When people are invited to something important, there are always a few questions.
What time should we be there? What should we wear? Who else is coming?
We want to understand the details. We want to get it right. But eventually, all the questions give way to something simpler.
Are you going?
Yes or no.
That’s the moment Jesus presses into in Matthew 22.
He tells a story about a king preparing a wedding feast for his son. Everything is ready. The invitations have gone out, and now the message comes: it’s time.
Yes or no?
But the invited won’t give either response. Some ignore it. Others turn violent. Either way, they refuse to answer the invitation.
Cue the Pharisees …
They’re tired of Jesus and have heard enough of his talk about invitations. So, they step closer, into the open, into the crowd, questions loaded, ready to fire. Taxes to Caesar. Marriage at the resurrection. The greatest commandment. It’s their best thinking, their sharpest angles, their most public attempt yet to silence him.
And it’s all a façade, masking their refusal to give a simple answer.
Unmoved, Jesus answers them all deeper than the Pharisees ever considered. A coin isn’t about taxes; it’s about allegiance. The resurrection isn’t a puzzle; it’s the power of God. The law isn’t a list; it’s a life ordered around love. Jesus has all the answers, but one …
Are you going?
Yes or no.
Time for Jesus to ask a question of his own—about David, about the Messiah, about a Son who is also Lord. For the first time, no one steps forward. No counter. No follow-up. No next move. No more questions, and the Pharisees won’t ask another one for the rest of Matthew’s Gospel.
Finally, in their silence, they’ve answered.
No.
Jesus invites us too, and we can think deeply about him, ask good questions, and keep the conversation going, but we can only circle him for so long. Eventually, we come to the feast … or we don’t.
Are you going?
Yes or no.
Reflection:
- Do you ever ask God questions only to avoid answering him?
- What would a “yes” look like in your life right now?