Matthew 22:1-22, Tests by the religious leaders

The religious leaders test Jesus, trying to trap him.  But most of Jesus's teachings are in parables, which seem to confuse and distract them.

Matt 22:1-14, A king prepares a banquet
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Then he sent some more servants and said, `Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.'  But they paid no attention and went off--one to his field, another to his business.  The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.

"The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, `The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.'

"So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. `Friend,' he asked, `how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, `Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will  be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

"For many are invited, but few are chosen."

The metaphor implies that the Jewish nation has ignored God's invitation and so the invitation (as prophesied in the Old Testament) is dispersed to the Gentiles, to the "foreigners".  But even then, there are guests who seem to ignore the prestige and importance of such an invitation.

These parables (denouncing Jewish apathy and opening the kingdom of heaven to the Gentiles) force the Pharisees' hand....

Matt 22:15-22, A question about Caesar
Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. "Teacher," they said, "we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"

But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax." 

They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"

"Caesar's," they replied. 

Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."  

When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

The Pharisees ask Jesus a direct question.  But even the direct question he manages to deflect in a way that frustrates them.  Jesus does not, as they had hoped, attack the Romans, but continues to emphasize a larger kingdom of heaven.

Note the outright flattery that leads the questioning.

The "Herodians" have been brought to this questioning.  Presumably the Herodians are sympathetic to King Herod and so the question put before Jesus has considerable danger; if he runs down the Roman government, King Herod will have witnesses to his treason.