Jesus Confronts the Religious Leaders (Matthew 22:15-46)

Introduction.

My daughter is a college lecturer, and when we get together, we talk about all kinds of things. One day, recently we got around to discussing the kinds of questions that people ask. She said that her and her colleagues were talking about this just the other day and that they agreed the questions they were asked by students basically fell into three different kinds of questions. 

Number one, the student would ask a question just to gain information, that they agreed was a perfectly acceptable question. The second kind of question was a request for clarification, they thought they had grasped hold of something but basically wanted to clarify something to make sure they were on the right track, they agreed that that was also a good question. The third kind of question is the type of question designed to show how dumb or how wrong the teacher is.

Well that exact sort of thing happened to Jesus Christ when he was asked questions, only worse, because they were not only asking questions to try and show how cleaver they were, but they asked questions to try trap him so they could kill him. As a matter of fact, these events take place on the Tuesday of a week which will end with him dying on the Friday, and there is this avalanche of questions coming at him from different sources.  It was almost like they were ganging up on him firing one question at him, right after another, all with the purpose of catching him out and leading to his execution. What I want us to do is look at those questions because the answers he gave can teach us a whole lot of things. So, let’s turn together to Matthew chapter 22 and I’m going to begin reading with verse 15.

Question No 1: The Pharisees: Is It Lawful to Pay Taxes to Caesar?

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the tax money.” So, they brought Him a denarius.  And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”  They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left Him and went their way.

(Matthew 22: 15-22)

 This is the beginning of a rather long passage of scripture where Jesus will be questioned by one group of detractors after another. The structure of it is rather straightforward. Firstly, he is questioned by the Pharisees. Secondly, he is questioned by the Sadducees, and then finally he is questioned by the scribes, the lawyers of his day. 

Let’s begin with the Pharisees who it tells us plotted how they might entangle him, and they send to him with some of their followers along to also be question by some people called, Herodians. This is an interesting combination of people, first of all who were the Herodians, well the answer is this was a political group that felt that Herod had the right to the political throne of Israel. What is fascinating is that it says they plotted together because these two groups the Pharisees and the Herodians normally bitter enemies. The Pharisees resented the Roman domination of Israel, and that’s putting it mildly, they did not think that Herod was the rightful heir to the throne because they were waiting for the Messiah to come and kick out the Romans.

So here are two groups that were normally opposed to one another, the religious Pharisees and the political Herodians, but they both join forces with the aim of getting rid of Jesus, so they band together with a common enemy in Jesus. Ironically, they initially say, “We know we are true and teach the way of God and truth and you do not care what people think”. Remember they were trying to entrap him these aren’t true statements at all, but they come to the heart of it when they ask Jesus, “do you think is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar”.

Now they really had created a dilemma here because if Jesus said you should not pay taxes to Caesar he would be in trouble with the Romans. If he said you should pay taxes to Caesar, he in trouble with the ordinary people because they hated the taxation of the Romans. They went to Jesus, and they asked is it “lawful”, meaning lawful in the sight of God to pay this tax. How would Jesus respond to that question, it’s not long to we find out. In verse 18 it says, “Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, why do you test me you hypocrites”. He heard their words, but he saw their hearts. He knew that they were just trying to trip him up, this was not an honest question, it was a loaded question.

Jesus then says, “show me the money”, That was in a Tom Cruise movie a few years ago wasn’t it, “show me the money”. The coin they bring to his is one that was equivalent to about one day’s wage, and he then asks them whose image and inscription is on it. They reply, Caesars of course, and Jesus says, okay, then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and give to God the things that our God’s. There’s a difference in what they asked, and what he said in reply, and that difference is significant. The word they used first when they say, should we pay tax to Caesar, means to give something insinuating that the tax was like a gift, but the word Jesus replies with is one translated render, at it’s a Greek word that means to return something, to pay back. In other words, there’s two different ways of looking at money and taxes in this passage, one is almost as if it is a gift, the other is that it is a debt that is to be paid.

What Jesus is saying is look you have a debt ,you have an obligation to pay your taxes for the services you have been supplied with. So, when it’s a tax give back in the currency that is applicable in that sphere of society. But then, there are things that belong to God and give those things that belong to God, but make sure you give those things a free will gift. In this first part of what’s going on in this passage in this first part of the discussion the dialogue the debate or whatever you want to call this Jesus is making one simple point it is not incompatible with serving God to pay your taxes, and that paying taxes to Caesar was not being disloyal to God. We all have to pay our taxes, but you also have a debt to God to pay, Pay that debt willingly, in fact offer it as a gift of thanksgiving for what he has done for you.

