In Jesus Holy Name October 22, 2023
Text: Matthew 22:15-23 Redeemer
“Tricky Words, Tricky Questions In the Temple”
Benjamin Franklin has often been quoted as saying, "In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes." Many have figured out ways to get out of paying taxes, legal or otherwise, but no one has yet been able to avoid the certainty of death. The more important question is: “What is beyond death on this planet?” “Is there hope for something more?” The answer of course is “yes”.
In these days of international turmoil, when anxiety runs high, and the future is unknown. Questions are asked. “Are these the days our world history will come to an end?” For the answers, one must look at Jesus, then listen to God’s plan, then understand the Book of Revelation.
Each Sunday we have been reading through the Gospel of Matthew. We have arrived at chapter 21 & 22. The Palm Sunday parade is over. Jesus has been teaching in the temple courts. He has told countless parables.
On the “second day” of “Holy Week” when Jesus enters the temple, He drove out the money changers reminding them that God’s house, His house, was meant to be a house of prayer, not a bank. He has thrown out the money changers. The Sadducees, were in charge of the Temple which made them a great deal of money. They had a vested interest in keeping the racket going. The Sadducees and the Herodians didn’t always agree with the Pharisees but they all knew Jesus was a threat.
Each day of “holy Week” Jesus frustrates the priests and Sadducees by telling parables: the first one is the Parable of the Two Sons, and the second is the Parable of the Vineyard. The Parable of the Wedding Banquet which Pastor Jim shared last Sunday.
The parable of the wedding was really about the “final” banquet in heaven when the King of kings ends human history so that all who have received His Son, Jesus, the promised Messiah will celebrate in heaven. It is obvious that God is inviting the Scribes, the Pharisees, The Sadducees to rejoice and accept Jesus as the long-expected Messiah.
All three groups got together and plotted how they would trap Jesus. They used tricky words and tricky questions, about money, about marriage and one by a lawyer about the greatest commandment. The greatest commandment provides the answer of how we are to live in difficult days as we watch evil and chaos explode on our television screens. We can see what “human” hate does to people and nations.
In reading the stories of Jesus in the temple during the last week of His earthly life, we must understand how much they hated Him. I you see the results of hate on your TV screen in the mid-east then you must translate the same hatred of Jesus by the Pharisees, and Sadducees and Herodians. They must rid the world of Him.
They begin with questions to trick Jesus. First is about taxes, 2nd is about marriage in heaven, by Sadducees who don’t believe in the resurrection, and then the final question comes from men who loved the scriptures more than the Sadducees, men who debated which of the 248 commandments and the 365 prohibition in their Pentateuch was the most important. A Pharisee, an expert in the “law’ asked: “Teacher which is the greatest commandment?”
(divide the church into three groups Herodians…support Rome; Sadducees control the money in the temple and don’t believe in the resurrection; Pharisees believe you can earn God’s love by obeying the commandments and rules) (each side of the church plays a part)
Herodians: Do you like taxes? ____ But taxes pay for your protection, the Roman army. You need safety, they provide it so…. You pay them. Taxes can be frustrating. In their frustration with Jesus they tried to trap Him with tax issues. They are becoming more and more frustrated. They were angry at Jesus. They know His recent parables are about them. But they were afraid of the people.
(read Matthew 22:16-21) (Need a Silver dollar)
Money is simply a neutral medium of exchange, neither good nor bad. But money is never morally neutral; it always reflects someone’s values in the way it is used. The image on the small silver coin acceptable for imperial tax payments, was probably that of Tiberius Caesar (reigned A.D. 14-37). The inscription upon the coin read ‘Tiberius Caesar Augustus, Son of the Divine Augustus’ with the reverse side reading ‘Chief Priest.’ This inscription was a claim to divinity and as emperor, the right to be worshiped. So you Herodians have no problem giving your worship to the government? ____
Sadducees are next: (middle) You love the temple? Yes? You want to protect the holiness of God. Yes? Therefore you should refused to accept donations to the temple with Roman coins. People who wanted to give their tithe at the temple should change their Roman money into Jewish money. Yes? Of course a fee was charged. Question do you charge a fee?
Oh, I think you also had a question for Jesus. “Do you believe in the resurrection of the dead?” (No) Then why are you asking a foolish question as if Jesus doesn’t know your belief is false?
Read Matthew 22:24-28 You are wrong! You don’t even know your own bible! Life
does not end when you die! There is a heaven. Haven’t you read what God said? “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I am the God of the living not the dead.”
