Things were heating up for Jesus. There was a plot afoot to kill Him; the religious leaders questioned Him in front of the general congregation of the people in the Temple and out on the street in an attempt to discredit and shame Him and His teaching. They sought a way to arrest Him. Good thing they were afraid of the people. They did not want to be stoned or to have a riot stirred up and consequently be called into question for it by their Roman conquerors. This did not mean this growing maligning desire desisted.
Quite the contrary...In their frustration with Jesus they bribe men to act as 'spies' to try to find opportunities to trick and trap Jesus into saying something they could accuse Him of saying or doing that went against the law (Jewish or Roman) and give legal reason to arrest Him without a peoples' uproar.
Do read about this in Luke 20:20-26.
The paid spies set out then, masquerading as "sincere seekers". Jesus knew very well what they were up too though. The "secret agents" asked the question they were primed to present;
"Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not" (verse 22 NIV)?
If Jesus had been setting Himself up to be "rival king" come to Jerusalem, and forbid payment of taxes to the Romans, He'd have been labeled a treasonous rebel. Definite basis for an arrest. On the other hand, if He had condoned payment, He'd have lost face with the Jewish throngs. That would have instigated, at least, that coveted discrediting, if not an additional stirring up of unrest and riot.
Can you see how the trap was locked and loaded?
Look at the beauty of Jesus' reply.
"Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar; and to God what belongs to God" (vs 25).
I just love that! It's so incredibly amazing and awesome. God's WISDOM!
Wouldn't you like to be able to answer questions like that? I would.
The marvelous thing is...we can!
Did you know that? The Bible says we can. If you ASK, what will happen? You will RECEIVE and in James 1:5, it states that if anyone lacks wisdom, they can ask of God and He will give it.
In Psalm 119:97-104, the psalmist wrote that he had more insight and wisdom than his teachers and elders! Why was that? This is because he read, memorized, recited, meditated upon and obeyed God's Word.
So this is a second potential way to gain wisdom.
What happened to the "counter-intelligence seekers"? They were flabbergasted by Jesus' exceedingly wise reply. They could not catch Jesus in His words, so they became speechless and therefore, quiet.
Ok. Let's leave the spies to their stew and make an observation about paying taxes back then, which, by-the-way, is still relevant today....
The Roman Emperor Caesar, was not a nice guy, in fact, he was an intolerable tyrant. Jesus didn't say that because Caesar was brutal, no need to pay taxes. NO. As Christians, even now, we must pay our taxes despite the type of government: good or bad.
"Jesus was stating a principle here, not a compromise. To give what the government requires is the responsibility of every citizen and does not break any of God's laws" (SPM book footnote).*1
Further to that, the Sanhedrin was responsible for collecting the taxes and passing them on to the Romans. Thus, their tricky question topic posed to Jesus. However, Jesus left absolutely no wiggle room to be misjudged as being disloyal to the Emperor or to God.
The important thing, Jesus was saying, is that our loyalty and obedience to God is imperative and as citizens of both Heaven and Earth, we have to obey the laws of both.
Now, you may interject here, what about the case of the apostles behavior as recorded in the book of Acts who were arrested and sternly commanded NOT to teach in the name of Jesus and propagate the gospel message through Him?
In Matthew it teaches us Jesus had commanded the disciples to,
"Go into all the world and preach the gospel..." (Matthew 28:19-20).
The law of the land said, "STOP it!"
Jesus said, "GO!"
What should be done? Observe Peter and John's reply,
"Which is right in God's eyes: to listen to you (mere men), or to Him (Jesus)? You be the judges!... is it right in God's eyes to listen to you rather than God" (Acts 4:18-19 NIV)?
Upon release, look what they did,
"...we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard..." (vs 20).
Their compulsion was to obey God in a way that went against the ways of a citizen of Earth but not of Heaven, which took necessary precedence. This even to the point of earthly legal action against them. They were willing to pay that cost of being a disciple.
This brings us to our present age. Christians in some places INSISTING on their right to attend church despite the laws of good common sense and even of the earthly land, against so doing, in this COVID-19 era. Often going against those laws of good common sense to wear a mask and observe social distancing; on top of this, making colossal verbal 'stink' of how this is their right.
Additionally, God's Word declares in Hebrews 10:24 and 25...
"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another--and all the more as you see the day approaching."
Yes, "God's Word says..." Is it "a good deed" to rebelliously insist on meeting together, mask-less, rubbing shoulders, and perhaps causing someone to contract THE coronavirus? We must respect on another.
God's Word also says,
"Everything is permissible for me-but not everything is beneficial..." (1 Corinthians 6:13 NIV).
Yes, that was in regards to foods to eat or not to eat; however, I believe it can be applied in this instance.
Look at Jesus' answer to Satan as we read in Matthew 4:7 NIV,
"It is also written; Do not put the Lord your God to the test."
Is this enough to quash any designs we might have to quibble against the governmental powers that be who are trying to keep us all safe?
This is not political agenda, per se, as you can see the world wide statistics of those countries, who have largely, successfully stemmed the corona tide compared to those who are less than prudent about, at least, attempting to nip the virus in the bud. The proof is in the pudding if folks care to take the blinders off and SEE.
Yes, "like Saul of Tarsus, we all want to be on the road to 'DE - MASK - US'"*2. However, we do need to heed and exercise the fruit of the Spirit...patience.