Let me pause before we go on and make one other suggestion, he called for a coin, and he said look at that coin whose image is on it. They said Caesar, and he said alright that belongs to Caesar, so when you have a debt to Caesar give it back  to him. But then he talks about something belonging to God and paying that back to God as a free will offering. I am reminded of the fact that back in Genesis we’re told that we are made in the image of God. So, if the coin had the image of Caesar on it and belonged to him then I believe we can also take it that we who are made in the image of God, then we belonged to him that made us. If we were to give back to Caesar that which has his image stamped upon it, then we  we are also to give to God that which has his image stamped upon us, in other words give of ourselves. Like I said the first question really comes from the Herodians, the politicians and  it has to do with the political system, but the second question is one that comes from the Sadducees.

Question Two: The Sadducees: What About the Resurrection?

The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. Likewise, the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. Last of all the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had been with her.” Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection, they neither marry or are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. However, concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

(Matthew 22: 23-33)

This question is deeply rooted in the Old Testament and the fact that God gave the Jews the land of Israel and he divided the land up and gave it to the various tribes the 12 tribes and he gave it to the various families within that tribe. This is a reference to that custom that was unique to the Old Testament which said if a man had a wife, and they weren’t able to bear children and he died his brother was to marry her so that the family name could be carried on. It was as simple as that.  What the Sadducees did is they carried this idea to absurd lengths, and they said, this man had a wife and she died and there were six brothers and one after another they each married her and one after another, they all died and then they asked whose wife is she gonna be after the resurrection. There’s a couple of things you need to know when you look it this.

Firstly, the Sadducees we’re the ones who did not believe in the  resurrection. Unbelievable, the people who didn’t believe in the resurrection concocted an extreme and ridiculous question concerning the resurrection. By the way the Sadducees where the aristocrats of the day, they were the governing body so to speak in Israel. Also, they only accepted the Pentateuch, meaning the only believed in the first five books of the Bible as being legitimate. They didn’t accept the rest of the Old Testament and furthermore they did not accept the oral tradition of the Pharisees. Their argument was that the Pentateuch doesn’t mention the resurrection therefore there is no resurrection. So, what’s the Sadducees in fact do here is they find an obscure law in Deuteronomy, and they tried to use it in an extreme illustration to try and trap Jesus. There are actually two questions in one here. One is, whose wife are they going to be in the resurrection, and the the second has to do with the resurrection itself but remember they don’t even believe in resurrection.

What happens next is Jesus takes both of those questions and he answers them by saying to them you’re whole premise is wrong, and you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God, because in the resurrection we will have our translated bodies and be like the angels in heaven. His answer is, it isn’t relevant whose wife she is she going to be because there is no marriage in heaven. Marriage was given as a gift for men and women to experience a bond of unity during their earthly existent, but its whole purpose was to give and early model, and insight, if you wish, on a reality of a unity that will exist across all risen humanity in the life to come. The he deals with the resurrection by saying God is not the God of the dead, but of the living now. That is a quotation from the book of Exodus and so he’s going to the Pentateuch, the books that they accept and using their scriptures and he's saying, look, God said hundreds of years after Abraham Isaac and Jacob died, I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and God’s 

So God is not the God of the dead, he's the God of the living, because those who have trusted in Him have eternal life. The point being is those three people are still very much alive in glory. That truth hinges on Jesus’ use of present tense here. “I am, the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob”. Thereby implying that hundreds of years after they died, they were still alive. 

Again, the Sadducees response is one silence, yet the crowd, are amazed. So, he silenced the Sadducees, and he astonishes the crowd. 

Before we go to the third question let me pause for a second. There’s something in this passage that has always been deeply meaningful to me. Jesus as part of his reply to both groups of people say, do you. not know the scriptures or the power of God. Upon reading this at a young age, I decided that I really needed to know the Bible. I think you could reduce my whole life’s ministry of trying to get me and help other people know the word of God and know the power of God in their lives. In the course of answering this question I think Jesus has taught me a very valuable lesson, and I hope it has taught you one as well.

Alright we have heard from the Herodians, the political party of the day and we’ve heard from the Sadducees who were the aristocrats and the ruling party of the day but and there’s one more question and this time it comes from the lawyers of the day. 

Third Question: The Scribes: Which Is the Greatest Commandment ?

