Bible In One Year Day 264 (Matthew 22 - 24, Proverbs 19: 17-20)

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Day 264 Preaching Without Practice 

Agape Bible Study 
Matthew 22 - 24 

Mathew 22:1-14 ~ The Parable of the Wedding Feast (parable #3)

Jesus' tells a third parable in His confrontation with the chief priests and the Pharisees/elders (Mt 21:45). The subject of the parable is the Kingdom of Heaven and the parable ends in a teaching on divine judgment. It is the eighth time He has begun a parable with the words "the Kingdom of Heaven is like ..." (see Mt 13:24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47 and 52).

In the parable, the occasion for the feast is the royal wedding of a king's son. The Greek word for "feast" is ariston, which refers to the noon meal, normally the largest meal of the day. In ancient times, the feasting for a wedding was expected to last for seven days ( Gen 29:27; Judg 14:12).

Question: Who is the king, who is the king's son, and what is the "wedding feast"? See Mt 9:15; Mk 2:19 and Jn 3:29.

Answer: God is the king and Jesus is the king's son who is the bridegroom. The invitation to the "wedding feast" is the invitation to be in covenant/in communion with God the great King "a relationship that is often symbolically represented as a marriage.

Question: Why are there three sets of invitations and why do some of those invited guests reject the invitation?
Answer: From the beginning of God's relationship with man, He has invited mankind "the "wedding guests," to have a covenant relationship with Him. Some that are invited are too obsessed with temporal concerns to take the time to enter into a relationship with God and "come to the feast," while others are hostile and reject the invitation to salvation. The people of Jesus' time have also had a mixed reaction to Jesus' invitation to the Kingdom through His Gospel message of salvation.

Question: Who are the servants of the king?
Answer: As in the other parables, the first servants are God's Old Testament prophets who called the people to repentance and salvation and the newer servants are Jesus' disciples and Apostles who preach Jesus' good news (Gospel) of salvation.

Matthew 22:15-22 ~ Paying the Roman Tax

The Pharisees and Herodians are unlikely allies. The Pharisees, according to Flavius Josephus (37-100 AD) who identified himself as a Pharisee, were the religious/political group that was most influential with the people. They were known for their scrupulous observance of Jewish religious practices and their authoritative interpretations of Jewish law (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 13.5.9, 10.6; Life 38). The Pharisees were not enamored with Roman rule and as a group had refused to take the oaths of allegiance to Rome and to King Herod (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 17.2.4). The Herodians, on the other hand, were Greek culture Jews who cooperated with and even admired the Romans. They were not known as faithful observers of the Law.

Question: What is ironic about the way they attempt to flatter Jesus in verse 16?

Answer: What is ironic is that for once, even though they are insincere, their statements concerning Jesus are true.

Question: What is their question?
Answer: They are asking Jesus if it is "lawful," meaning acceptable according to God, to pay the Roman poll tax.

Question: What is the trap they intended to set for Jesus? It was a two way trap depending on Jesus' answer.

Answer: If Jesus condemns the tax, He is encouraging the people to reject Rome's authority over Judea and the Jews and could be arrested by the Romans for encouraging insurrection. If however, He agrees that the tax bearing the image of the Roman emperor who claims to be the son of a god should be paid to the Romans, He will be taking a position contrary to the feelings of the majority of the common people who see the claim that Augustus is a god as a sacrilege and who follow Jesus because they are looking to Him as the liberator-Messiah who will free them from the Romans.

Question: The joining of the forces of these two groups (the Pharisees and Herodians) to "trap" Jesus may be an application of the old adage, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," but considering the trap they intended to set, why was it expedient for the Pharisees to include the Herodians?
Answer: The Pharisees did not support the Roman tax, but the Herodians did. If Jesus condemned the Roman tax, who better than the Herodian allies to make the charge to the Roman governor that Jesus was undermining obedience to Roman rule.

Question: How does Jesus reverse the trap?

Answer: Since the tax had to be paid with Roman coinage that bore the image of Caesar, the coins belonged to Caesar. Paying the denarius was simply giving back to Caesar what was his.

