, is it? It is also a question about the permanence of marriage. That is, marriage poses a serious problem for the resurrection. This is not a case of someone being unfaithful in their marriage. This is not a case of someone who got divorced again and again, whose marriages broke down again and again, seven times. No, this is an actual command in the bible from Moses himself, which if obeyed to the letter as God’s word revealed in the Scriptures, would pose a serious problem for the resurrection.

The Sadducees point was this: Moses was very clear about marriage. Moses gave commands about getting married - even strange ones like the one we have here about marrying your dead brother’s widow - but Moses said nothing about the resurrection, and the truth is, a situation whereby God would raise dead people from the grave, would pose serious problems not simply about the improbability of such an event, but would contradict God’s own word revealed in the bible.

“Whose wife will she be of the seven?” The Sadducees weren’t looking for an answer. They thought they knew the answer; that there could only be one answer. None. God would never allow such a preposterous problem to exist because the Sadducees believed that God does not raise the dead.

How does Jesus answer them? He tells the bible experts, they don’t know their bibles.

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”

Matthew 22:29

Because the Sadducees pose to Jesus a two-part question - on marriage and the resurrection - Jesus gives them a two-part answer - on the word of God and the power of God.

Two kinds of raising

At the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

Matthew 22:30

People are permanent, marriage is not. I realise how risky it is to say something like that, and how likely a statement like that can be easily misunderstood. But I will say it again, people are permanent, marriage isn’t. Marriage is a good thing, but it is, for all the good it does and for all  the joy it brings, a temporary thing, when set against the full scope of God’s plan for redemption.

What do I mean? Look back to the law of Moses in verse 24. The reason why the widow marries the brother-in-law, isn’t companionship and love, though those form part of the reason for the marriage - that she is looked after and provided for. The reason is children. If a man died without children, the brother-in-law marries his wife in order to raise children. And here I need to point out that the word for raise is exactly the same for resurrection. Two kinds of raising is being compared and contrasted. On one hand, there is the raising of children within godly families. That’s an important element for marriage we tend to overlook today - the raising of children by both the father and mother - because we tend to put it off or some of us would rather not think about it at all. Yet in Malachi Chapter 2, God says about the married couple, “Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring” (Malachi 2:15). The purpose for levirate marriages is the same for all faithful marriages, to raise godly children. And actually, this was a risky thing for the brother-in-law to do, to fulfil the command and marry the widow, because the children that they raised would not be in his name, it would be in his dead brother’s name.

If you remember, that is precisely what happened in the book of Ruth. One moment, the kinsman-redeemer says, “I’ll marry her,” thinking the widow he is taking on is old-grandma Naomi, who couldn’t possibly produce any more children. He’ll look like the hero, stepping in to save the day by giving the poor lady a roof over her head, when in actual fact, he would be inheriting all the fortune of her dead husband. But then Boaz says it’s not grandma Naomi he is to marry, but Ruth, her daughter-in-law, who is a foreigner and who is still, in fact, young of age. Immediately the kinsmen-redeemer goes, “I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate.” What was he saying? He was risking his own fortune by marrying Ruth because the whole point of the kinsman-redeemer levirate marriage law was to produce a son in the widow’s dead husband’s name, and doing that, might mean that this son, who isn’t yours, who wouldn’t even bear your name, would inherit both his father’s estate and yours. That is what he meant when he said, “I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate.”

The purpose of the levirate marriage was to raise children. Children who would know and love their parents. Children who would know and love their God. But, Jesus says, one day there will be no need for such raising, because God will raise his children from the dead. People will neither marry nor be given in marriage, because it is not parents who will produce children in heaven, but God. He will raise his children and they will bear his name. God is the ultimate kinsman-redeemer. This is what Jesus meant when he said we will be like the angels, not that we will be able to fly, not that we will no longer be male or female, not that we will all be dressed in white robes and play golden harps all day, but that they will be with God in heaven.

So, the first part of the answer has to do with the power of God. God raises his children from the dead, the same way God raised Jesus, his Son from the dead. But the second part of the answer has to do with the Word of God. Whereas the Sadducees were saying, “We’re just listening to what Moses said to us,” back in verse 24, Jesus answers them by saying, “Are you listening to what God is saying to you through Moses?”

The God of the living

“But about the resurrection from the dead - have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

Matthew 22:31-32

This comes from Moses’ very first encounter with God at the burning bush. In Exodus Chapter 3, Moses is looking after some sheep in the desert, he goes up a mountain where he sees a strange thing: a bush that was burning and burning, but didn’t burn itself up. As he steps closer to have a look at this strange thing, God calls out from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

Exodus 3:4-5

God is telling Moses that he is the same God who spoke to Abraham, then Abraham’s son, Isaac, and then Isaac’s son, Jacob. I am that same God, God is saying. But then Jesus adds, “He is not the God of the dead but of the living,” and the point Jesus is drawing our attention to is God’s name which is “I AM”. God reveals, through his name, that he is everlasting and eternal. “I AM WHO I AM” is the name that God reveals to Moses. God is self-existent, self-sufficient and everlasting.

But what God also does in revealing the eternal nature of his name, is to extend a part of that nature to his children. “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” He doesn’t say, “I was” - as in, I was the God of Abraham. He says, “I am”. Meaning, God who is eternal, has a relationship that is also eternal and ongoing with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, even though, they had been dead for over 400 years. Jesus says that God is not the God of the dead but he is the God of the living, implying that, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were very much still alive with God.

God is their God

Now I will admit that it is a rather strange argument that Jesus uses here to prove his case. But if you understand what he is getting at, Jesus is telling us something that is quite marvellous. At the heart of the resurrection is relationship. It isn’t simply believing that God will be able to raise a dead man to life again. He can and he did with Jesus. But that the reason why God raises us as Christians from dead to life eternal is so that we will have a relationship that surpasses all other relationships in this lifetime.

