THE GOSPEL ACCORDING
TO MATTHEW
CHAPTER
22
1. Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying; "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 1 to 3)
Oh Jesus You are still calling on us every day of our lives, to turn away from our ways of life and base our lives according to Your will. You love us so much, that You are always giving, so kind and generous and inviting. When we accept You in our lives, You never send us away or refuse us, even if we make mistakes and go against Your will. You are always ready to accept us back in a spirit of repentance.
4. Again he sent other slaves, saying, "Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.'
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verse 4)
Oh Jesus everything is ready the offering has been sacrificed, for our benefit You took on Yourself a very cruel passion in order to save our skins. Every day You call on us to repent from our sinful ways and come and have fellowship with You in whom we find rest for our soul and happiness for our entire life.
5. But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6. while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. 7. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 5 to 7)
Oh God at times we tend to take You for granted and delay our salvation for another day, hoping that our death will never come. This is an illusory attitude but that is how we deal with each other as humans. We take risks hoping that that the situations will always be in our favour and never stop to consider the consequences of our actions. I agree oh God that this attitude is not a responsible one and that it hurts You to the heart, for You are more than aware of the consequences if we reject You from our lives. The evil one will move in to destroy our souls because we closed the door on You and opened the other to evil thus leading to our destruction of both body and soul.
8. Then he said to his slaves, "The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.'
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 8 to 9)
Oh Jesus although you invite us every day to have fellowship with You we do not always accept Your invitation. One day oh Jesus You will turn on others such as protestants and make them Your chosen people and it will be all our fault, for by means of our behaviour we have rejected You in our lives.
10. Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verse 10)
Oh God how faithful You are. You do not reserve the opportunity of salvation for an elite group but offers salvation for all both good people and sinners.
11. "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12. and he said to him, 'Friend how did you get in here without a wedding robe? And he was speechless. 13. Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14. For many are called. but few are chosen."
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 11 to 14)
Among the group of believers even the evil ones tend to try and enter by illicit means. Sorry to say even in the Church oh God there are both laity and priests who although are Roman Catholics still are not genuinely wearing the wedding robe. I ask for Your forgiveness oh God for at times I am also a hypocrite and do not always were the robe. Amen
15. Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verse 15)
Oh God how crooked and sinful are the ways of the world. You taught us to stick to the truth at all costs and this is my motto, even I am condemned by the world. When I was involved in a collision in the presence I said the whole truth, even though it is being used against me with the insurance firm. You taught us that our Yes is to be truly a Yes and likewise our No. This means that there is no occasion for ''but's and if or maybe, even if this means that we are to suffer the consequences of our actions. In Your Gospel You told us oh God to be as wise as the Serpent and and pure as the Dove.
16. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with the truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verse 16)
Oh God in order to try and trap You in Your words flattery was used as a means of impressing you and then they would ask You the fatal question that would be the means by which to find something on which to accuse You. I thank You oh God for raising this awareness of the use of flattery for negative intentions. We are always to be aware of people who might be flattering us in order to trap us.
17. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?"
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verse 17)
Indeed oh God such people make use of social issues that are open in content and may have both a positive and even negative reply. Therefore when posing such question when answering in either way one could easily be thwarted by having a positive answer manipulated into a negative one. On reflecting it is lawful to pay taxes as in the times of the Roman Emperor, but now as in our cases that the pension age in Malta has increased to the age of 63, will we ever get our pension after such a long time of labour. As in other countries the pension age is already up to the age of 70. When considering that Malta has already an ageing population people will end up dying at the place of work and never reaping the fruit of their taxes.
On the other hand the pension is only one fraction of where the money that we pump into the system goes. Other portions of our taxes are invested in other sectors such as health, finance and even education. Therefore when paying taxes we are investing also in the future of our children and even their children. Therefore it is beneficial to pay our taxes. If the people of the time of Jesus did not pay their taxes to the Emperor, the whole nation would have been wiped out by the Romans. On the other hand the Romans in turn were protecting the people from the invasion of other nations of their time as found in the archives of history. Therefore the issue of taxes was a two pronged question or even a double barrelled question in order to accuse You by what You would reply.
