Matthew 22:15-30
If we take Matthew’s testimony about Jesus seriously, we confront the possibility that there were some instances in Jesus’ life where He was less than pleasant…it’s all too easy to remake Jesus in our image….picking and choosing from the biblical testimony in order to depict him as a friendly…harmless…loving…caring…Savior.
There are instances when we see Jesus not as the meek and gentle Jesus we thought we knew…we’ve already looked at the eight woes of condemnation He pronounced against the religious leaders of Israel.
In this life there are things worth getting worked up about…one of my favorite move lines is in ‘Open Range’ … ‘there are some things worth dying for’…just as there are some things worth arguing about…things that call for us to be defiant.
Jesus is in a continuous conflict of verbal duels between Himself and the various religious authorities in Jerusalem…they had been at it for a while.
For the past five weeks we have been looking at just one day in Jesus’s life… Tuesday of Holy Week where Jesus was involved in a long series of discussions with Sadducees, lawyers, chief priests, elders, scribes, Pharisees, and their disciples.
As a Christians never get into a verbal argument regarding the Bible…just don’t do it…you will never get your point across.
For these guys…it wasn’t because they were sincerely seeking Jesus’ advice…their real motive was to force Jesus into a difficult answer that would discredit Him before the people (Matthew 22:15-22) or that they might seize Him for something He said in order to deliver Him to the authorities (Luke 20:20).
As believers we often get asked ‘perplexing questions’ …sometimes, the questions come from unsaved friends who are sincere…who do have a genuine desire to know the answers…but just as often, ‘perplexing questions’ come from unbelievers who have already made up their mind to ‘disbelieve’ before the question is even answered.
In the case today Jesus is asked three questions that are little more than ‘mental puzzles’ offered in an attempt to make faith in Jesus look absurd or to make us look silly…but most of the time to make them look even sillier…that’s the nature of the three questions we find in this morning’s passage:
In first century Jerusalem there were three primary groups—Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees. Each one of these three groups gets together in an attempt to outwit Jesus.
Each group asks an independent question…questions that are relevant to us today… maybe why Matthew was inspired to include them in his gospel…had he not recorded them we would have little direction regarding these issues.
The first group to confront Jesus is the Herodians…they held the political power.
Matthew 22:17-22, Concerning paying taxes:
17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay tax to Caesar or not?” 18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” 21 “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?
There is a lot of historical background that goes along with this question…the question of the tax itself…what the tax was spent on…because the coin had the image of Caesar on it was considered a graven image…all were relevant but here’s the issue:
Is it lawful to pay (doumai) to give what is due to Caesar, or not? [17]
The Pharisees tried to trap Jesus with this question asking if He thought it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar — the state…the wording almost gives the impression that they are de-emphasizing their legal obligation to pay taxes and they want Jesus’s concurrence.
If Jesus answers that the taxes are lawful, He will alienate the people who hate the tax and the coin…if He answers that the taxes are not lawful, the Romans will arrest Him for subversion…either way, Jesus loses and his enemies win.
The problem for Jesus is…the question had been carefully crafted that allowed for only a yes-or-no answer…their purpose in asking was not to acquire an honest answer…it was to limit Jesus’ options so that He has no choice but to answer in a way that will compromise Him.
Jesus made no distinction between what was legal and what was unfair…many times people use that as an excuse for not paying taxes…that they’re illegal…or unfair because they’re paying more than their share…so I won’t pay any at all.
Then there’s the issue of the income tax laws that are constitutionally questionable …nevertheless, we have a system in this country that requires us to obey the laws that are created by our legislators.
So…Jesus’ answer was twofold; He said to give what is due to the government. Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and secondly give what is due to God.
With respect to paying taxes…for Christians this should not be an issue…as citizens we have an obligation to the state—to obey its laws and to pay its taxes. Paul tells us that God has appointed higher authorities and we are obligated to obey them (Romans 13:1-2).
Give to God the things that are God’s. [21]
Jesus doesn’t divide the world into two equal realms, one between our obligations to Caesar (government) and our obligations to God…His answer acknowledges our obligation to the state but affirms our larger obligation to God.