Jesus could have added… I will soon prove to you this truth. You will arrest me. You will have the Romans beat me and crucify me. You will see me buried, but I will rise from the grave and death with a resurrected body.
Ah, yes, the third group…the righteous Pharisees… they too have a question.
Earlier in the week Jesus had just completed telling three parables that were a warning to the Pharisees about their way of life and behavior all in the name of God.
“You think you know everything about God. You are religious snobs. You think that you are God’s chosen people and the only ones that He loves. You think that “God’s love means everyone will go to heaven.” You think that when you reach the gates of heaven God will smile and say: “Oh, you’ve been a pretty good person, come in.” That is the heresy of universalism. “No on that day He will separate the sheep from the goats, He will caste out of His wedding banquet you Herodians, you Sadducees, you Pharisees who rejected His sacrificial death on the cross to remove you broken commandments.
This whole plot was to “trap” Jesus into saying anything that could be used to justify his removal from existence. The motive was clear. They need Jesus dead. They hate Him.
What did the High Priest say after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead?
“If we let this Jesus go on like this then the Romans will come and take away our way of life. In other words we will lose the income we receive from the temple. We will lose our social standing and out authority.”
For three years Jesus backed up His claims. He fed thousands with a light lunch from a nameless boy; He stilled the storms on the sea with a word. He walked on the water. He healed people who had medically incurable diseases. Lepers were made whole and sent home to families. The blind received their sight. Paralytics were able to walk without robotics. Mourners were reunited with lifeless loved ones. For three years He never broke one of God’s commandments. He refused the temptations of Satan.
The pompous Pharisees didn’t much like Jesus because He set aside their man-made laws. Jesus instructed the people to love God & neighbor. He came to restore humanity’s broken relationship with God, our Creator. People were and still today, burdened with guilt at their failure to keep God’s commands.
Jesus was walking on the road to death. It was God’s plan that Jesus, His holy and perfect Son would take the wrath of God against broken commandments so that His holiness could be transferred to all who trust the words of Jesus.
(II Corinthians 5:21)
Jesus was betrayed. Bitten with a snake’s kiss. It’s more than rejection. Rejection opens a wound, betrayal pours salt on the wound. He was left alone. Betrayal was closing the door. It was more than mockery by the High Priest and the soldiers. Mockery plunges the knife, betrayal twists it.
Through it all, Jesus kept His eyes on the Father’s plan. While surrounded by enemies He kept His mind on His Father’s plan of redemption for His most prized creation. You and me.
“Eternal salvation occurs by grace, through faith in Jesus. Grace means salvation is a gift from God. Just because it’s a free gift to you and me does not mean it has no cost. It cost Jesus His life. Remember, Justice happens when you get what you deserve. Mercy occurs when you don’t get what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. You don’t do things to become a Christian. Yet, when you become a Christian, you do things that demonstrate that you are a Christian.” (from Who Broke my Church, Kent Hunter)
And so we arrive at the final legal question brought by the Pharisees. “Teacher, What is the greatest commandment?” In other words how shall we live until you return?
This is for us.
Read Matthew 22:37-39
Our culture today is primarily focused on romantic or brotherly love – but God’s love is agape, the purest, deepest and most unconditional kind of love. It’s not merely a friendly attitude He projects but the essence of His very nature.
Psalm 36:7: “How precious is your steadfast love, O God!”
Psalm 63:3: “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.”
Isaiah 38:17: “But in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.”
Human love is generally a response to the conditions and circumstances around us. We love because someone pleases us or because they’re good looking or because they’re from Wisconsin. By contrast, God loves us because that’s the kind of God He is. Period. Nothing in us causes Him to love us.
As Max Lucado says, “Jesus loves you just the way you are but He loves you too much to let you stay the way you are.”
We see this in Jesus’ interaction with a man who had made money his master. It’s very interesting that Jesus doesn’t clobber him even though cash is his king. Listen to Mark 10:21: “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’”
Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. Yes, the Romans crucified him. Yes, friends placed his corpse in a borrowed grave. Yes the Romans sealed the tomb and set a guard. It did not matter. Jesus defeated death and rose from the grave with a glorified resurrected body. He has promised the same glorified resurrection body to all who accept the invitation to the God’s wedding banquet. (Philippians 3:20-21)
Admission to heaven, admission to the wedding celebration is on God’s terms, not ours. It is by God’s grace, not our goodness that entry is given. Just as restaurants post: “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service: So God’s invitation: “No Savior, No Celebration.”