18. But Jesus aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19. Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. 20. Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" 21. They answered, "The emperors's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's" 22. When they heard this they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 18 to 22)
Oh Jesus how wise You are so much that with one example You refuted the argument of the evil ones who tried to entrap You with their arguments. They are no match for You. I pray that when confronted by similar circumstances I also stop and think and give a reply that is according to Your will, instead of venting out my emotions and becoming angry.
As a means of helping us to refute such arguments and defend the truth please click on the following link which gives us simple but important guidelines that are used in philosophy
How to refute arguments
23. The same day some Sadducees came to him, saying there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, sayimg, 24. "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.' 23. Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother. 26. The second did the same, so also the third, down to the seventh. 27. Last of all, the woman herself died. 28. In the resurrection, then, whose wife of the seven will she be? For all of them married her."
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 23 to 28)
Oh Satan father of sin and evil doings, how base can you become. You send your spirits to harass us time and time again as in the case of Jesus. I pray oh Jesus that You bless us with Your wisdom by consecrating us again and again with the wisdom of Your Holy Spirit and give us the needed attitude and responses in the right circumstance of our life, especially when we face persecution and tribulation for who and what we believe in. That is our faith in You.
29. Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. 30. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 29 to 30)
Oh God human reasoning is totally different from Your reasoning. We can only use human logic to arrive at certain conclusions but Your vision is wider than ours. You can perceive eternity, while we can only create an imaginary form by means of our imagination. Therefore our logic is not reliable and is subject to being refuted.
31. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, 32. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is God not of the dead, but of the living." 33. And when the crowd heard it, they were astounded at his teaching.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 31 to 33)
Thank You oh God for being the God of the living because as a human I cannot live without You. I also proclaim that You are my God. When I am spiritually alive I am in Your presence, however when I am stained by my sin I feel as if I am dead and Your presence may not bet hat alive in me.
34. When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35. and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 34 to 35)
Oh God when the forces of evil sense Your presence they become more aggressive and they increase the strength of their oppression.
36."Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" 37. He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38. This is the greatest and first commandment.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 36 to 38)
Oh God loving You is the fulfilment of my life. I would really like to follow You with all my heart and all my mind but at times I tend to loose focus because my emotions get the better side of me and I end up being stressed and angry about situations that come about. Oh GOD I pray for the gift of self control so that I can be a better Christian and human and be worthy of being called as one of Your son. Amen.
39. And a second is like it; 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 39 to 40)
Oh Jesus this is perfectly true, if we do not love others we cannot have love for You, however it is also true that if we do not love ourselves in a healthy way that is not self-centred we still cannot manifest love for others.
41. Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question; 42. "What do you think of the Messiah?" Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." 43. He said to them, "How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him LORD, saying, 44. 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet"? 45. If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?" 46. No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 41 to 46)
Oh God my Father the knowledge and reasoning of the world cannot be compared to the infinite knowledge and wisdom given by Your Holy Spirit. Moreover as in the case of the Pharisees at times You ask us questions by means of situations, that rock the bottom of our foundations. One such question that You may ask us is "Who am I for You?". This may be followed by a second question: "Do you really love me more, than others and even more than yourself?. If we are not giving You oh God the first place in our lives, although we may seem to be doing well we may be in trouble both spiritual and even on a social level. We might be living in a state of chaos without our being aware of it, because our values might be displaced or not there at all any more. This is a great time to stop and think about our greatest issues in life. Amen.
I would like to end this chapter with the following prayer:
Oh God I thank You for making me aware that every day I need to deal with my personal issues on many levels. The two most important questions that I truly and sincerely need to ask myself every day of my life are if I truly love You before any other person and with all my mind and all my heart. The second question is what role have You in my life a loving Father or a magician who makes my wishes come true. The third question is in whom do I really believe? The image of God that was given to me when I was a child, or has my faith in you matured to that of a grown up?