You see, I suspect that the bigger problem for many of you reading this passage isn’t the bit of being raised from the dead. Not if you’re young. Not if you’re healthy or if you’ve just graduated from university, and there is so much promise and hope ahead of you. No, you’re still hung up on the first part of Jesus’ answer on marriage. When Jesus says there will be no marriage in heaven, many of you went, “What? No marriage? What kind of heaven is this? Why would I want to go there?”

As it is, marriage is a touchy subject for many single Christians, who stay up all night praying to God, “Lord, when will it be my turn to experience happiness and companionship?” But let me tell you, married couples have an even bigger problem with this verse. If you love your husband and wife deeply - I’m not talking about a bad marriage or a broken marriage - but the best of marriages, whereby you cherish one another, and you experience a relationship that growing in trust, submission, love, sacrifice and togetherness, this verse is tough, because Jesus is saying that at the resurrection people will neither marry, they will not be given in marriage, and by extension, they will no longer be married.

But Jesus also promises us that God is no one’s debtor. In the resurrection, God gives us something that is so precious, so fulfilling, so wonderful, it will trump even the best of marriages. He gives us himself.

Do you remember the story the Sadducees told and the question they asked in the end? “In the resurrection, whose wife will she be?” They think that the wife will have to be divided up between the seven brothers, that each man will get only a part of her - one-seventh - in the resurrection. But here is God saying, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” It doesn’t mean that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob get one-third of God. Rather, it means they get all of him. He is their God, and it is amazing that God is willing to say that. He doesn’t simply say, “These are my servants. They are my messengers,” or even, “They belong to me.” No God says, “I belong to them. I am their God.”

“Don’t you know this?” Jesus says to the Sadducees as a kind of wake-up call. Don’t you know that the greatest promise God has in his word is the promise of himself? That’s the tragedy of the Sadducees. For all their learning and piety, for all their dedication to God and for all their discipline towards God’s word, Jesus says to them, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” They are sad, you see, because they don’t know God. They are sad, you see, because unlike Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I’m not sure that God would say of them that he is their God.

Is he yours? That’s the real question, isn’t it? Would God say of you and me, “I am the God of Calvin, the God of David, and the God of Wei Mun?” Jesus gives us the answer. God is not the God of the dead but of the living. Only those who have been raised in Jesus, as sons of God, as daughters of God; only those who are living in newness of life empowered by his Spirit; only those who look to Jesus who was raised from the dead, will know God as their God. This week, Winnie, Lisa and Sarah led us in the study of these verses from Romans Chapter 6 at Rock Fellowship, and I commend them to you.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

Romans 6:8-10

Have you been raised with Christ? For Christians, the resurrection isn’t a future uncertainty, a what-if scenario. Christians look back to one resurrection and know that they will be raised. Christians look back to one life and know they, too, have eternal life. Christians look back to Jesus Christ on the cross and say, “If we died with him, we believe we will also live with him.”

Jesus lives and so shall I

I’ll be raised from the dust with Christ on high

Jesus lives no more to die

And when He returns with Him I’ll rise

Jesus lives

(“Jesus Lives” by Sovereign Grace Music)

Show me the money (Matthew 22:15-22)

“I pay what I have to and not a penny more.”

Jimmy Carr has been the subject of recent headlines revealing the celebrity as a member of “a legal but aggressive tax avoidance scheme” (BBC News, 20 June 2012). Prime Minister David Cameron condemned Mr Carr’s actions as “morally wrong”, while Treasury Chief Secretary, Danny Alexander equated rich tax dodgers with benefit cheats. Having said that, pop star, Lily Allen considers them a “hundred times worse”. Mr Carr has since issued statements publicly apologising for his tax affairs and says he is no longer a part of such schemes.

What is interesting to note is how each condemnation spoken out against Mr Carr was essentially that of moral outrage. He was wrong. Not legally, but morally. It is not that he couldn’t do what he did - the scheme he took part in was within the limits of the law - but that he shouldn’t have done what he did. At a gig held soon after the debacle in the press, Jimmy said this:

“I’ve not broken the law. I’ve not done anything illegal. But morally, morally...”

In today’s passage, Jesus is asked a seemingly innocuous question on the subject of paying tax. Yet the nature of that question is neither economic nor legal, but ethical and moral. “Is it right,” they ask Jesus, “to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” To which Jesus answers both practically and ethically, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” But then he adds, “And to God what is God’s.” What Jesus does is give a theological answer.

In other words, what is the bible’s perspective? What is God’s? I think the answer may very well surprise you. The account ends with Jesus’ hearers described as being “amazed” with his response.

I want us to see three things from today’s passage:

(1) The question of the cunning

(2) The coin of the king

(3) The king without a coin

1. The question of the cunning

Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.

Matthew 22:15

The masterminds behind this encounter are a bunch called the Pharisees. These are the guys who score 100% at bible quiz. They turn up every week with pressed shirt and tie. Their hair is combed-down and centre-parted. Think, Ned Flanders from the Simpsons. “Okedy-Dokety!”

Now it is all too easy to make fun of the Pharisees. Especially in Sunday School, where we tell stories like this to the kids and teach them that the moral of the story is, “Don’t be a Pharisee! They are the bad guys.” And what I want to say to you today is: That is not the moral of the story. No, the moral of the story is this: All of us are Pharisees. All of us, have had at one time or another, arguments with our teachers, friends and colleagues; after which we stayed up all night, doing what? Thinking of a comeback, that’s what! Haven’t you ever done that? Some guy in school ticks you off and says something nasty about you and you replay that scene over and over again in your head. “Oooh, I should have said that! If only I had done that!”

That is how the story begins in verse 15. “The Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap (Jesus) in his words.” What has happened is, Jesus has been speaking out against the Pharisees since Chapter 21. Yet, each and every time, they’re stuck for words. Jesus keeps hammering them again and again; for being religious, for being proud and for being plain stuck-up. At one point, Jesus even says to the Pharisees, “The tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you” (Matthew 21:31). To get how offensive that was, it is like Jesus pointing to drag queen and drug pushers and saying to the members of the Rotary Club, “They’re in but you guys are out!”

