-I’m sure you’ve all been asked a stupid question before
-If you are like me, you’ve probably asked one too
-These are some examples of questions taken from real trials
These are examples of real courtroom questions and answers that I found online:
Q: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
A: Yes.
Q: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
A: I forget.
Q: You forget? Can you give us an example of something that you’ve forgotten?
Q: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
A: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?
Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
A: Yes.
Q: And what were you doing at that time?
Q: She had three children, right?
A: Yes.
Q: How many were boys?
A: None.
Q: Were there any girls?
Q: How was your first marriage terminated?
A: By death.
Q: And by whose death was it terminated?
Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for blood pressure?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No.
Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.
-Those are some dandies
-In today’s Gospel lesson, we get an interesting question from the Sadducees
-Sadducees were a Jewish religious sect at the time of Jesus
-They had the majority of the seats on the Sanhedrin or Jewish ruling council
-They were more secular in their thinking and practice
-They were prone towards consorting with the enemy, the Romans
-But what is most important to this story is that they denied that the Bible taught the bodily resurrection from the dead and the existence of angels or demons
-They believed that only the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah or the Pentateuch, were applicable to a person’s life
-They believed that the resurrection was not only fanciful but also irrelevant
-They only wanted to know about what was important for this life
-They didn’t really care what happened after death
-Sounds a lot like our culture
-Who cares what happens after I die?
-I got a lot of partying to do before that happens!
-Hey, my life is busy. I got a lot going on. I don’t have time for that God stuff right now. I’ll get right with God down the road.
-So the logic goes
-Did y’all just wake up in church this morning, dressed up so nicely?
-For those of you that are retired, did you just wake up one morning and all of a sudden all the money that you needed for the rest of your life was sitting in an account waiting on you?
-How did you get your job? Did you just walk into work one day and they hired you on the spot right?
-Those are ridiculous situations of course. In order to accomplish each of those things, it takes dedication and preparation
-So does eternal life
-It sounds like us though too doesn’t it?
-I know my neighbor doesn’t go to church – it sounds like she doesn’t believe in Jesus but someone else will tell her about Jesus
-I know that the person next door is in need somebody else will help him
-The Sadducees come to Jesus in order to try to trick him – they intend on asking Him a stupid question in order to demonstrate just how ludicrous the idea of the resurrection really is in their minds
-What they were suggesting was the fulfillment of the Levirate law in Deuteronomy 25:5 that commanded the brother of a deceased man to marry the widow, his sister-in-law, and have a child with her so that his dead brother’s name would not be cease
-This is the reason that there is a difference between Matthew’s and Luke’s genealogies of Jesus. Matthew gives the actual lineage of Joseph’s family to Jesus while Luke gives the legal lineage of Joseph’s family.
-Therefore, they suggest this crazy, one-in-a-lifetime situation where seven brothers all marry the same woman and none of them have any children with her
-You see if any one of them had children with her then, in their minds, she would have been his rightful wife
-However, not one of them is bound to her through the procreation of children
-Which one is her husband?
-It is a quandary
-However, instead of a stupid answer which a stupid question deserves, Jesus answers well
-He explains that no one will be married to her or anybody else in the life to come
-We will be like angels, Jesus says
-Does that mean that we won’t maintain our identity in heaven
-Of course we will, on the Mt. of Transfiguration the disciples were able to distinguish Moses and Elijah
-In addition, the disciples were able to discern who Jesus was after He rose from the dead {PAUSE}
-There is a movie in which the defense attorney tells everyone that they have found the victim of the supposed murder and she is about to enter the courtroom. Everyone turns to look. Obviously, the jurors believe that there is a distinct possibility that the alleged victim is still alive.
-That is what Jesus demonstrates in the last portion of our text
-He demonstrates from the Pentateuch that people are raised to life eternal
-When God met Moses at the burning bush at Mt. Horeb, God introduced himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
-God cannot be God of dead people but only of living people
-In the movie, Sixth Sense, there is a boy who can see dead people walking around but they don’t know that they are dead
-That’s a little how it is in the time after we die, we are indeed dead as far as this life is concerned but we are indeed able to walk around as we enter the heavenly realm awaiting Christ’s return in glory and judgement
-How do you know that you’ve answered a question well?
-One indication is when you don’t get any more questions
-The last verse of our text says, “Some of the teachers of the law responded, ‘well said, teacher!’ And no one dared to ask him any more questions.”
-Even some of Jesus’ other enemies praised Him for His wise answer
-In Peter’s first epistle or letter he writes, “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks for the hope that you have but do so with gentleness and respect.”
-Sometimes people ask some questions that may seem like traps but be prepared to give wise answers so that God might use your testimony to bring others into His family
-I had the opportunity to talk to a young man who was struggling a bit a couple of weeks ago
-He wanted to know where God came from
-I answered His question
-He told me afterward that when he was twelve that His pastor told him it was a stupid question and to be quiet
-Be careful how you answer the questions of others
-It may be a “stupid” question but it may indeed have eternal consequences
