Recapitulation
We have been looking at Jesus’ complaint against the Jewish
leadership that God’s covenant people had rejected their Messiah and His
authority. He even predicted that they
were going to kill Him. But the result
of that rejection was that God was extending the invitation to the Kingdom of
Heaven to the whole world—not just to Israel.
Many would be called but only those who wore God’s required covering
would be chosen to actually enter. That
covering for sin has always been provided by God. We can’t come before Him without the required
covering for sin.
The Ecumenical Challenge to Jesus’ Authority
It wasn’t only the Pharisees that felt threatened now. All the various religious splinter groups
began to take turns attempting to destroy Jesus with His own words. First group up were the Pharisees who wanted
to force Jesus to answer a question that would anger either the people or the
Roman government. The issue they latched
onto was taxation in Matthew 22:15-22—a
topic near and dear to ex-tax collector Matthew’s heart!
This was not an honest question for which the Pharisees
really wanted an answer from God. The
Scripture says they plotted together. (Sounds
like Psalm 2: Why do the nations plot a
vain thing?) Notice that they used surrogates to ask the question—their
disciples and the Herodians. The
disciples of the Pharisees were Pharisees in training. They were eager to prove themselves to their
teachers and so they zealously took part in the scheme. The advantage to the Pharisees was that their
disciples would not be so well-known.
The Herodians, on the other hand, were not normally working together
with the Pharisees. They were supportive
of the Roman government under Herod—perhaps because of the perceived advantage
of not being ruled directly by a Roman proconsul. Herod, at least, supported the Jewish
religion. So, these were strange
bedfellows—the Pharisees and the Herodians—that had one thing in common—they
both wanted to destroy Jesus.
Notice their opening comment to Jesus. “Teacher, we know that You are true and teach
the way of God truthfully and you do not care about anyone’s opinion for you
are not swayed by appearances.” If they
really believed this statement they would have recognized and accepted Jesus as
their Messiah! The truth was that they actually
believed that Jesus was a liar and they themselves were easily swayed by
appearances. This was double
hypocrisy. But Jesus knew this and
called them out on it in his answer in verse 18.
Trick Question
But, first, here’s their trick question: “Tell us, then,
what you think. Is it lawful to pay
taxes to Caesar, or not?”
If He said, “It is not lawful,” then the Romans would have
grounds to arrest Him for sedition. If
He said, “it is lawful,” the overtaxed people would feel like He was
collaborating with the Roman occupiers.
Now, his questioners thought, He’s between a rock and a hard place!
God’s Answer!
But, Jesus not only called them out on their hypocrisy, He
also used the opportunity to point out their own precarious position before
God. He used a borrowed denarius coin—He
never seemed to have any money of His own—as an illustration. “Whose image is on the coin?” He asked.
It was Caesar’s. The whole
monetary system that they all used was Caesar’s. Even the lowliest day laborer who received
this very coin—the denarius—for each day’s labor was using Caesar’s money. Every monetary transaction, including buying
and selling and paying taxes, bore Caesar’s image.
So, Jesus simply said, “Render to Caesar the things that are
Caesar’s and—here He added His point—and to God the things that are
God’s.” Was Jesus simply answering a
trick question with a politician’s answer?
It is true that He was not yet ready to be arrested—it was not His time
just yet—but He also had a very important point. What are the “things that are God’s?” The monetary system carried Caesar’s
image. Are there things that bear God’s
image? God has authority over every one
of us because He has put His image on us—this the Jews knew full well. But they were rejecting God’s authority over
them and it was especially obvious in the context of cozying up with the
Herodians as well as rejecting their Messiah. So thy were not just rejecting
Jesus’ authority but God’s.
Sadducees Challenge Jesus’ Power
If God’s authority was challenged by the Pharisees and the
Herodians, His power was challenged by the Sadducees in verses 23-33. Matthew
says the Sadducees came that same day.
He also explains that these people did not believe in the
resurrection. In fact, we also know that
they held much of the power among the high priests, the temple system, and the
Sanhedrin. They loved their own power
but denied the power of God.
Levirate Marriage Question
So, the Sadducees came to Jesus with one of those
“Where-did-Cain-get-his-wife?” type questions born out of a superficial
understanding of Scripture. The actual
question was related to a rather obscure but correctly stated law called levirate marriage. This was the law that was put into play when
Ruth was married by Boaz. Because women
normally had no legal title to land, there were several legal provisions made
for the care of widows and single women.
This particular law required the unwed brother or other male relative of
a deceased husband to marry the widow so that the land that belonged to the
deceased could remain in the family and continue providing for that
family. (This was one reason that
marriages were carefully arranged by the fathers as well as the brothers!) The Sadducees however cooked up a ridiculous
situation involving the serial deaths of seven brothers with the widow being
passed between all of them on down to the seventh son! But, technically, this was how levirate
marriage could have worked in such a rare situation.
The Zinger!
The zinger was that the seven brothers all died but who
would get the wife “in the resurrection?”
Once again, Jesus answered them in a way that also made a very good point.
He said, “You are wrong.” You don’t know
your Bible and you don’t know God’s power.
They weren’t wrong about the workings of levirate marriage. They were wrong in that they didn’t believe
in the resurrection. Jesus would
demonstrate this for them by the power of God the very next weekend but for now
He showed them that they didn’t even know their Bible.
God’s Answer
He explained that “in the resurrection they neither marry
nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” Angels in heaven are not married. After we are resurrected, we will no longer
be married. There is no need of family
units in the resurrection. So, the discussion is about the afterlife with
God—not just the re-animation of a person after death.
Furthermore, the Sadducees, who did not believe in the
resurrection because they could not find the word in the Old Testament, should
know that the idea of the resurrection was definitely there even though the
word for it was not. Jesus’ proof? God is
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob but He is the God of the living—not the
dead! Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were
living even though they had died! That
is not the resurrection or re-animation, technically speaking—not the reuniting
of spirit and body—but it does demonstrate that death is not the end as the
Sadducees taught. Because, according to
Scripture, the patriarchs are still alive with God.
Matthew doesn’t mention it, but Jesus had already raised
Lazarus from the dead just a week or so earlier. He had also raised Jairus’ daughter. Even if Jesus were not the Messiah, He still
had demonstrated resurrection—as had Elijah in the case of the widow’s son. God’s
power was witnessed to by the Scripture and by the miracles of Jesus – and soon
by Jesus’ own example.
Two different difficulties that could have spelled the end
to Jesus’ teaching were met by boldly pointing out that God’s authority and
power demanded a response from His hearers.
Do we not also bear the image of God identifying us as answerable to His
authority and are we not also faced with the question of the all-powerful God: “Where
will we spend eternity?”
© 2018 Eric Thimell
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