Do you ever watch one of those martial arts movies – pick one, any one, it doesn’t matter – how about "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?" There is always a scene, at least one, where the hero or heroine is taking on a whole group of bad guys or gals. Two of them square off in the middle – and when the hero dispatches one guy, another steps up to take his place from a different angle. I always wonder why they take turns like nice kids in kindergarten? But anyway – today’s events in the life of Jesus as recorded by Matthew remind me of a martial arts movie – where first one foe tries their best to trip up the Messiah – then when Jesus knocks them to the mat by His wisdom, the next group steps up and tries to confound Him.
They start by posing a hypothetical situation.
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 have children for him.
Very little is known about the Sadducees – except that they probably came into being in the 2nd century BC. They believed only in the Pentateuch – the first five books of Moses. Because Moses didn’t make any direct references to the resurrection of the dead, they rejected it – and in fact, anything supernatural.
As I have mentioned before – they were the equivalent to what we know of today as rationalists – the only things that exist are those things which we can see around us.
The law they were quoting is from Deuteronomy 25:5-6. The law was designed to make sure a family line continued and they didn’t lose their property. It also protected the widows who were in those days not cared for unless they were married.
So far they are merely quoting the law – but they attempt to weave a logical noose around Jesus as they press their logic forward.
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?""
"Aha," they think, "we’ve got Him now." They didn’t believe in the resurrection – and so are using this extreme example to make their case. The law against polygamy versus the law of continuing the family line.
Once again these groups are trying to get God to cancel Himself out – like in the laws regarding marriage and divorce where the Pharisees tried to show that God commanded and frowned on divorce. But as in that case, Jesus points out that these men look at the letters of the law, and miss the Spirit behind the law, and the God who wrote it.
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.
Jesus refuses to fall into their silly riddle. The Sadducees didn’t believe in heaven or angels – but that wasn’t the point of Jesus’ answer. What He was telling them was that the same rules on earth do not apply in heaven. He wasn’t saying that we become angels – but that like the angels, there won’t be any need for propagation in heaven as there is on earth to continue to replace humans that die.
In heaven there will be no death – because God gives a new life to us – not a physical life like we have here – but an eternal life. This isn’t a teaching about marriage or angels – but about the principal that eternal life exists and that it is fundamentally different that life here on earth.
If the Sadducees had know the Scriptures they wouldn’t have asked the question because God clearly talks about a resurrection from the dead – and if they knew the power of God they would know it is possible.
They tried to get God to fit into their nice little belief system – a box where they could control Him. But God won’t fit into any box.
We need to be careful that we don’t try to fit God into our preconceptions. Sometimes we base our theology on our ideas about God, instead of what He says. God isn’t like we think – He is who He is. How do we know Him – by reading and seeking to understand Him through His Word and His power. Study the Bible – get to know the God of the Bible, and take Him at His Word – don’t try to monkey the Bible around to your way of thinking.
Also get to know His power – I’m not talking about counting on the latest fad miracle – I’m talking about letting Him have sway in your life to change you from the inside out. God is in the business of making new lives – if we let Him.
Now Jesus didn’t answer the riddle – but He clearly answers the Sadducees error about eternal life.
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.""
Since the Sadducees only accepted the Pentateuch, Jesus brings them their answer from Exodus 3:6. God spoke in the present tense about men who had long been dead. The very clear implication is then that these men were living – having been resurrected to life after their death.
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
The idea here is like striking your head with your hand or hitting something out of sheer amazement. We too should be amazed at Jesus’ teaching. But now comes round two. The Sadducees are sad and they retire to the corner – and out pops the next adversary – the Pharisees.
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?""
Now at first blush this might seem like a fight – but Mark actually tells us that the lawyer who asked this question was really wanting to know which of the hundreds of ritual, moral, ethical, and ceremonial laws were most important.
After their exchange – Jesus told the man that he was not far from the kingdom. But the Pharisees themselves were only interested in trapping Him – reasoning that there was no way to simplify the law into a simple concept – how wrong they were.
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.""
First Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:5. Jesus adds to the "heart and soul" the concept of loving God with all your mind. I like this for two reasons – first we get back again to the idea of relationship. If you were with us a few weeks ago we talked about what really matters in life – it’s not the stuff we acquire but the relationships we have because stuff is going to burn, but relationships will last – starting first and foremost with our relationship to God.
Secondly, Jesus is saying that we need to love God with all of our being. We love with our heart – that emotional part of us, we love with our soul, that decisive part of us that can make a decision to love even when we don’t feel like it – and He adds the mind – we aren’t robots, we have brains and we can love God with them – we can think on Him and use our brains to share His love.
What we need to watch out for is when we decide to love God with one part and not another. We can’t love God only when we feel good – or when circumstances are going our way. We shouldn’t love God emotionally but leave our minds disconnected from His Word.
This is the vertical part of love – our relationship to God. But the second command is also central – the horizontal part of love that reaches out to others.
We cannot maintain a good vertical relationship with God without caring for others.
Well, just like with the Sadducees, Jesus draws a bead on what was keeping them from the kingdom of God.
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 ""What do you think about the Christ? 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.
The central issue for these religious leaders – and all of us for that matter – is the true identity of Jesus. Some have said that you have only three choices – Jesus was a lunatic – who thought He was God but wasn’t, a liar – who knew He wasn’t God but fooled everyone into believing it, or Lord – that He is truly who He says He is.
First Jesus asks a rhetorical question – all the religious leaders would know that the Messiah was supposed to be a descendant of David. But while the Pharisees thought He would merely be a man, a human ruler who would restore Israel’s place, Jesus reveals to them that the Messiah is much much more than that.
Jesus quotes from Psalm 110, verse 1. This is a Davidic Psalm – In it King David says "The Lord said to my Lord." The first Lord is Yahweh, meaning God Almighty – the second Lord is Adonai (Greek: Kurios) which means Lord – or ruler. So God Almighty is talking to David’s Lord – David would not have called a mere human descendant, no matter how important, Lord. David understood that the Messiah was to be much more than just a man.
For us, sometimes we think we know what the Lord says, but haven’t delved deep enough into His Word or into our hearts to discover who He really is. Is He just a ruler to you? A person who hands down the edicts and the rules? Or is He your God – a Father with whom you have a relationship – and to whom you give your allegiance NO MATTER WHAT.
I challenge us all to spend time this week really meditating on who Jesus really is.
Conclusions
Don’t let someone else’s false logic draw you off target
If A=B and B=C then A=C – but what if A doesn’t equal B? The Sadducees assumed that Heaven (A) is like Earth (B). They then assumed that our bodies (C) must be the same then in Heaven (A) as they are on Earth (B).
People use false assumptions in their logic about God all the time. Here’s one for you:
A – God is love
B – God is omnipotent
C – Evil is not love
D – So if evil happens then either God is not love (because He allows it and thus doesn’t care) or not omnipotent (because He can’t stop it)
What happens is that people with limited knowledge of God think they can figure Him out. First we need to realize that people who don’t know Jesus do not understand God, and thus can’t explain Him.
2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ … (KJV)
It is only by coming to Jesus that we see clearly.
1 Corinthians 2:12-14 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (NIV)
So when we come to Christ the veil is lifted and the Spirit shows us the truth about God – and slowly reveals to us the answers to those perplexing mysteries.
Stick to the basics – the gospel. As my friend and pastor Rick Booye likes to say: "Sin – bad, God – good, Hell – hot." People will do anything to avoid having the confront the basic issues of sin in their life, and the death and resurrection of Jesus to pay for that sin. It’s an excuse. Don’t let them steer you away from the gospel.
Rom 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (NIV)
Check your level of love
Do you have a hard time following God – being dedicated to Him, becoming like Him? You may find that you are leading a schizophrenic relationship with God – loving Him with parts of you but not all of you.
My challenge to you this week is to examine your goals, wants, desires, thought patterns, behavior patterns, your decision making patterns – and see if there are areas where you don’t want to love God. It may be painful, but in the end it will bear great fruit.
David also wrote Psalm 139
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Let God search – then let Him forgive, heal, and strengthen you to walk with Him, loving Him with your whole being.