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

(Matthew 22: 34-40)

These aren’t questions asked to gain insight or information, these aren’t questions asking for clarification, these are questions that try and put Jesus in a corner and trip him up. Yet this is still a fascinating question because there not asking what is the greatest of the ten commandments, they are asking him what is the greatest of the 600+ commandments spread across the whole Mosaic law. 

Some have suggested what they’re really asking is which kind of commandment is the greatest, not which one, and that’s an interesting way to look at this because some of them some Rabbis referred to some of the commandments as heavy, and some of them light. There was a debate among the religious teachers of the day as to which was the greatest, and Jesus’ answers and says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind. and that’s the first and great commandment the second is like it you shall love your neighbour as yourself on these two commandments hinge all the law and all the prophets”. These phrases are taken from Deuteronomy chapter 6. Some look at this and say, that’s just one way of saying you’re to love the Lord wholeheartedly, with all of your being.

I think the point here is that you are to love the Lord with all that is within you, maybe this why it is a reference to your mind and your emotions and your actions. There is also a requirement that you are to also love your neighbour as yourself. It is assumed that if you have a concern about your own well-being then based on that then you should also have compassion and love for other people. 

In other words, their concerns should be as dear to you as your own. By the way, later just before Jesus was about to die, he said to the disciples, “Love one another as I have loved you”. Jesus in this passage says that on this command hinges all the law and all the prophets. Paul also said in several places that when you love you fulfil the whole law of God. Meaning, if you love you will automatically do what the commandments say. if you love somebody you wouldn’t steal from them, that’s because you love them. You want what’s best for them, so you wouldn’t take their property, and that principle applies across all the other commandments as well. Jesus now has answered questions from these three different groups of people, the Herodians, The Sadducees and the scribes.

Jesus Questions Them: How Can David Call His Descendant Lord?

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son, is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.” He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:

 ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
 “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool” ’?

If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He, his Son?” And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.

Now Jesus tuns around and asks them a question. And he quotes Psalm 110: 1 Now this gets a little tricky so let me see if I can explain it as clear as possible. Psalm 110 is talking about the Messiah, everybody agreed with that. The Rabbi’s taught that also. Now in this and some other psalms we see David calling the Messiah Lord. What father calls his son Lord, so that implies that he must be more than the just the Son of David, that indicates he recognises he is superior to him by calling him Lord. He’s having authority over David, not just a son being under David. See the point? So, then whose son is he if David called him Lord, whose son is he. So, humanly speaking he’s the son of David but spiritually speaking he is the divine son of God, and the scripture is consistent in teaching that very thing. Jesus has put the question to them, do you even recognize that I and the Son of God, so that is what is really going on here. Their response was simply, they were unable to answer verse, none of them could think what to say. No one dared question him, anymore, they had no answer to that.

There is a progression in this passage, we were told after his answer to the first question the response was to marvel. We’re told the reactions to his second answer was to be astonished. Finally, here, there are struck silent. They don’t dare ask him a question. Jesus put it to them by using their scriptures, driving them to recognise that he was nothing more nothing less than God incarnate, the son of man and the Son of God and they had to respond to that one way or another. To accept it or reject it.

Now we have sprinted through this passage, we’ve looked at four questions, the question of the Herodians, the political party they wanted to know about taxes. The question of the Sadducees they were the governing party they had a particular theological point of view and they wanted to know about the resurrection. And finally, the scribes, the lawyers, and they wanted to know about the law. The sum of this is that Jesus answered all of their questions and in the process, he also proved who he was.

Let me conclude by making two rather simple points, one is to say that is the answer to the most important question anyone can ask. The answer to the question, who is Jesus? The greatest question you have to face in life is that same question. But it seems to me this passage not only askes the greatest question, who is Jesus, but it also indicates for what is the greatest answer to the question of, how should we live our lives. When asked about this he specifically answered, it is to love, it is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

When you love the Lord, you are devoted to him, to the point that his words become your words, his thoughts become your thoughts, and your feet walk the path he lays out before you. When we love someone, we talk to them, we think about them, we involve them in what we do. In other words, we share our lives with them. I think that is what it means to love the Lord. It’s not that different to a good marriage, it’s about sharing your life with him.

Maybe that’s what it means when it says in the Bible to pray without ceasing, in that you’re constantly thinking about him, sharing your life with him, and responding to his promoting by doing what he tells you to do. I hope that the way you are choosing to live your life today, and every day.