What is so pathetic about this is how the Pharisees - these top theological minds - actually have to leave the room just to formulate an answer to give to Jesus. They couldn’t come up with a decent comeback on the spot! Instead, they had to have a committee meeting. And there was just one item on the agenda at this meeting: Think of a way to humiliate Jesus. “They laid plans to trap him in his words.”

And before we move one bit further, I just want to say: This is what all of us do. When a mistake is pointed out to us; when our authority has been challenged, our first reaction is not to ask ourselves, “Was there any truth in that?” No, we want to humiliate our accuser. We pour all our energies into damage control. It doesn’t matter if the problem was serious. Doesn’t matter whether person was being truthful. Doesn’t even matter if it’s God.

What is worse is we think that Jesus is the same like us. That’s the whole reasoning behind the Pharisees’ cunning plan. The Pharisees think that Jesus is playing a power game; that he’s all about ego, because that’s what everyone is about - being popular and looking good in front of the crowd. Look at what they do next.

They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, ‘we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

Matthew 22:16-17

Some say that the Pharisees were being cowardly, sending in their disciples instead of approaching Jesus themselves. I suspect, though, that this was all part of the plan. They wanted Jesus to think that the younger low-level grassroot leaders were abandoning the party. Hence, the over-the-top display of respect for Jesus, calling him “Teacher”, showering him with praise for his frank views on the religious establishment and his no-holds-barred analysis on the spiritual state of the nation. They say to him, “You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are.” In other words, what they were saying was, “Jesus, you don’t give face!” (In Chinese, “Lei Mo Pei Miin”) “You are someone who speaks his mind regardless of the consequences.”

But it’s just smokescreen; a setup for the real question they had been sent there to ask. “Tell us then, is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

To fully understand how sinister this question was, look back to verse 16, and notice that there was another group of representatives sent with this delegation. They are called the Herodians; supporters of a man named King Herod. You see, this was a political rally. The Herodians were campaigning for their guy, King Herod, to be recognised as the head of state of their nation, Israel. At this point of time in history, the Romans were in charge. Rome had invaded and taken over the country, leaving a sizeable military presence in the capital city (which is why the gospels has Jesus bumping into Roman centurions and Roman soldiers everywhere he went). However, to appease the locals, they also appointed Herod as kind of a local MP in charge of the northern region of Galilee. In the eyes of the Jewish people, he was the rightful ruler and King as Herod was descended from royal blood.

Now, this debate between Jesus and the religious leaders was taking place smack centre of this political turmoil. The encounter took place in Jerusalem, the city of the King, but where Herod's jurisdiction was not recognised. Instead Romans troops were stationed in Jerusalem enforcing military rule under a Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. The Herodians wanted the Romans out and their guy recognised as the true king. Aside from being political, the Herodians also saw their cause as deeply religious. They believed that God’s kingdom could only be ruled under God’s king.

So, when they ask Jesus, “Is it right to pay tax?” the question had nothing to do with money. It was a question to determine which government had the authority to rule over them. Was it Caesar or Herod? In fact, the tax in question was not income tax, that is, the percentage off your monthly paycheck that went to the Treasury. This was something called a poll tax. It was a minimal sum - just one coin, if you look ahead to verse 19 - that everyone had to pay, regardless of whether you were a slave or a businessman. Everyone could afford to pay this sum, but again, it wasn’t the amount of money that was being disputed. It was who the money was being paid to. The poll tax was tribute compulsory for each and every individual to pay up to Caesar as a sign of their allegiance to the Roman government. Hence the question, “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

It was a question designed to trap Jesus in his words. What was Jesus going to say? All this while, Jesus has been speaking out against the religious establishment; all this while, Jesus had been preaching about the new Kingdom of Heaven that was soon approaching; would he now speak out against the Roman government? It would certainly be the answer the Herodians were looking forward to. But then again, Jesus would essentially be inciting rebellion against the Romans. Remember that this was happening in Jerusalem, one week before the Passover, the biggest religious festival of the entire Jewish calendar. I wonder if many a faithful Jew was itching for Jesus to give the word to take up arms against their oppressors.

But if instead Jesus said, “Yes, you ought to pay your taxes to Caesar,” he would be branded a Roman sympathizer and a traitor of the Jewish people.

You have to hand it to the Pharisees, it was a cunning question. Answer “Yes”, and Jesus would have lost the support of his countrymen. Answer “No”, and Jesus risked being arrested by the Roman authorities.

But Jesus knew what they were up to. And what he said next was, “Show me the money!”

2. The coin of the king

But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used to pay the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?”

Matthew 22:18-20

If you take out a one pound coin, you are going to have on one side, the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. (The design on the other side changes every year - you have emblems representing the UK, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England.) In fact, every coin produced since the 17th century has had the image of the monarch’s head on it. Interestingly, the direction the each head faces, changes from each successive ruler, which is why Elizabeth II is always facing to the right.

Similarly, Jesus says to the Pharisees, “Show me the money,” and what they produce is a coin with the portrait - literally, the word the bible uses here is image - of Caesar. Caesar was the king and this was the coin of the king. It reminded everyone who used this coin that they were subjects of this king.

As we have already seen, this was a problem for the Jews, especially for the Herodians who wanted their own king to be ruler of the land. But the problem ran deeper still. Aside from asking what image was on the coin, Jesus said, “And whose inscription?” Written on the side of the image of Caesar were the words, “Son of God” (Latin: Tiberius Caesar Divi Augusti Filius Augustus)  and on the back, “High Priest” (Pontifex Maximus). You can see why this was deeply offensive to Jews. Caesar was proclaiming himself more than just a ruler, but that he was descended directly from God and the chief mediator between God and man.

“Whose image and whose inscription is this?” Jesus asked. They replied, “Caesar’s.” Now notice that Jesus doesn’t simply say, “What image is on this coin, or what is written on this coin.” He says, “Whose.” Meaning, who does this coin belong to? Whose kingdom is this coin talking about? And everyone, including the Pharisees’ disciples, including the Herodians themselves reply, “It belongs to Caesar.” Now, look at how Jesus concludes in verse 21.

Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

Matthew 22:21

“Give it back to him.” Some translations use the word “render”: “Render to Caesar.” To render means to return. You are returning something that belongs to that someone else. “This is the king’s coin,” Jesus is saying. “Give it back to him.”

In effect, Jesus is saying to bible-believing, God-fearing Jews, then - and by implication, to us Christians today - that we owe our tax to our king, that we owe, even our allegiance to our government. When you pay taxes, you shouldn’t go, “Sigh, I’m losing all this money I have worked so hard for. I wonder how much of it I claim back through deductions.” Rather, the Christian who knows that there is no authority except that which God has established (Romans 13:1), will say, “I owe this money. I want to pay this money.” Especially when we live under a government that is doing its job, protecting its citizens and providing for its citizens, but more so, because God establishes his authority through all governments to ensure order and justice. It doesn’t mean that the government has to be Christian - it certainly wasn’t when Romans 13 was written. And it doesn’t mean that the government is above God - there is a second part to the answer that Jesus gives. Look again at verse 21.

Jesus adds, “And render to God what is God’s.” What is that you owe God? That is a much harder question to answer, especially for those of us who don’t think we owe anyone anything. But the truth is, we do. We owe our government what is due to our governments - our obedience to the law of the land, our taxes to support the governing of the land, our allegiance to the leaders and rulers set over the land. It is important to highlight that the bible does not negate our responsibilities due to the state, to our parents, to our community, once we become Christians. This has implications on the way we pay our taxes, but also in other areas to do with national service, honouring our parents, respecting the cultures within our community, even those which differ or are even against the Christian faith. We do all this not in spite of, but out of our submission to God’s ultimate authority. That’s the first half of Jesus’ question, “Render to Caesar, what is Caesar’s,” and it is actually the easier bit. The second half of the question is tougher to answer. How do we render to God what is God’s? What is it ultimately that we owe to God?

You see, for the Pharisees and Herodians, they would have answered that question by saying, “We owe God our money.” And we hear that sometimes in a church settings. I listened to a sermon recently from a pastor who said that our worship to God - the praises we sing and the prayers that we offer up - are currency that needs to be backed up. The same way that any national currency needs to be backed up by reserves of gold in the bank, to ensure that the currency isn’t devalued, so our worship to God might become worthless and hollow unless it is backed up by our giving.

I must say that there is some truth in that statement. Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” (Matthew 6:21). Or as the private detectives on TV would say, “Follow the money.” Money leaves a trail of clues. Our spending of our money reveals where our true treasure is. Our spending of our money reveals what we truly worship.

Yet, Jesus is saying something quite different from the pastor’s illustration to back up your worship with your money. Because that’s what the Pharisees and Herodians were saying, “We shouldn’t worship Caesar, we ought to worship God, instead with our money.” But that’s not the answer Jesus was looking for. What is it that we owe God?

The clue lies with the money, or rather, something that is on the money. You see, the coin belongs to Caesar, why? Because it has Caesar’s image and Caesar’s writing on it. How then can we tell what belongs to God? It is something that has God’s image and God’s handwriting printed on it. That’s you and me. God created us in his image. That’s Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image... male and female he created them.” But more than that, if you are a Christian, God has written his laws on your heart. Hebrews 8:10, “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts” (quoting Ezekiel 11:20). What belongs to God? What do we need to return to God that belongs to God? It is our whole lives.

“Render to God what is God’s.” You belong to God. “Have you given yourself to him?” Jesus is asking. When someone looks at your life, do they see Jesus? When God looks at your heart, does he see his Word, his laws? His writing?

The word, “coin” simply means to stamp something with a mark. It is a term taken from the printing industry. All coins have a mark and an image. When Jesus said to them, “Show me the coin,” what they showed him was the mark and image of Caesar that said this coin belonged to an earthly king, Caesar. Now Jesus is saying, “In the same way, you are coins of the true King.” All of us have markings that say we don’t belong to ourselves. All of us have markings that tell us we were made by someone else. All of us bear the image of God that remind us our lives belong to Him, and the question is, do you see that? Have you given back to God what is God’s?

“Do you see the coin of the King?” Jesus is asking. But finally, Jesus says, “Do you see the king without a coin?”

3. The king without a coin

Did you notice that when Jesus wanted to illustrate his point about the coin, he didn’t have one? This isn’t the only time it has happened. Back in Matthew Chapter 17, someone comes up to Peter and asks, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” and Peter says, “Duh! Oh course, he does.” But then, in the next scene, he says to Jesus, “Erm, Jesus, did you remember to pay this week’s offering yet?” And what Jesus does is tell Peter to go fishing in the lake, and that the first fish he catches will have the coin he needs to pay the tax!

So here, when Jesus needed another coin for his illustration, he said, “Can someone lend me one please?” It must have been embarrassing for his disciples, to travel around the country with their esteemed leader, whom many were hoping would be the mighty Messiah, who didn’t have enough money on him to pay for lunch. And yet, many believed him to the true king. What kind of king was this? A different king. Jesus was a king without a coin.

The Herodians and the Pharisees were looking for a king like Caesar - a king with power, prestige and influence. They were looking for a king whose picture was stamped on all the currency, who controlled the wealth of the country, who commanded all the troops. Jesus came with no money, no prestige and no recognition. And yet, the bible contends, he is the true Son of God. Jesus is the true High Priest. What kind of king is he? Jesus is a king who sacrifices his wealth to enter into poverty. He is a priest who sacrifices his own life to pay for our sins.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

2 Corinthians 8:9

You see, you and I couldn’t possibly afford the price tag on our lives. We can’t render to God what is God’s because even after we have given up our entire lives, we would still fall short. What God has done is paid the price on our behalf. On the cross, Jesus takes our debt of sin exchanges it with his wealth. Though he was rich, the bible says, for our sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty - not through his wealth, but through his humility; through his sacrifice - we might become rich.

Do you see Jesus in his poverty? That is the kind of king he is - gentle, generous, gracious. That is the true image of God, seen not in power but in humility; seen not on a coin, but displayed for us most fully on a cross.

