One of the things I find frustrating when talking to people about topics that take a lot of thought, are the what ifs. Scenarios that are brought up that either are impossible, or so minute in their statistical probability, that their inclusion doesn’t help, but rather hinders the conversation. We all do these what if scenarios, and we start as children.
“Daddy will the moon crash on us? No. But what if something hit it. No. What if something really big hit it. No. What if the sun hit it. Well if the sun hit it then we would have burned up from the nuclear reactions that are going off every second within the sun and at that point we wouldn’t care if the moon crashed down on us. But what if…” And it goes on and on and on. We create these what ifs and these scenarios so as to not either change our mind, or to try to win a losing argument.
And it’s these types of scenarios that bring us back to our Matthew series, where we’ll be picking it back up in Matthew chapter 22, starting verse 15. And as we go back to Matthew chapter 22, let’s look at where we are in this final section of this Gospel.
When we started this final section we talked about how the last fifth of the book focuses on Jesus’ authority. In the first week we saw how, as disciples, we need to be satisfied in whatever God decides to give us. This is because in his authority, God understands our needs in the moment and knows how to best meet that need.
The week after that we saw how Jesus communicated that his disciples must seek God’s will over their own. This is because he has the authority over us, and he knows what will lead to our satisfaction.
Then in our last week in Matthew, we looked at three parables that pointed us towards God’s call to have faith that is acted upon. We cannot merely say we follow Jesus, we have to do what he says. In this way, we submit to his authority, seeking his will, and in that will we will be satisfied.
With that in our mind we can move into three questions that are presented to Jesus, and one that he presents to his questioners. Let’s read Matthew 22, starting in verse 15. And like before we’re going to look at each question on it’s own, and then connect them to the overall theme.
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial 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.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
This first question comes from a familiar source. The Pharisees are back, but this time their bringing with them the Herodians. This group is nothing like the Pharisees. The Pharisees are a religious sect of Judaism, the Herodians are a political group. The Pharisees have very little love for the Roman government, the Herodians back the Romans, because they back the Herodian dynasty. But what they do have in common is a desire to hold onto the power they have carved out for themselves. Remember, this happens after the Triumphal entry. There’s buzz in the streets that the Messiah has come to Jerusalem. And just like all of Jerusalem was troubled when Herod met the Magi back in chapter 2, the political and religious leadership is again disturbed.
This is why the question is proposed to Jesus about taxes. The two groups represent the two sides of the argument. The Pharisees are against Rome, if Jesus takes their side, then the Herodians have a reason to call for Jesus’ arrest. This is because he is usurping the authority of the Roman government and in fact inciting rebellion.
On the other side, the Herodians stand with Herod and Rome, and if Jesus takes their side, it will be a win for the Pharisees who can use this to turn people against Jesus, because he would be a Roman sympathizer.
This is what humanity tries to do with God. “God are you on our side or their’s?” Notice the interaction in Joshua chapter five, between Joshua and the Angel of the Lord, “13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies?’ 14 ‘Neither,’ he replied, ‘but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.’ Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, ‘What message does my Lord have for his servant?’” I like the ESV version, where the Angel of the Lord simply says, “No.”
In the American Civil War, it is said that Abraham Lincoln was asked if God was on their side, to which Lincoln replied, “My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.”
In Luke 13, where Jesus is asked about current events, he instead points the people to repentance, because his task wasn’t to engage in social commentary, but rather Gospel work.
So Jesus’ response here, is in keeping with God’s response to humanity. He takes a third option. God should get what is God’s, and Rome should get what is Rome’s. That means, Rome should get the taxes they require, because they in turn are placed by God for the protection of people and the punishment of the lawbreakers. And what should God get? We’ll come to that a little later on.
So let’s move on to the second question.
23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that 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 among us. 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. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘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.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
Here, a third group is presented to us, the Sadducees. If we had a comparison to make to a modern day group, they would be the liberal scholars of the late 1800s, or a parallel to modern Progressive Christianity. They don’t hold the Scriptures in high regard, they don’t believe what is written in the Scriptures, and they create their own god from an amalgamation of the Scriptures, pagan beliefs, and their own sinful desires. And so their question, like the one before it, is supposed to be a gotcha.
In their mind, they have come up with a scenario that would disprove the idea, that people are raised from the dead. Their scenario comes from a social safety net called the kinsmen redeemer. This was a way to make sure that women who’s husband died without producing a boy to take care of their mother, could continue to be supported.
We see this in Genesis 38 with Judah and Tamar, and we see this in the book of Ruth with Ruth and Boaz. And we see the practice codify in Israel’s covenant in places like Deuteronomy 25:5-6, and to which God speaks of himself in the role of kinsmen redeemer when he brings Israel out of Egypt in the book of Exodus 6:6-7.
The Sadducees are using this idea to trap Jesus, because they think it’s a smart one. A modern day equivalent is what a philosophy professor will tell his philosophy 101 class to disprove God. You might have heard something like this, “Can God create a boulder so heavy, that he himself cannot move it?” It seems like a trap, either the boulder is too heavy and God is not all powerful to lift it. Or God can lift it and therefore is not all powerful to create something that is absolute. But like we’ve seen God do before, there’s a third option: God is logical and doesn’t play man’s illogical games.
So Jesus answers them, walking them through their logical fallacy. First, there is no marriage in heaven. What’s the point of marriage here? To procreate, doing so in a loving monogamous relationship. In heaven, there’s no need for either, so there’s no need for marriage. Jesus compares this with the angels. They don’t marry, because there’s no point to it, and believers will be, in this respect, like the angels. Side note, the Sadducees didn’t believe in angels either.