Question: What is the significance of Jesus' last statement that one must repay "to God what belongs to God" in relation to Jesus' question about "image" that religious Jews, including the Pharisees, would not have missed and which caused them to go away "amazed"? See Genesis 1:27.

Question: While the Roman coin bears the image of the Roman emperor, the emperor was created by God and bears the image of his Creator. Therefore, the emperor is subject to God's sovereignty over his life.

Matthew 22:23-33 ~ A Question about the Resurrection of the Dead

Jesus has confounded the Pharisees and the Herodians, and now the Sadducees try to test Him. The Sadducees were the religious/political party that was for the most part composed of the chief priests. St. Matthew records opposition by the Sadducees in 3:7 (questioning St. John the Baptist) and 16:1-4 (in league with the Pharisees to test Jesus). The Sadducees were the main opponents of the Pharisees:

• The Sadducees did not believe in a physical resurrection of the dead like the Pharisees (Lk 20:27; Acts 23:8; Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 18:16).
• The Sadducees only observed the precepts of the written Law in the Torah/Pentateuch (five books of Moses), unlike the Pharisees who accepted other books as Sacred Scripture and also followed the oral Law (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 13.5.9; 13.10.6; 18:16).
• The Sadducees counted among their supporters the wealthy and the aristocracy (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 13.10.6).

Matthew 22:34-40 ~ The Greatest Commandment

The Pharisees come as a group to test Jesus again. They select one of their members, a scribe who was an expert on the Law, to ask Jesus another question. However, St. Mark tells us this scholar was impressed by Jesus' answer to the Sadducees in defense of the resurrection (Mk 12:28).

The scribe asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment from among what will later be numbered as 613 articles of the Law. According to secular literature of the time, all the commandments were to be treated with equal devotion, but Jesus summed up the commandments of the Law in two sentences, answering what is both the greatest commandment and the second greatest. His answer is from two passages from the Torah. The first and greatest commandment is the Greek version of the Shema, the Old Covenant profession of faith from Deuteronomy 6:5, summing up one's relationship with God, The second is from Leviticus 19:18b and is the summary of the commandments concerning one's relationship with one's fellow man/woman. In quoting these passages, Jesus is summing up the entire law upon which, He says, the Torah and the books of the Prophets are based (Mt 22:40):

• Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength (Dt 6:5).
• Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD (Lev 19:18).

Matthew 22:41-46 ~ Jesus Questions the Pharisees about the Messiah

This is the third in the series of debates over the correct interpretation of Scripture. Jesus turns the tables on the group of Pharisees and asks them a question, quoting from Psalms 110:1. The promised Messiah was identified in the Scriptures as the son of David (see Is 11:1, 10; Jer 23:5; Ez 34:23-24). David spoke in a "spirit of prophecy" about the Messiah in Psalms 110:1 in which God addresses the newly crowned Messianic king. Jesus quotes the passage from the Greek Septuagint translation in which the Hebrew word for "footstool" has been replaced with the Greek word "feet." The Greek translation of the Old Testament was the most popular translation in Jesus time since very few Jews outside of the clergy spoke Hebrew. The common language, as noted, was Aramaic.

Jesus' argument referring to Psalms 110:1 hangs on what David meant by the second word "Lord." In the Greek translation the same word kyrios is used for both Yahweh and the king = lord. Jesus' point is if David is the speaker in Psalms 110:1 quoting what God has revealed to him and the second "Lord" is someone superior to David, then "Son of David" is not an adequate representation of who is being talked about since David's son could not be superior to him. Therefore, that person who is the second "Lord" must be the "Son of God" "45 If David calls him lord,' how can he be his son?" Jesus confounded them with His question and His logic and No one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Chapter 23 ~ Jesus Denounces the Scribes and Pharisees in a Covenant Lawsuit:

The Pharisees and scribes had sought to discredit Jesus with the crowds. Now, as Jesus continuing to teach in the Temple, He turned to address the people and His disciples as He discredits those who consider themselves "shepherds of Israel" but mislead the people concerning Jesus their Messiah and the coming of His Kingdom.