This is the gospel, that Jesus is Lord and that Jesus has paid. Other religions talk about what we need to do and what we need to pay in order for us to be accepted by God. The gospel says God has footed the bill. God has rendered to God what is God’s. On the cross, the Son of God took upon himself the full punishment of our sin, erasing our record of debt to God, and transferred all his glory, all his blessing and his righteousness into our account. Other religions talk about what we need to pay, only the gospel says God has paid for our sins through Jesus Christ.

What the gospel invites us to do is to come to Jesus not with our wealth but with our poverty, not with our righteousness but our sins, not with power but in weakness and receive from him forgiveness, love and eternal life. To come to the king without a coin and to be reconciled with God at the cross.

Am I called? (Matthew 22:1-14)

Questioning Jesus

Over the next five weeks, we are looking at a series of debates between Jesus and the religious experts of his day. Now I realise that a debate may not be all that exciting an event compared to say, the Euro 2012 finals happening tonight. We want action. We want to root for our favourite team. In comparison, a boring, intellectual discussion on doctrine and religious issues hardly makes for a fun night out with the guys at the pub.

Yet whenever I get a phone call or email saying to me, “Calvin, could we talk about something important, please?” I have yet to meet up with such a person only to end up talking about football. It is always something urgent. It is always personal.

These debates between Jesus and the religious teachers are not there to entertain us, though the topics of these debates certainly are intriguing: Why should I support a government I didn’t vote for? Isn’t the whole idea of resurrection from the dead nonsensical? Can you seriously believe that God had a Son and his name is Jesus? These are the topics that Jesus deals with, which we will be looking at closely in the coming weeks. They are all there in Chapter 22 of Matthew’s gospel. They are interesting topics. They are intriguing issues. But more than that, they have eternal significance. The bible presents us with two ways to live. Just two. And what these debates are designed to do is reveal which team you’re rooting for. Which side you are really on.

The empty banquet

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

Matthew 22:1-3

Jesus tells a story about heaven and he says, “Think of a big wedding dinner with all the decorations laid out, all the food prepared, all the hundreds of waiters, chefs and cooking staff on the ready, but with not a single guest in sight.” The hall is empty not because everyone got the wrong date in their calendars, verse 3 says, but because “they refused to come”.

What would you do? What the main character of this story does is he sends out even more reminders. Look at verse 4.

RSVP

Then he sent some more servants and said, “Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”

Matthew 22:4

He sends out a copy of the menu - Roast duck! Lobster noodles! Abalone mushrooms! He says, “Tell them, all the food is ready. Just come!” But look at their reaction in verse 5, and notice there, two layers of responses to the king’s invitation.

But they paid no attention and went off - one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.

Matthew 22:5-6

The first group just tears up the invite and goes back to watching the football. “We’ve got better things to do; more important things to do, than to spend Saturday night at a party - no matter how nice the food might be.” That’s the first response. And if we’re honest, we’ve all done this. We get loads of invites on Facebook which we just ignore. We conveniently chuck that wedding invitation card in the trash. “Can’t you see I’m a busy?”

The second group is more extreme. Verse 6: “They seized his servants, mistreated them,” - meaning, they physically abused and even tortured them - “and killed them.”

There are two levels of responses to the same invitation - one ignores it, the other violently rejects it - two very different responses; and that’s important to see because of what happens next. The king sends in his armies to punish both groups. He destroys their entire city. Look at verse 7.

Two responses, one rejection

The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

Matthew 22:7

What’s going on? Understandably, a lot of people read this, they immediately get that Jesus is talking about God, and they object that the king is acting unfairly towards his subjects. “It’s just a dinner!” they might say. “I mean, if he was just punishing the guys who beat up the servants and killed them, that would make sense. But burning down the entire city? That’s going too far.” So the objection goes.

What is so valuable about this parable that it helps us understand what the bible means by sin. Jesus is teaching us that sinning against God means rebelling against the King. It’s not just breaking a rule. It’s not just being bad and sticking pieces of gum under the table in class. To sin is to say to God, “We don’t want you to be king over our lives.”

And this parable is designed to show us how all of us rebel against God in one of two ways - through idolatry or rejection. All of us rebel against God either through idolatry or rejection. What do I mean?

The first group of people, we read in verse 5, “went off” and by that, we think it means they paid no attention to the invitation. But Matthew adds the words, “one to his field, another to his business.” This last description is very emphatic in the Greek, as it literally reads, “to his own (idion) field or farm.” Meaning, they owned their own land. They owned their own business. That’s the emphasis. They were landowners and business owners. You see, the basis of comparison wasn’t the food - how lavish it was for the king to slaughter his cows and oxen or how amazing the evening entertainment was going to be. No, the comparison was that of wealth and power. “I have my own land. I have my own business. Who is the king to tell me what to do? I am my own king.” That’s idolatry. Idolatry is turning away from God to something else other than God and turning that thing into God.

Or, to put it another way: Idolatry is the worship of something less that God. When we use excuses like “I’m busy with work or study or even family issues to talk about God right now” - and I know how acceptable those excuses sound, even here in the Chinese Church sometimes - what we are really saying is, “Instead of worshipping God, I would rather worship my work. I would rather worship my studies. I would rather worship my family.” They are excuses we use to turn away from worshipping the true and living God. That’s the first way we rebel against God, through idolatry.

The second way is outright rejection. But I want you to see, that it is a rejection not simply of God himself - through violence, anger, murder. No, it is the rejection of his word. Notice again, who the people lash out against. It’s the messengers. It is the servants who bring the message of the king, again and again to these same people, calling the hearers to respond to the king’s invitation. The villagers didn’t grab their pitchforks and storm the castle in order to attack the king's army. Rather what they did was more cowardly, and at the same time, more sinister. They took their aggression out on the servants of the king. Literally, the word is douloi, which is the word for slaves: These weren’t soldiers. They were simple postmen carrying the same message. And by the villagers act of violence, they were sending a message back to the king which read, “We reject your word of invitation. We reject your command of authority.”

Together, these two responses constitute one act of rebellion against the authority of the king, which is why Jesus tells this parable. He is saying to the religious teachers and Pharisees, “Do you know who you are dealing with?” God is a king who graciously invites us into his presence. He calls us to celebrate the wedding of his son. He calls us to respond to his word of grace. When we reject his word it is because we are rebelling against his authority. When we reject the invitation to his son’s wedding, it is because we despise how much the king loves his son and we reject how much the king wants us to glorify him through his son.

City of God

The consequence of this rebellion is the complete destruction of the people and their city. Again, it is vital that we notice that judgement falls on two separate levels - the people and their city. The king sends in his army to punish the wrongdoers, those who killed his messengers (together with those who stood and let this happen). But he also burns down their city.

These series of encounters between Jesus and the religious leaders takes place at a specific time and place. Chapter 21 is a turning point in the whole gospel as Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem as the long-awaited king riding on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah that this was the Messiah, the chosen king by God to bring order and salvation to the people of Israel. Jerusalem was the capital, not unlike London, it was the place where everything of significance happens - the Olympics, the Queen’s Jubilee, the opening scenes of Apprentice. But more than that, Jerusalem was God’s city. This was the city of the great King David. This was the city of God’s temple where his presence dwelt, which bore his holy name.

And all the religious leaders and Pharisees would have instantly understood what Jesus meant when he spoke of the king destroying “their city”. He was talking about Jerusalem. It wasn’t their city, it was God’s. But by their idolatry - by their continual rejection of God’s word - Jerusalem, which historically was a focus of so much of God’s attention; which scripturally, was the focus of God’s revelation; which liturgically, was the centre of God’s worship and presence, this city was now the object of God’s shame and judgement. It had become their city not God’s.

If you look a few verses back to Chapter 21, and verse 45, we read, “When the chief priests and Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them.” This parable was directed at people who were confident of their standing in God’s kingdom because of their position on earth. They were church leaders. These were the bible experts. And just in case we are quick to then assume that they weren’t consistent in their living or that they were too liberal in their thinking, we need to understand that the Pharisees were among the most zealous individuals known in history to apply God’s laws in everyday living. They memorised the five books of Moses (word for word, and that includes Leviticus!). Many served in the Temple court for generations. They observed all the cleanliness laws. They gave their tithes and offerings each week. They regarded God as holy, righteous and awesome. In many ways, the Pharisees were the evangelicals of their day. They were mainstream, respected, authoritative, biblical.

They were religious.

Answering the call

Yet through this parable, Jesus exposed how religion can actually lead us away from God. It can even lead us to rebel against God. We see this in the way the city-dwellers were repeatedly described as invited.

Verse 3: The king “sent his servants to those who had been invited”.

Verse 4: “Tell those who have been invited.”

Verse 8: “Those I invited did not deserve to come.”

The Greek word keklemenoi comes from the root word kaleo, which simply means “called”. These were the called ones. In fact, whenever we see the word “tell” in this parable, it is the exact same word for “call”. Meaning, the king send his servants again and again to call those who have been called. The parable is summed up at the end in verse 14, as “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

We misunderstand the word call today whenever we say, “I think God is calling me to be a pastor.” Or, “I feel God’s call for me to go to China.” And whenever we use the word “call” exclusively and primarily to mean some kind of mystical experience which spiritually authenticates God’s direction for our lives, we display that we are dangerously close to being in the same camp as the Pharisees and religious leaders Jesus addresses in this parable. They took God’s call for granted. They assumed by their status and religiosity and knowledge that therefore God was going to accept them based on their status, religiosity and knowledge.

And what they missed was God’s call as his gracious invitation to glorify him through his Son. For us today as the church - which means “called out” in Greek (ekklesia = ek [out] + kaleo [called]) - how much more does this parable remind us the importance of responding to God’s primary call to belong to Jesus Christ (Romans 1:6), and not to turn away because of idolatry or because of the rejection of his word. In other words, you might have been coming here to the Chinese Church for years. Week after week, you hear about Jesus. But have you ever RSVP’d his call to belong to his Son? Don’t mistake your attendance or even your long service record as your basis of acceptance before God. That was the danger of the Pharisees and religious leaders. Just because you are a musician. Just because you are a church leader. In fact, all the more because you are a leader, the bible is asking you, “Have you answered God’s call to be in Jesus Christ?”

Jesus is speaking to leaders, old-timers, Sunday School teachers. But then he turns to the rest of us to say, “How about you?” As we shall see (from verse 8 onwards), there is yet another invitation. The king sends out more servants, but now the call goes out to everyone, not just to the privileged few. It is a call from God to rejoice in Jesus Christ his Son. And what I want to put to you today is that this call isn’t just a call to be in heaven. Answering this call involves God’s plan for the church here on earth.

The good, the bad and the gospel

Then he said to his servants, “The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.” So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Matthew 22:8-10

“Go to the street corners,” says the king, “and call anyone you find.” The street corners (NIV) is not talking about the sidewalks (or street corners where you find a Starbucks, and the such) but actually describes “busy road”, that is, the roads the lead out of the city, where they turn into highways. The image then, is of these servants, going out as far as they can to the very edge of the kingdom to invite everyone and anyone they meet. Hence, by the end of the exercise, the entire wedding party is filled with every kind of person, verse 10 says, “both good and bad”.

This isn’t talking about heaven. I mean, it is talking about heaven, but it's not just heaven; it is describing God’s open, free and gracious invitation to enter his kingdom through Jesus Christ (the wedding banquet is for his Son, after all) and yet the action of the servants in “calling” is now coupled with “gathering” (sunagogon) all they could find. And that is a description of the church. The church is a gathering of God’s people in response to God’s word. God sends his word of invitation out and those who respond to his good news - his gospel - are gathered into his presence. Earlier, I mentioned that ekklesia was the New Testament word for the church, which literally meant those who were “called out”. In the Old Testament, however, the Hebrew Qahal refers to a “gathering”. And the two terms come together here in Jesus’ parable to describe, on one hand, God’s initiative in calling his church through the gospel (1 Peter 2:9, “God... who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light”), and on the other, our response as the church of gathering around his word and around his Son (Acts 7:38, “The church/gathering in the desert... living words passed down to us”).