I’m not going to get back into a discussion on giving to the church…talked about that a couple weeks ago…but with respect to The Branches church…I know I speak for the Church Council…deacons…and Finance Committee when I say I am humbled and grateful for the consistent level of giving from our church family.
Matthew 22:23-33, Concerning the Resurrection:
23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said…if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers …the first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
One of the greatest tragedies that the Jewish people could imagine would be that a man dies without any offspring to carry on his name…and more importantly… preserve his inheritance of land.
As a result, Jewish Law stated that if a married man dies childless, his brother must marry his widow and father a child who will be considered the son of the deceased man (vv. 5-6).
This was required to provide for the widow to keep land and other matters of inheritance within the family, and to ensure that the deceased person’s name and clan will continue.
So the Sadducees make up a ridiculously stupid story about seven brothers who all marry this one woman—one after another—until she had gone through all seven brothers…and then she died—much to the relief of some nephews who may have been next in line for consideration!
They then, ask Jesus: ‘So; in this ‘resurrection’ whose wife will she be? …this should be the indication that this is a trick question the Sadducees sought to trap Jesus in His words…they denied there even was a resurrection.
So…obviously this was a question asked out of a spirit of unbelief—one that was designed to make Jesus scramble around for some answer to a ridiculous question in an effort to save face.
It’s like the question of…if when God bodily raised us from the dead on the last day…is He planning to resurrect all our old haircuts and fingernail-clippings as well…it’s not a sincere question…it’s asked out of a spirit of unbelief.
So how do we as Christians counteract being in the same situation: listening to what God is saying by: 1) reading His Word…2) by coming to Church and Sunday school…3) attending Bible studies doing in-depth studies of God’s Word.
Notice Jesus’ answer…He tells them right away, ‘You are mistaken’ [29] then tells them why they’re mistaken…they were led astray by the condition of their thinking—”not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God” [v. 29]
(1) They didn’t know the Scriptures because if they did, they would believe in the resurrection because it is taught in Scripture.
(2) They didn’t know the power of God because if they did, they would believe in the resurrection because God’s power makes it possible.
Here’s the take away from this…couple things:
…one thing we can take from this passage is…as Christians…be wary of simply jumping into a discussion in an attempt to answer an unbeliever’s ‘tricky question.’
As Christians we sometimes feel we have to answer or speak for God…that’s what we’re naturally inclined to do…too often it sends us running around attempting to justify why God does something when we have no logical conclusion why.
Jesus then addresses an issue that many people…including Christians…are unfamiliar about…it’s the second important thing we can take from this passage …what about those we have spent time with in our life.
Jesus was not intending to give the final word on marriage in heaven…in His response He was refusing to answer the Sadducees’ riddle and fall into their trap…instead, He was showing that because there will be no marriage in the resurrection or new marriages, the Sadducees’ question was completely irrelevant.
In the resurrection—when God’s people are raised from the dead to enter into the full experience of eternal life—this temporal arrangement of marriage will no longer be needed…we will be like the angels…we won’t ‘be’ angels, because angels are created beings…you don’t die and become an angel.
We will be ‘like’ angels in that we will have none of the limitations and needs that we experience now in these unglorified bodies of ours…at that time, there will be no need to perpetuate the human race because we will be living eternally in a place where there is no death.
There’ll be no need to seek an offspring because we will have been transformed by God into His image… there’ll be no need for the same kind of companionship we needed in this earthly life…because there’ll be no more struggles, no more trials, and no more loneliness in heaven…we’ll all be together, forever, in perfection and in perfect joy.
Well…you say ‘I love my wife/husband and I want to be with him/her forever in heaven’ …you will…I believe there will always be that special relationship with each other.
It may not be the kind of relationship experienced in marriage on earth…because it will be a relationship that is different from this earthly state…more deeply and more profound that we can’t even begin to imagine it on earth.
But what about someone whose spouse has died and they remarry…it seems the heavenly love that a woman/man shared with their spouse in glory wouldn’t exclude them from sharing the same love with another of their spouses.