Matthew 23:1-12 ~ Jesus Affirms the Teaching Authority of the Old Covenant Church but Denounces their Practices

The "chair of Moses" in verse 2 refers to the teaching and ruling authority the Pharisees and scribes held over the people in the local Jewish synagogues. The teaching authority in the Temple belonged to the chief priests. Josephus wrote that the power of the Pharisees was so great that they were even able to change some liturgical practices in the Temple, like the reciting of the Ten Commandments by the chief priests in the Chamber of Hewn Stone and later, after Jesus' Resurrection, changing the day of the week the feasts of Firstfruits and Weeks/Pentecost were celebrated so they no longer fell on the first day of the week, our Sunday (Antiquities of the Jews, 13.8.4).

Question: Jesus upholds the authority of the people's religious leaders as the successors of Moses, but what warning does He give the people?
Answer: Do what they say but do not do what they do because they do not practice what they preach.

Question: What are some of Jesus' criticisms of the Pharisees and scribes?
Answer:

• The Pharisees' misinterpretation of the Law has made the Law a burden to the people.
• Their excessive show of piety is only a sham to put them in a good light.
• They delight in being honored and singled out for praise, putting themselves above the common people.

Matthew 23:13-32 ~ The Seven-part Curse Judgment against the Scribes and Pharisees

In Scripture the word "woe" (ouai in Greek and howy or owy in Hebrew) is used three different ways:

1. As an expression of grief as in mourning the dead or as an expression of grief over some disaster. Sometimes it is translated as “alas” in this context (for example see 1 Kng 13:30 or Jer 22:18).
2. As an exclamation signaling an important announcement by God or His prophet that is sometimes translated as Ah! (for example see Is 17:12 and Jer 47:6).
3. As an expression of impending judgment by God, especially in the context of a covenant lawsuit by announcing that the curses of the covenant were about to be put into effect (for example see Is 5:8-22; Amos 5:18; Hab 2:6-19).

Matthew 23:33-36 ~ Coming Judgment

Both St. John the Baptist and Jesus have called these men a "brood of vipers," the wicked children of the big serpent, Satan (Mt 3:7; 12:34). This is the third time the phrase is applied to them (also see Rev 12:9).

The answer to Jesus' rhetorical question in verse 33 is that they cannot flee the coming judgment.

Question: Who are the prophets, wise men and scribes that Jesus will send? What will happen to them? See the end of the Beatitudes in Mt 5:11-12 and Acts of Apostles.
Answer: They are His Apostles, disciples, and teachers of the New Covenant faith. They will be persecuted and killed like the Old Testament prophets for the sake of Jesus' Kingdom.

Question: What will be the result of the persecution of Jesus' servants?
Answer: Those who persecute the New Covenant servants of Christ will bring God's judgment and punishment upon their generation for the death and suffering of all God's holy prophets throughout salvation history.

Question: Was Jesus' prophecy fulfilled?
Answer: The religious leaders of the Old Covenant persecuted and killed Christians. They arrested Sts. Peter and John and murdered St. Stephen and St. James Zebedee. St. Paul was one of those sent by the Jewish Sanhedrin to arrest Christians before his conversion. In 66 AD the Jews revolted against Rome. The Romans send four legions of Roman soldiers into the Galilee and Judea. The Temple was burned to the ground in 70 AD and the nation was utterly destroyed with the majority of the survivors sold into slavery throughout the Roman world.

Matthew 23:37-39 ~ Jesus' Lament over Jerusalem

The image of a mother hen gathering her young under her wings is reminiscing of those passages that refer to God in Psalms 36:8/7; also see Dt 32:11; Ruth 2:12; Ps 57:2/1 and 61:5/4;

Question: What is the "house" of Jerusalem that will be left abandoned and desolate?
Answer: The Jerusalem Temple that was destroyed in 70 AD and never rebuilt.

Matthew 24:1-13 ~ The Destruction of the Temple and Beginning of Sorrows

The Jerusalem Temple was a source of great pride to the Jews of Jesus' generation. To win the hearts of the people, Rome's appointed King of the Jews, the Idumaean Herod the Great, took the simple structure built by the Jews who returned from the Babylonian captivity in the 6^th century BC and turned it into one of the most beautiful buildings of its time (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 15.11.1-7; Wars of the Jews, 1.21.1).