The question is: How do you know you have been called and have answered that call? The picture that Jesus gives us in this parable is the gathering of the called. It’s the church, which isn’t a building, but people. The church, which isn’t a gathering of good people, but both bad and good (The word “bad” actually occurs first - bad and good - as if to give it extra emphasis), meaning, it’s not because we have done anything to deserve God’s call. The church, which isn’t a gathering to do good things, but a gathering in response to the good news, did you notice that? What did they do there? It doesn’t tell us. What it does tell us, three times, is that God’s word goes out, and it is his word which brings his people in. What this teaches us is: God’s word gives birth to the church, not the other way around. The purpose of the church is not so much to preach God’s word, as much as the church is the product of the preaching of God’s word. This is important for church planting - you don’t plant a church by getting a bunch of people in order to preach to them. You preach God’s word and it calls people to repentance and trust in Jesus Christ. It means at times people will ignore, that’s what we see in the parable. It means there will be seasons of persecution, we also see that in the parable. But God keeps sending out his word, such that when people do respond to his word, he gathers them around Jesus and they are his church. They are the called ones.

This is counter-intuitive for many of us. We want to set up committees. We want to plan for budgets and search for the right building. And of course, in doing so we wouldn’t dream of leaving out bible study and preaching; we wouldn’t do that. And yet, Jesus teaches us through this parable that God’s word is primarily responsible for gathering his people as the church - not our programs, not our planning. Preaching isn’t simply the feeding of the flock. It’s not something you do as part of your Sunday program (“We have singing, then the offering, then the preaching”). This is something much more fundamental. God’s word produces God’s church, that’s what Jesus is saying. Meaning, when God’s word is absent from our gatherings or when the gospel takes a backseat in our meetings, you really have to start wondering if those who are gathered here in God’s name are truly God’s people.

I understand that we need to find the right people. I know that many of us pray for God to send us the right guy. But hasn’t God given us his word? The ones who carry them are douloi - slaves. Their job is simply to repeat that word and to deliver the message. It is not the messenger, but the message that gathers the guests into the banquet. The messenger is often ignored, he might be rejected, he might even be killed. God sends more servants, carrying that same message, “Come in. Rejoice in Jesus, his Son. Trust in his offer of forgiveness, grace and glory. Everything has been prepared.”

The result is a full house. “The wedding hall was filled with guests” (verse 10). Full of Chinese? No. Full of Cambridge students? No. Full of the bad and the good. Full of those from near and far. Full of people who weren’t part of the initial guest list. Full of people you would never expect to be at such a fancy affair. That is the church. The question is: Is it ours? If we keep on preaching the gospel, it will be. “Go to the street corners and call anyone and everyone.” That’s a very risky thing to do. It is a scary thing to do. And yet it is precisely what God calls us to do. Why? So that we can have a great big church and lots of people will hear about the English congregation which meets in the middle of nowhere? No, because God has done all the preparations to bring all glory to his Son. The king says again and again, “I have prepared my dinner. I have slaughtered my cattle. The banquet is ready.” He has done everything. He has paid for everything. He has done all this for the sake of his Son, and the message is sent out to all who will respond to join him in rejoicing over his Son.

We speak the gospel to the end-roads, to anyone we can find, to the good and bad, to bring glory to Jesus Christ. That’s the last lesson we see in the parable, and it might be the hardest one yet. It would be great if the story ended here: the guests having a good time, the king satisfied that his event is a success, everyone living happily ever after. Instead, we read about one guy who gets thrown out. Instead, we read about final judgement.

Wedding clothes

But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. “Friend,” he said, “how did you get in here without wedding clothes?” The man was speechless.

Then the king told his attendants, “Tie him hand and food, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 22:11-13

What are we to make of this? The king notices a guy who doesn’t have his tux on and decides to throw him out of the party. How can that be fair? Weren’t the servant given instructions to invite anyone and everyone to the party - irrespective of whether they were bad or good? Perhaps this was a poor homeless man, it would have been unfair to expect him to turn up in a dinner jacket and black tie, wouldn’t it?

Yet, that’s not even the half of it. The king orders the attendants to tie the poor guy up and throw him outside, “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. This phrase occurs several times in Matthew’s gospel, always as an allusion to Hell and eternal punishment. It is a picture of extreme sorrow (weeping) together with extreme anger and resentment (gnashing of teeth, see Matthew 13:42 [The parable of the weeds], 13:50 [The parable of the net], 24:51 [The parable of the wicked servant], 25:30 [The parable of the talents]).

First of all, notice that the king comes specifically to meet with his guests (verse 11). They aren’t just a faceless crowd there to fill the empty seats. This king is actually interested in who they are and wants to see each guest face to face. But as he does so he comes across one individual who isn’t dressed in the proper attire: he doesn’t have “wedding clothes” - which isn’t a reference to expensive clothes, but rather, clean clothes. Notice how when asked, this man didn’t have a proper excuse - verse 12 says, “He was speechless”. He didn’t say, “I couldn’t afford it. I didn’t have it. I didn’t know.” But rather, by his speechlessness, it implies that he didn’t bother, he wasn’t bothered, and he didn’t care, not even to put on a clean t-shirt. He turned up presuming on graciousness of the king. He thought he could hide in the crowd.

On the surface, it seems superficial. It implies that God is looking for decorum, that the king was looking for an external quality - wedding clothes - that made his guests suitable and acceptable. Yet, the bible repeatedly uses the change of clothing as a picture of what happens when God covers us with the external, outer righteousness of Jesus Christ. Ezekiel describes how God clothes his bride with fine linen and costly garments (Ezekiel 16:10). Paul calls on believers to put off the old sinful nature and to put on the new, “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22, 24). Elsewhere, he tells us to clothe ourselves with Jesus Christ (Romans 13:14). In each and every one of these references, God clothes the Christian believer with an external beauty and righteousness, something we did not earn or deserve, rather it is because of everything Jesus did for us on the cross, that makes us acceptable before the King of the universe, and God our heavenly Father. In fact, when God looks at the believer clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, it means he looks upon this former rebel and sinner, as he does his own Son. In Jesus, we are truly and wholly loved by the Father.