Enough of that track. Pull back to our story at hand. Sadly, all of the wonder the 'spies' and the Sanhedrin members felt did not lead them to repentance. It only led to them being spellbound in silent awe.
May our amazement with God, His Word, Jesus and what He has done for us, cause us to live a humble, devoted life of righteousness and thankfulness to Him and His will for our lives; actively serving Him and the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In the next segment of verses from Luke 20, [verses 27-40 (NIV)], we are further introduced to the Sadducees. Many of this sect were actually members of the Sanhedrin. They were, very roughly speaking, similar to the Pharisees yet with striking differences. One of the major differences, which is relevant here to the question they asked Jesus, is that they did not believe in any such thing as resurrection.
Look at some of the differences which I discovered from a meme online:
-The Pharisees were teachers of the Law whereas the Sadducees were Temple 'rulers'
-The Pharisees had interpretations of the Torah where the Sadducees kept strictly to the Torah alone.
-The Pharisees were middle class vs the Sadducees being more wealthy & labeled "Upper Class"
-The Pharisees were convinced of the resurrection of the dead while the Sadducees denied it.
-The Pharisees believed in afterlife vs the Sadducees said, no such thing--you die, you get put six feet under--that's it.
-The Pharisees rejected the Jewish leaders while the Sadducees supported them (after all, many of them were the Jewish leaders)--whence came the rub betwixt the two sects.
Can you just picture the Sadducees marching down the road in pomp and circumstance, ready to erupt with what they felt was 'sure fire' to nail Jesus to the cross then and there. That, or at least, discredit Him enough to topple the peoples' regard of Him.
They told the story of the woman, now a widow, who had had seven husbands, each dying in succession, leaving them all childless. They wanted to know Jesus' take on which man would be her husband in the resurrection.
They were laughing and smirking up their sleeves. Surely, they had Him here. Mockery at just the thought of resurrection.
"Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her" (Luke 20:33)?
Since the Sadducees only used the Torah, their question stemmed from the Law that God gave Moses to inscribe and record. This law about widows (Deuteronomy 25:5-10) was intended to protect their rights. Women and what's more, widows, were considered low down on the spectrum of class. Generally, they were very poor and often without a male protector and were easily exploited. This particular law was, that if a man died childless, then the brother was permitted and encouraged to marry the widow.
Jesus' response was that they did not know the full scope of truth. They did not know or realize that in the after Earth life (yes, there IS life after death), there was something essentially different. For the unsaved, of course, there is eternal punishment in Hell. However, for those who have accepted Jesus as Savior there will be three new things for us which can be read about in verses 34-37.
These are the three 'new things' to learn about life in the life after Earth life, that Jesus encapsulated for the querying Sadducee interrogators. One, marriage does not apply in the after Earth life. Two, they can no longer die. Third, they will be similar to the angels in that they don't marry nor die; and are sons of God.
Incidentally, angels are greater in power and authority above us now; however, in the everlasting time in Heaven, the roles will be reversed, and we children of God will be more powerful and have the greater authority over angels. We will even be judge over some of them. That is, over Satan and his minions.
Another thing about angels is that they are created beings, same as human beings have been. Therefore, when a human being departs from Earth, they do NOT become an angel; nor a star for that matter.
Anyway, we divert from our main topic. Let's get back.
Jesus mentions the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That kind of gets to be a fuzzy connection for us. However, Jesus refers to them and says that God is their God:
"the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob" (vs 37).
This implies the three are still alive in the afterlife. True, their bodies are long decayed in the ground, yet would God talk about a relationship with someone who no longer exists? Remember the Sadducees don't believe in life after death. Yet they still revered these three patriarchs as if they still existed.
Jesus had touched a sensitive chord in their belief system and they knew it.
Some teachers of the law responded, "Well said, Teacher!" An acknowledgment of some credibility. The rest did not dare to ask any more questions.
Some of the teachers of the law may well have been silently smirking, glad that the Sadducees had "lost" the argument. This seems to be a dead end though.
If only they had instead, shown some positive change acknowledging Jesus and who He was (and still is). If only they had been obedient and sought out understanding of the Law of God, as written by Moses that they purportedly treasured, they would have been on the right track to obeying and believing in Jesus and that He was their Messiah. They would not have made excuses for not realizing and/or admitting who Jesus was and accepted Him as their Messiah. They would not have continued to plot Jesus' arrest and death.
Jesus questioners now desisted. Jesus took the floor then and countered with another of His tough questions. However, we'll let that marinate till another auspicious time.
For ourselves then, here and now...know that it is easy to find excuses and what may look like viable reasons for not wanting to do what we KNOW is right and good for us. We give ourselves excuses to get out of doing the right things. For example: Right things such as following school rules, boundaries parents set; paying taxes; going to church mask-less, among other things.
Is it right to disobey because maybe teachers, parents, pastors or the government don't follow the rules? Or, maybe the one in authority is not kind? (If you are in physical and/or sexual abuse harm's way--remove yourself and/or talk to someone who hopefully will be able to help you.)
Do we still need to listen?
In God's sight, how should we behave in order to honor Him?
This is the ultimate question and leveler.
~ERC September 2020~
Based on Luke 20:20-26 and 27-40
Reference:
*1 SPM book, A Study Guide to The GOSPEL According to LUKE; Issachar Sdn. Bhd; copyright 2005.
*2 Seen on a church billboard in WI, USA.
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