In predicting the destruction of the Temple in verses 1-2, Jesus was not expressing hostility to the Temple. Jesus had the most profound love and respect for His "Father's house," as He called the Temple (Jn 2:16).

Question: What are some examples of Jesus connection to the Temple throughout His life?
Answer:

• It was at the Jerusalem Temple that His mother came with Joseph forty days after Jesus' birth to present Jesus, her firstborn son, to receive her prescribed ritual purification, and to present her sacrifice under the Law (Lk 2:22-24).
• When Jesus was twelve, He stayed in the Temple three days to discuss theology with the priests and scribes (Lk 2:41-52).
• He kept the holy days by attending the annual Temple feasts at their appointed times (Jn 2:13; 7:2, 10; 11:22-23; 12:1).
• He paid the Temple tax to support the upkeep of the Temple (Mt 18:24-27).
• He cared about abuses of the Temple, cleansing His "Father's house" three times during His ministry (Jn 2:13-21; Mt 21:12-13; Mk 11:15-17).

Jesus recognized the Jerusalem Temple as God's dwelling-place among men and even identified Himself with the Temple by presenting Himself as God's definitive "dwelling-place among men" (Mt 12:6; Jn 2:19-21). But, on His last teaching day in Jerusalem, Jesus unites His prophecy of the Temple's destruction to the destruction of His own Body in His Passion. His death will become a sign of the future destruction of the Jerusalem Temple that will inaugurate the new and Final Age of mankind (see CCC 585-86, 593).

Jesus' prediction of the destruction of the Temple of His own Body and the raising up of His Body/Temple on the third day (Jn 2:19) will be used against Him at His trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin, and He will be taunted with His claim as He suffers on the Cross (Mt 27:39-40; Mk 14:57-58).

After Jesus' prophecy concerning the destruction of the Temple, He and the disciples left the city of Jerusalem, crossed the Kidron Valley Bridge and came to the Mt. of Olives. The disciples have already been told about His Passion, death and Resurrection which they understand will mark the close of the present age, and so they ask Him about His Parousia ("coming," "appearance"). They know that the destruction of the Temple is connected to His Parousia: Behold, your house [the Temple] will be abandoned. But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord' (Lk 13:35; also see Mt 23:38).

Matthew 24:15-25 ~ The Great Tribulation of Jerusalem

Verse 22 sets the events described during the lifetimes of the disciples. The "saved" refers to temporal salvation. In the return of the Messiah there is an end to time as we know it, but since Jesus says "for the sake of the elect" the tribulation will be shortened He is speaking of ending the tribulation for the sake of the Church so His disciples can continue with their mission to spread the Gospel of salvation.

Question: What is Jesus' warning in verses 16-21?
Answer: His warning is by the time the desolation of the Temple takes place they must flee Jerusalem without stopping to gather anything.

Matthew 24:29-31 ~ The Parousia of the Son of Man

Speaking of the future messianic hope, God told the prophet Haggai: I will shake the heavens and the earth; I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms, destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations (Hag 2:21-22). In verse 29 Jesus uses apocalyptic language to express the serious consequences of the "Day of the Lord" when all creation will signal the coming of the Son of Man and the course of human history is altered. This is the same imagery the prophet Joel uses in Joel 3:1-5, a passage St. Peter quoted from in his homily on Pentecost Sunday when he said the day Joel wrote about had come: And I will work wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below: blood, fire, and cloud of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and splendid day of the Lord, and it shall be that everyone shall be saved who calls on the name of the Lord (Acts 2:19-21). Also see similar language in the books of other Old Testament prophets (Is 13:10; 34:4; Ez 32:7; Amos 8:9; Joel 2:10, 31; Hag 2:6, 31; 21).

Matthew 24:32-35 ~ The Time of His Coming in the Parable of the Fig Tree

Again Jesus is using an image of the Old Testament prophets in the image of the fig tree. Unlike most trees in the Holy Land, the fig tree sheds it leaves in winter. When the fig tree begins producing leaves and buds it is a sign that summer is coming.