Look at it this way…in glory would a mother’s love for one child exclude her from equally loving another child…or that a man’s earthly love for his brother exclude him from also equally loving his sister?
Well…these are things to speculate about…and mostly they’re beyond our ability to grasp right now…the Sadducees erred in not giving proper reverence to the power of God in their thoughts!
They didn’t know just how great God’s power is to transform His people from the state of humility and fallenness…which characterizes us now…into a state of heavenly glory that is like that of the angels!
Did you notice that Jesus, in speaking to these Sadducees, injects something else they didn’t believe in…angels…Jesus doesn’t accommodate their disbelief…He doesn’t argue with them about their wayward belief…He builds His argument on the very thing they didn’t believe in— that the resurrected “are like angels of God in heaven”.
But their assumption about the resurrection needed a definitive answer, and Jesus was just the one to give it. Jesus answered them from the book of Exodus [ 3:6].
Matthew 33:31-32 – But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.
Jesus is actually addressing a common argument today…people who say…when you’re dead that’s it…that’s the end…if that were the case…why would God have said, “I am the God of Abraham…Isaac….and Jacob”…in the present tense if He thought of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as being dead…?
If they were dead, God would have used the aorist tense…past tense…He would have said, “I was their God” …thus, from God’s perspective, they are alive.
God’s use of the present tense in speaking of His relationship to the great patriarchs who had been long dead by the time God spoke these words to Moses shows God had a continuing relationship with these men because of the truth of the resurrection.
God was speaking of dead men as though they were still alive; thus, Jesus reasoned, the men were not dead but living…God would not have a relationship with dead beings.
Although men and women have died on earth, God continues His relationship with them because they are resurrected to life with him in heaven.
Matthew 22:34-40, Concerning the Law
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
The key problem in interpreting this commandment for our time is that we lose sight of the biblical meaning of love…our culture has equated love with intense emotion.
We love chocolate…we love a movie…we love a boy or girlfriend…we love our spouse…to love is a stronger response than to like…but biblical love is not passive and it is not strictly emotional.
We need to replace in our minds the cultural clichés about love and replace it with a biblical understanding of love.
The love referred to here by Jesus is the love of Deuteronomy 6:5, the love of Yahweh…this love is not passive emotion…it is the active response of the faithful person to the love of God.
But chiefly, it refers to what can be called loving-kindness…not passive emotion, but active mercy…it is marked by patience and generosity…in short, loving is a choice, not a feeling.
To love God with all our heart, mind, and soul seems nearly impossible when we think of love as an emotion…how do you conjure up feelings for something as remote…mysterious…and disembodied as the concept of God?
We cannot look into God’s eyes, wrap our arms around the Spirit, or even see the face of Jesus.
If we could know Jesus as Mary and Martha did it might be possible to evoke in us a feeling of love…but we are commanded to love an intangible God.
Here’s what biblical love is…Biblical love is something we do…it’s a loving-kindness…a merciful action that is both generous and continuous…to love a neighbor as yourself is to act toward someone the same way you act toward those close to you…whom you do love.
It’s treating the stranger as well as we treat those we love emotionally…this is in keeping with what the commandment requires.
This means that, to those with whom we are intimate, to those we do not know, to those who may be dirty or repugnant, and even to those who harm us, we can be merciful and gracious.
To love our neighbor as ourselves is to make a conscious choice and act upon it.
See how these commandments are connected, “the greatest commandment” and the “second, which is like it” …occurs when we love God’s people…and always at the same time loving God…They are inseparable.
The emotion of love is not commanded…only the action of love is commanded… even when we don’t feel like it.
The real concern is not some external show of conduct that we put on display for others to see…but one’s inner spiritual condition…a love for God and love for all those who are made in His image.
The three questions in this text address how we are to live – in whole-hearted allegiance to God…all the while…navigating through this life that would pull us away from that allegiance.
Such navigation is not easy…it is only when we seek God’s wisdom and a determined desire to follow Jesus that we can be successful in that endeavor…in the end, these questioners of Jesus went away amazed [22:22] …Nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question [22:46].