Matthew 22:6 - Exposition

The remnant. These form the second class of recalcitrant guests. They are actively hostile to the King and his messengers, rejecting them not merely for worldly or interested motives, but from intense hatred to the doctrines which they taught. Such were the scribes and Pharisees, who could not endure to see the Law superseded, and the Gentiles raised to their level; such were the Sadducees, who scoffed at a faith founded on the resurrection, and refused credit to the miraculous with which the gospel was interwoven. Took his servants. The narratives in the Acts give many instances of the seizure and imprisonment of apostles and believers (see Acts 4:3 ; Acts 9:2 ; Acts 12:4 , etc.). Entreated ( treated ) them spitefully (see Acts 5:40 ; Acts 14:19 ; Acts 16:23 , etc.; 2 Corinthians 11:23-25 ). Slew them; e.g. Stephen ( Acts 7:58 ), James ( Acts 12:2 ). All but one of the apostles died violent deaths at the hands of those who rejected the gospel; and there must have been numbers of martyrs of whom history has preserved no record, though their names are written in heaven, which is far better.