Since the reference is to Jesus' generation in verse 34, the "these things" that must take place must refer to His death and resurrection after which will come the tribulation of Jerusalem followed by the Son of Man coming in judgment on Jerusalem and the Temple to fulfill His prophecy in 24:2.

Jesus solemn saying Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away in verse 35 are reminiscent of Isaiah 40:8: Though the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of our God stands forever. Verses 34-35, the references to "these things" and "heaven and earth," also recalls His promise in Matthew 5:18: Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place, a reference to His Passion, death and resurrection when the old Law of the Sinai Covenant will be fulfilled.

Matthew 24:36-44 ~ Warning to Be Alert for the Day and Hour

There are three possible interpretations:

1. The unknown time of the coming tribulation and judgment on Jerusalem for Jesus' generation.
2. The unknown hour of the Second Coming of the Christ at the end of time.
3. The unknown moment of one's death, when each person will face judgment.

Question: Who knows the day and hour of the exact coming of the Son of Man in the glory of His Second Advent? See verse 36 and CCC 1040.
Answer: Only God the Father knows.

It is therefore foolish for people to speculate about His imminent coming. It is better to live as though He is coming in the next minute and to keep one's life continually "right" with God. As Jesus warns in 24:22-23, if anyone tells you he knows when Jesus is coming, avoid that person because he is a false prophet.

Matthew 24:45-51 ~ The Parable of the Two Stewards

Question: What are the two favorable characteristics of the servant the master has put in charge of his household?
Answer: His is both faithful and prudent/wise.

The adjective pistos/faithful in the sense of one who is trustworthy and reliable is frequently used as the ideal characteristic of a Christian leader (see 1 Cor 4:1-2, 17; Col 1:7; Eph 6:21; Tit 1:9).

In Numbers 12:7 Moses is identified as the chief servant God placed over His household, the Old Covenant Church. In Hebrews 3:1-6 the inspired writer compares Moses and Christ. Jesus, "who was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all his house" but they goes on to say that Moses was faithful as a servant while Christ was faithful as a divine Son placed over God's house, the Church.

In ancient times, the chief servant who ruled in his master's name over the household was the master's steward or vicar in the case of kings.

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A Daily Defense 

DAY 264 The Perspicuity of Scripture

CHALLENGE: “We don’t need Tradition or the Magisterium to help us understand Scripture. It is perspicuous—i.e., clear and readily understandable.”

DEFENSE: This claim can be understood more than one way.

It may be understood in a strong sense, according to which Scripture is sufficiently clear that every point of theology can be settled by Scripture alone. However, Scripture contains many passages that are very difficult to understand. Anyone with minimal exposure to the Bible knows it is far from perspicuous. If it were, the diverse interpretations and debates about its meaning would not exist.

Scripture comments on the difficulty people experience reading it. When Philip encounters the Ethiopian eunuch, who is reading Isaiah 53 (perhaps the single most significant messianic prophecy), Philip asks: “ ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ And he said, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ ” (Acts 8:30–31).

Scripture contains many passages, including prophecies and parables, which are intended not to be perspicuous. God apparently wants us to wrestle with the meaning of Scripture, and the claim that it is so clear every point of theology can be settled by Scripture alone is not credible.

Consequently, many have proposed a weakened version of the claim, according to which Scripture is only perspicuous enough that its main doctrines are clear. It is sometimes said, “The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things.” The weakened claim is more defensible. There are certain, central doctrines that Scripture clearly teaches (e.g., God exists, God created the world, there is only one God, Jesus is the Messiah).

However, it wrongly conveys the idea that only the clear things in Scripture are important. This is not true. Peter comments on Paul’s letters: “There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures” (2 Pet. 3:16). If Paul’s writings contain things hard enough to understand that the unlearned destroy themselves, not all the important things are clear and salvation is on the line.

More fundamentally, weakening the claim so it does not cover all points of theology makes it too weak to support the doctrine of sola scriptura. There will still be points of theology one needs Tradition or the Magisterium to make clear.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist