Articles
Day of Debates - Matthew 22
Day of Debates
After 3 years of religious discussions with the Jewish leaders, Jesus come to Jerusalem for the last time. After being proclaimed the Son of David as He entered the city, he went to the temple and drove out the money changers and sellers of animals. This brought about an immediate public confrontation over the authority of Jesus. When they publicly are forced to back down, Jesus then tells several pointed parables. The parable of the two sons contrasts the humble repentance of the tax collectors and prostitutes and the defiant rebellion of the Jewish leaders.
Jesus follows that with the parable of the wicked tenants who refuse to give the landowner his rightful due. They end up killing the son of the land owner and thus would face severe retribution by the landowner. They immediately recognized that he was speaking of them as the wicked tenants. (21:45).
Jesus doesn't let up but follows that with the parable of the wedding feast. Here the king invites the people to the wedding of his son and they simply refuse to participate. Again he spoke of the Jewish leaders that they were called but by their rejection of the king they are to be rejected.
All of this took place in public. In order to save face, they plotted how to entangle him in his words. They need to somehow discredit him as a teacher of righteousness. Hence three public 'debates'.
The Pharisees bring up a current religious topic that was hotly debated by the various Jewish groups: should Jews pay taxes to Caesar? Jesus answers simply: "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's". They were left without an answer.
The Sadducees then make up a story about a woman who fulfills the levirate law of marrying the brother of the dead husband in order to have children for the family name. Again, with a simple answer they are left without an answer and the crowd is astonished at Jesus' teaching.
The Pharisees return and one of their scribes asks: "which is the greatest commandment?" Again Jesus answers by quoting the appropriate scripture and leaves them unable to respond. However the debating is not over for now Jesus turns the table and publicly asks the Pharisees a question. This involved harmonizing the statement that the Messiah would be the son of David AND the scripture that shows the Messiah would also be David's Lord. Christians have answered this easily affirming that Jesus was the son of God and thus God manifest in the flesh as the son of David. Hence he was both the son of David and the Lord.
Thus the day comes to a close with the religious leaders having been publicly humiliated and shown to be inadequate teachers of God's word. It is little wonder that they wanted to (and did) kill him. Of course they could have just admitted that they were wrong and acknowledge Jesus as the son of God, but they didn't. Will you?