4. Again he sent other slaves, saying, "Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.'
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verse 4)
Oh Jesus everything is ready the offering has been sacrificed, for our benefit You took on Yourself a very cruel passion in order to save our skins. Every day You call on us to repent from our sinful ways and come and have fellowship with You in whom we find rest for our soul and happiness for our entire life.
5. But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6. while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. 7. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 5 to 7)
Oh God at times we tend to take You for granted and delay our salvation for another day, hoping that our death will never come. This is an illusory attitude but that is how we deal with each other as humans. We take risks hoping that that the situations will always be in our favour and never stop to consider the consequences of our actions. I agree oh God that this attitude is not a responsible one and that it hurts You to the heart, for You are more than aware of the consequences if we reject You from our lives. The evil one will move in to destroy our souls because we closed the door on You and opened the other to evil thus leading to our destruction of both body and soul.
8. Then he said to his slaves, "The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.'
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 8 to 9)
Oh Jesus although you invite us every day to have fellowship with You we do not always accept Your invitation. One day oh Jesus You will turn on others such as protestants and make them Your chosen people and it will be all our fault, for by means of our behaviour we have rejected You in our lives.
10. Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verse 10)
Oh God how faithful You are. You do not reserve the opportunity of salvation for an elite group but offers salvation for all both good people and sinners.
11. "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12. and he said to him, 'Friend how did you get in here without a wedding robe? And he was speechless. 13. Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14. For many are called. but few are chosen."
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 11 to 14)
Among the group of believers even the evil ones tend to try and enter by illicit means. Sorry to say even in the Church oh God there are both laity and priests who although are Roman Catholics still are not genuinely wearing the wedding robe. I ask for Your forgiveness oh God for at times I am also a hypocrite and do not always were the robe. Amen
15. Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verse 15)
Oh God how crooked and sinful are the ways of the world. You taught us to stick to the truth at all costs and this is my motto, even I am condemned by the world. When I was involved in a collision in the presence I said the whole truth, even though it is being used against me with the insurance firm. You taught us that our Yes is to be truly a Yes and likewise our No. This means that there is no occasion for ''but's and if or maybe, even if this means that we are to suffer the consequences of our actions. In Your Gospel You told us oh God to be as wise as the Serpent and and pure as the Dove.
16. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with the truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verse 16)
Oh God in order to try and trap You in Your words flattery was used as a means of impressing you and then they would ask You the fatal question that would be the means by which to find something on which to accuse You. I thank You oh God for raising this awareness of the use of flattery for negative intentions. We are always to be aware of people who might be flattering us in order to trap us.
17. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?"
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verse 17)
Indeed oh God such people make use of social issues that are open in content and may have both a positive and even negative reply. Therefore when posing such question when answering in either way one could easily be thwarted by having a positive answer manipulated into a negative one. On reflecting it is lawful to pay taxes as in the times of the Roman Emperor, but now as in our cases that the pension age in Malta has increased to the age of 63, will we ever get our pension after such a long time of labour. As in other countries the pension age is already up to the age of 70. When considering that Malta has already an ageing population people will end up dying at the place of work and never reaping the fruit of their taxes.
On the other hand the pension is only one fraction of where the money that we pump into the system goes. Other portions of our taxes are invested in other sectors such as health, finance and even education. Therefore when paying taxes we are investing also in the future of our children and even their children. Therefore it is beneficial to pay our taxes. If the people of the time of Jesus did not pay their taxes to the Emperor, the whole nation would have been wiped out by the Romans. On the other hand the Romans in turn were protecting the people from the invasion of other nations of their time as found in the archives of history. Therefore the issue of taxes was a two pronged question or even a double barrelled question in order to accuse You by what You would reply.
