Luke 20:27-47
Another challenge to Jesus’ teaching
October 20, 2010
Set the stage:
Jesus has entered Jerusalem and has been proclaimed Messiah by the people and the religious leaders were furious with Him about His refusal to silence their proclamation about Him. They demanded Him to have them stop, but that did not work. He drives out moneychangers and profiteers from the Temple and they challenge His authority to do that… but they are silenced by His wisdom and Jesus infuriates them even more with a parable about them.
They send in spies to trap Jesus with His own words, these spies ask leading questions to trap Jesus, but again His wise answers and teaching baffle the spies and they cannot trap Him, in fact they walk away from Jesus in awe of His answer to them and how He handles Himself. This sets the stage for the final challenge of the religious leaders… a last gasp effort by these men to discredit Jesus!
Now I want you to understand that these men were NOT happy with Jesus and they were willing to do anything to get Him out of the public eye. They could usually confound men with their imposing presence, but this did not affect Jesus. They could confuse and trap them with their own words, but Jesus was too smart for that.
They were going to try to make Him look like a fool (or so they thought) to discredit Him in public… all the while, they had a plan B and that plan B for them was ultimately God’s plan A… it was what Jesus was destined for… The Cross of Calvary!
A certain order within the religious leaders of Judaism came to Jesus to discredit Him. Using the law of Levirite marriage [which was designed to perpetuate the line of descent for a man who died with no heir] they presented a scenario that they believed was impossible to answer… they just knew that Jesus would be trapped and not able to answer and they would finally put Him in His place!
Jewish law required the brother of a man who dies without an heir to sire an heir with the deceased man’s wife so the man’s name would not die out. This was their law and it was expected of any man with who had a brother who died without an heir. This would NOT have been a scenario that would have been out of the ordinary for those sitting around and listening to Jesus that day…
Now they were the last remaining religious leader group to take a shot at Jesus and these men were part of a ‘religious/moral’ group called the Sadducees.
Now I have heard a little saying about the Sadducees… they did not believe in the resurrection or the afterlife that is what made them Sad You See…
They were theologically conservative in that all religious/moral conduct came from the Torah. They believed in God, but they did NOT believe in the resurrection OR the existence of angels. This scenario they were setting up was to make Jesus look foolish and theologically embarrass Him before the people.
Now the question arises out of their presupposition about certain things:
1) All relationships in the afterlife are going to be the same as they are here in this life… With monogamy being demanded for women (men could have multiple wives, but women could only have one husband) thus the absurd dilemma…
2) The apparent absurdity of this woman’s dilemma in the afterlife reveals that the afterlife and the resurrection are absurd ideas
So after setting up this grand scenario they offer up to Jesus the highly religious and deeply theological [or so they thought] question, “In the resurrection, who is going to be her husband?”
Now Scripture does NOT say this, but I can just imagine Jesus’ eyes rolling at about this time… I can imagine in His mind He was thinking, Are you serious? Are you joking?
The first thing we read Jesus doing here is taking their one basic premise and destroyed it. In other words, Jesus was saying to these men, - the foundation upon which you build your theology and view of the afterlife is flawed
Jesus was basically telling these men, “You have it all wrong!” or if He was to get a little sarcastic, -You have NO idea what you are talking about… -Jesus understood that the afterlife was a totally new paradigm… with NO connection to the earthly paradigm.
On earth, our physical bodies are going to die so we produce children to continue our legacy and progeny. In heaven, there is NO death, so continuing the progeny and marriage for that purpose would NOT be needed… so their point was a moot point!
These men also did not believe in the spirit world or angels and so Jesus’ answer was a bit of a dig at their views. Look what He says…
…for they are like angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection…
Jesus then goes onto use Scripture to prove the resurrection by mentioning the burning bush from the story of Moses. Jesus points out that God IS the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob… not God was… but God IS…
The implication here is very clear… God is the God of the living, and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel) were alive in the afterlife! This answer basically kicks the table out from underneath the Sadducees and they have no answer for Jesus… Jesus has made all the religious leaders look foolish and now they were all afraid to ask Him anything.
Some of the religious leaders (probably the Pharisees) find themselves in agreement with Jesus on this point, which had to be hard for them. But they were at polar opposites from the Sadducees.
Jesus had proclaimed that death was NOT the end, but a new beginning and that in the afterlife, the important thing is not who you are married to… the important thing is that you are a child of God! The only family relations that will matter in the afterlife is whether or NOT God is your true Father.
Then Jesus poses a question to them… it was about their teachings on David. How can they say that the Messiah is David’s son (in the line of David) because David himself said, -The Lord said to MY Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool
Jesus had been proclaimed Messiah, and He had finally publically accepted that title… So who is Messiah? Messiah is the Hebrew transliteration of the word… but the Greek transliteration we know as Christ. Who is the Christ? He quotes Psalm 110:1 and asks a question of these men…
We need to understand that Jesus was not questioning the teaching that Messiah was in the line of David, but He was asking them, ‘if there is NO spirit world and no afterlife, How is it that you teach that the Messiah [the Christ] is David’s son when David calls him Lord.
The Greek word for Lord here is Kurios which is the Greek word for God or Master of all things. It was the word the Jews used as a substitute for the name of God Yahweh… they were afraid to even say that name in fear of profaning it in some way, so they used this word, but it was always meant in reverence.
Again we must understand that Jesus was NOT denying the fact that the Messiah was part of David’s lineage, but what IS important here is that He was telling these people that Messiah was Lord… the Christ had the ruling power of God… seated at the right hand (seat of power) The lineage of David was important, but it was not the MOST important. This was just another proof that their NON-belief in the afterlife and resurrection was foolish and against the very Scripture they claimed to defend!
Finally we see Jesus denouncing all of the religious leaders of the day. [read v.45-47] He condemns them as prideful and arrogant men seeking position and privilege at whatever cost, even if it means hurting and destroying the least and weakest of society to obtain it…
Jesus reveals the hypocrisy of the religious leaders and also proclaims that judgment is coming for them. What Jesus points out here is that position and privilege were NOT what serving God was all about… but that they had been placed in service to God to serve Him by serving the nation.
Theirs was a duty of humility and service to the nation to keep the nation in line with the Law of God, not to Lord over it with a heavy hand but to lovingly lead by example for the people.
True service to God is revealed NOT in our position OR in what God seemingly blesses us with, but true service is revealed in our humility and care for those around us who need care, and that we don’t use people but seek to help them and point them toward God.
We must be careful of what we do, and what we say, and how we do things. We are NOT given privilege over others because we know God, God has privileged us to be partakers of His grace and mercy… and that privilege is open for all who seek it!
We are not placed in positions to enhance our standing in the eyes of others, but we are placed there to work and serve God for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom!
Jesus revealed the hypocrisy of the religious leaders all throughout this chapter and still today hypocrisy of many can be and IS revealed through the reading and study of God’s word.
So many times we find ourselves striking out at others, when the true culprit is our prideful assertion that because we are believers that we ‘deserve’ what we have. The actual reality is that we can and will NEVER deserve what we have… and we have to be humble enough to understand that…