The Sadducees thought they had it all figured out, but they were wrong.
Their carefully thought out trap, isn’t a trap at all, because they don’t know heavenly realities. But Jesus does. Why? Well, if we’ve been paying attention throughout Matthew’s book, we’d know that it’s because Jesus is God come down. Jesus then adds an interesting insight. This is why it’s so important to notice not just what God says, but how he says it.
Jesus says that God says of himself, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?” What Jesus is getting at, is that death to us and death to God are very different. To us, the death that we see around us in final, but to God, it’s not. True death is the lake of fire at the end of this sinful age. This is why back in Matthew 9, Jesus says of the little girl who everyone said was dead, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep (v.24).” The crowd laughed, because they know what dead looks like and that girl was dead. But those who trust in God are never truly dead, though their body dies.
Jesus fully understands spiritual realities, while we don’t. This is why Paul states in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
And with Jesus’ response to the Sadducees, he silences another group.
Two questions for Jesus down, one more to go. Let’s read, continuing in verse 34.
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.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
We know by looking at other Gospel accounts that this third question, though it comes from the Pharisees, is asked by someone truly wanting to understand. So though this question comes in the midst of people trying to trap Jesus, this particular question isn’t meant to. In fact, the question probably sprang from the first question. Remember, the first was about paying taxes. Jesus’ answer was clear that we are to pay takes because it’s right for Rome to receive what is needed to continue to function. But what about God? What is God’s that we are to give back to him?
This question, and Jesus following answer brings us full circle, and lets us know what it is that we are to give to God. And the answer is, everything. Our heart, where are emotions and loyalties lie. Our soul, all our abilities, gifts, and personality traits. Our mind, our cognitive abilities, thoughts and beliefs. Everything that we are, is to be given back to God, this is what it means to love God. Paul says it like this in Romans 12:1, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Giving ourselves to God, is worship to him, is how a disciple shows that they love him.
But that’s not it. God didn’t create us just to love him, he created us to love each other. To love God is to love the people around us. We can’t do one without the other. We can’t love God and not love people, and we cannot love people without loving God. If we think we’re able to, we are not truly loving the one side we think we are.
Jesus hangs upon this understanding of loving God and loving people, all the words of the Scriptures. We cannot hope to understand the words of God, if we do not understand the purpose of those words, which is to love him and love each other.
Before we move onto the final question, that Jesus presents, I want us to take a moment and notice one thing. Just as Jesus was tempted three times by satan in the wilderness, Jesus is again tempted three times. And just like the temptations, we can see an earthly kingdom temptation, a twisting of the Scriptures, and the Messiah’s role temptation. Satan wasn’t done trying to derail Jesus in the wilderness. He was there every step of the way at the heels of Jesus.
But Jesus’ has his own question to present, so let’s read it continuing in verse 41.
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
“The son of David,” they replied.
43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, 44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’
45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.
This is an interesting question, because it seems to be straight forward at first. In fact in the opening of Matthew’s Gospel, this is the emphasis. Matthew is trying to help Jewish readers understand that no matter how you cut it, Jesus is a descendant of David, and so is a rightful son to sit on David’s throne. That’s important, because everyone understood that it would be a son of David who would be the Messiah. So the Pharisees’ answer is correct.
Yet, though Jesus is a son of David, we should know that he’s more. And if we don’t, here’s Jesus again trying to get us to see it. Jesus quotes, Psalm 110, a psalm about the Messiah. And as these groups are questioning Jesus’s authority and Messiahship, he gives them an opportunity to give their insights into a psalm that deals with the Messiah. But they can’t answer the question. Why? Because their understanding of the Messiah isn’t what God has intended. They had pieces, but not the whole picture. What they were missing was Jesus himself.
They were too busy trying to trick and trap Jesus, that they were missing the Messiah right in front of their faces.
And this is what it comes down to. Our world is looking for hope, and there are pieces of hope all around. But real hope, is only found in Jesus. Our world is looking for peace through treaties and laws, but real peace is found in Jesus. Humanity is looking for love, joy, comfort, stability, in places like horoscopes, relationships, politicians, but everything that were looking for is only found in Jesus the Messiah. The God who came down to earth, who lived with his creation, died for their sin, and raised back to life. Unless we trust in and follow Jesus, we will never find what we’re looking for.
So if we call ourselves Christians, we must follow the will of God, because only there can we be satisfied. We need to stop playing what ifs, or trying to trick God and allow his word to stand. And we need to follow, trusting that he is right, even when we think he’s wrong. We need to submit, because in submitting to Jesus, will we finally find what we’re looking for.
My challenge for you this week then, is to take any questions, or doubts, or what if scenarios you have before God and talk with him about them. Say something like, “this is where I’m doubting, or this is where I’m questioning you God, show me the truth.” We can be just like the groups who questioned Jesus, because we want a way to not follow his authority, but Jesus has all the answers. When we come to realize that, then we will no longer search for answers outside of God, but will be satisfied with him alone.
Then we can sing the old hymn, “It once was busy planning, Now it's trustful prayer; It once was anxious caring, Now He has the care. It once was what I wanted, Now what Jesus says; It once was constant asking, Now it's ceaseless praise. All in all forever, Jesus will I sing. Everything in Jesus, and Jesus everything.”
Let us be a people who seek only for what Jesus has, so that the world may know that Jesus is everything. Amen.
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