18. But Jesus aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19. Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. 20. Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" 21. They answered, "The emperors's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's" 22. When they heard this they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 18 to 22)
Oh Jesus how wise You are so much that with one example You refuted the argument of the evil ones who tried to entrap You with their arguments. They are no match for You. I pray that when confronted by similar circumstances I also stop and think and give a reply that is according to Your will, instead of venting out my emotions and becoming angry.
As a means of helping us to refute such arguments and defend the truth please click on the following link which gives us simple but important guidelines that are used in philosophy
How to refute arguments
23. The same day some Sadducees came to him, saying there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, sayimg, 24. "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.' 23. Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother. 26. The second did the same, so also the third, down to the seventh. 27. Last of all, the woman herself died. 28. In the resurrection, then, whose wife of the seven will she be? For all of them married her."
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 23 to 28)
Oh Satan father of sin and evil doings, how base can you become. You send your spirits to harass us time and time again as in the case of Jesus. I pray oh Jesus that You bless us with Your wisdom by consecrating us again and again with the wisdom of Your Holy Spirit and give us the needed attitude and responses in the right circumstance of our life, especially when we face persecution and tribulation for who and what we believe in. That is our faith in You.
29. Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. 30. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 29 to 30)
Oh God human reasoning is totally different from Your reasoning. We can only use human logic to arrive at certain conclusions but Your vision is wider than ours. You can perceive eternity, while we can only create an imaginary form by means of our imagination. Therefore our logic is not reliable and is subject to being refuted.
31. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, 32. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is God not of the dead, but of the living." 33. And when the crowd heard it, they were astounded at his teaching.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 31 to 33)
Thank You oh God for being the God of the living because as a human I cannot live without You. I also proclaim that You are my God. When I am spiritually alive I am in Your presence, however when I am stained by my sin I feel as if I am dead and Your presence may not bet hat alive in me.
34. When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35. and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 34 to 35)
Oh God when the forces of evil sense Your presence they become more aggressive and they increase the strength of their oppression.
36."Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" 37. He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38. This is the greatest and first commandment.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 36 to 38)
Oh God loving You is the fulfilment of my life. I would really like to follow You with all my heart and all my mind but at times I tend to loose focus because my emotions get the better side of me and I end up being stressed and angry about situations that come about. Oh GOD I pray for the gift of self control so that I can be a better Christian and human and be worthy of being called as one of Your son. Amen.
39. And a second is like it; 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 39 to 40)
Oh Jesus this is perfectly true, if we do not love others we cannot have love for You, however it is also true that if we do not love ourselves in a healthy way that is not self-centred we still cannot manifest love for others.
41. Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question; 42. "What do you think of the Messiah?" Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." 43. He said to them, "How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him LORD, saying, 44. 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet"? 45. If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?" 46. No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
(Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22 verses 41 to 46)
Oh God my Father the knowledge and reasoning of the world cannot be compared to the infinite knowledge and wisdom given by Your Holy Spirit. Moreover as in the case of the Pharisees at times You ask us questions by means of situations, that rock the bottom of our foundations. One such question that You may ask us is "Who am I for You?". This may be followed by a second question: "Do you really love me more, than others and even more than yourself?. If we are not giving You oh God the first place in our lives, although we may seem to be doing well we may be in trouble both spiritual and even on a social level. We might be living in a state of chaos without our being aware of it, because our values might be displaced or not there at all any more. This is a great time to stop and think about our greatest issues in life. Amen.
I would like to end this chapter with the following prayer:
Oh God I thank You for making me aware that every day I need to deal with my personal issues on many levels. The two most important questions that I truly and sincerely need to ask myself every day of my life are if I truly love You before any other person and with all my mind and all my heart. The second question is what role have You in my life a loving Father or a magician who makes my wishes come true. The third question is in whom do I really believe? The image of God that was given to me when I was a child, or has my faith in you matured to that of a grown up?
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