Friend of sinners

One last thing. I find it is interesting how the King addresses the man as, “Friend.” At first glance, it may appear that the king is simply playing the gracious host. He doesn’t say, “Hey you!” He calls this man, who has presumed upon the king’s invitation, his friend. And though the man was inappropriately dressed, the king still gives him the opportunity to respond to the charge.

The particular word used here in the king’s address of “Friend” (hetaire), occurs only three times in the New Testament, and all three are found here in Matthew’s gospel. In the first two instances, here and back in Chapter 20 (as part of the parable of the workers), spoken by a ruler addressing his servants with gentleness, in a moment of tension addressing an audience that is antagonistic towards the speaker. So, in the parable of the vineyard in Matthew 20, the workers confront their boss. The grumble against him and gang up against him. The landowner says to one of them, "Friend."

Interestingly, in the third and last instance in Matthew's gospel, we find this address of "Friend," used by Jesus Christ himself. It occurs a few pages on in Chapter 26. There in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is betrayed by his disciple, Judas Iscariot. He is betrayed by his friend.

Judas arrived with a mob, armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and elders. Perhaps thinking he could catch Jesus off-guard, Judas devised a plan.

Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him. Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.

Jesus replied, “Friend, do what you came for.”

Matthew 26:48-50

Jesus addresses his betrayer as, “Friend.” You see, Jesus knows precisely what this friend of his has in store for him. Yet unlike the parable of the wedding banquet, it isn’t the “friend” who is bound and thrown out in the darkness. Instead, Jesus would be the one who was arrested, it would be his hands and feet that was bound, it was Jesus would was interrogated and put on trial. Jesus would be stripped of his clothes, stripped of all his dignity and hung on the cross. And it would be Jesus, near the end of his life, who would be alone in dark, as he cried out on the cross to his Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:45-46)

On the cross, Jesus bore our punishment for sin and rebellion. He was thrown into the darkness. He bore our nakedness and shame. And it is this act of sacrifice and friendship shown by Jesus Christ on the cross, from which we receive our righteousness, from which we are clothed in holiness, through which we are loved as sons and daughters of God.

Many are called

Jesus ends his parable with these words:

For many are invited (or called), but few are chosen.

Matthew 22:14

It is an unexpected conclusion. I would have expected him to have said, “For many are called, but few answer the call.” Isn’t that the consistent picture we get from the parable? The king sends out invite after invite, but not everyone responds? Not everyone takes it seriously?

Or, some of us would have expected Jesus to say, “For many are called, but few are live up to the call”, thinking of the guy without the wedding clothes, as a parable of those who presume on God’s call and don’t take it seriously.

But no, Jesus says, “Few are chosen.” Meaning, salvation is God’s prerogative from start to finish. Salvation is God’s grace in calling as well as in choosing. The word “chosen” is the same word elsewhere translated as “elected”. it is saying that God is the one who calls us into his presence and God is the one who enables us by his Spirit to answer that call. It is a totally unexpected conclusion to the parable!

What does this mean for us as Christians today?

1. God has prepared everything for our salvation

Salvation is entirely at God’s initiative and expense. The king repeatedly says, “The wedding banquet is ready. I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and cattle have been slaughtered.” And for us as Christians, God even clothes us with his righteousness in Jesus Christ, to make us acceptable in his presence. God has prepared all, done all, sacrificed all to ensure our entrance into his kingdom and our continued faithfulness to him as our King.

2. God’s call is the good news of his Son

“The Kingdom of Heaven,” Jesus tells us, “is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.” It isn’t simply about the food, in fact, it isn’t at all about the blessings or the food. It is all about the king’s son. God plan of salvation is for all creation to recognise the glory of his one and only Son. He sends out messenger after messenger with the same good news, that Jesus Christ is Lord.

3. Rejection of Jesus is at the heart of our sinful rebellion against God

Jesus spoke this parable against the Pharisees and religious leaders, not simply to expose their double-standards, but to reveal how their rejection of him was indicative of their rejection of God. Through idolatry, the leaders had chosen to make God’s salvation about themselves; trusting in their privilege, their heritage, their traditions and their own status. Through pride and rebellion, they would initiate the murder of Jesus by condemning him to death on the cross, because they rejected Jesus as God’s chosen Messiah.

4. God's call is sovereign and gracious

It doesn’t mean that we aren’t responsible for our actions. But it does mean that salvation is by grace from start to finish. For you to have heard the gospel, and for it to have made sense in your hearts and minds that, “Jesus Christ really did die for me on the cross,” - that is God’s gracious call to you and me. And for you to respond, “God, please forgive and change me through the cross,” - that, too is God’s grace working in you. It means, we should never take the gospel for granted, but always seek to hear and be changed by the message of forgiveness and reconciliation offered to us by God in his Son.

As Christians today, we sometimes obsess over the question, “Have I been called?” thinking that it is our calling that sets us apart as special or unique in God’s purposes for our lives. Jesus brings our attention back to the God who calls and the God who enables us to answer that call, first and foremost, as a call to respond to his salvation in Jesus Christ. He sends out his word - the gospel - calling everyone and anyone to turn to him in repentance and to rejoice in his Son. He sends out his servants to speak the gospel clearly and faithfully, calling his people to give their lives in obedience and love to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. This is the God who calls us out of darkness into his wonderful light, who calls his enemies his friends, who calls sinful rebels his sons and daughters making them holy and clothing them with righteousness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, his Son, on the cross.

Hear the call of the kingdom
Lift your eyes to the King

Let His song rise within you
As a fragrant offering
Of how God rich in mercy
Came in Christ to redeem
All who trust in His unfailing grace

King of Heaven we will answer the call
We will follow bringing hope to the world
Filled with passion, filled with power to proclaim
Salvation in Jesus' name

“Hear the call of the kingdom”, Keith Getty and Stuart Townend