August 19, 2012
Matthew 22:23-33 / Key verse: 22:32, “‘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.”
Last week we learned that through the parable of the wedding banquet, God wants to invite all undeserving sinners to the eternal kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is the main theme of Jesus’ teaching and the whole bible. Since the kingdom of heaven is where our eternal God rules, it implies that there is resurrection and eternal life. In today’s passage, Jesus clearly teaches about resurrection. Resurrection is the best news for all people who are under the power of sin and death. Having resurrection faith makes our life fundamentally different; heaven-oriented; life and spirit-filled; able to endure all hardship for God’s kingdom. Let’s hear what Jesus teaches in today’s passage.
I. the Sadducees were tormented by the power of sin and death (23-28)
Look at verse 23. “That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.” The Sadducees were a sect among the Israelite religious leaders. They were aristocratic (upper class) people. They were very wealthy and held powerful position, including that of chief priests and high priest, and they held the majority of the 70 seats of the Jewish ruling council called the Sanhedrin. They were the objects of envy from many people in terms of their worldly success. But Matthew simply calls them those who say there is no resurrection. Sadducees didn’t believe spiritual world such as the existence of angels or spirits. They didn’t believe life after death and the kingdom of heaven and hell. Since they didn’t believe afterlife and the kingdom of heaven and hell, to them this world was everything. To them the best motto of life was “Seek worldly success and pleasure and enjoy them as much as possible.” Then they would die and disappear.
Throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus had proclaimed the kingdom of heaven repeatedly. His first message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”(Mt 4:17) Jesus gave many parables to teach only one thing. It was about the kingdom of heaven. If you read Act 1, even after his resurrection, Jesus’ teaching was exactly same. It was only about the kingdom of heaven. Jesus really had a single desire that he wanted to bring the kingdom of heaven on earth. But since Sadducees didn’t believe the existence of heaven, they were so irritated by Jesus’ teaching. Also if heaven were real, it meant they should have repented to enter it. Not to repent, they really wanted to discredit Jesus and justify their worldly way of life. So they came to him with a very weird story to make resurrection faith seem ridiculous.
Look at verses 24-28. “‘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. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and dies, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?” They told this story to discredit resurrection, but they only revealed their own inner problems.
What were they? First of all, they were F bible students. To discredit resurrection, they quoted Deuteronomy 25:5-6. These bible verses were about a man’s duty to his brother’s widow. Obviously this law was not general principle in God’s word but very limited application and the main purpose was to protect each Israelite man’s name and inheritance in the same family members. So God’s word and law always should be used for correct purpose. But Sadducees didn’t honour the intention of Bible author; God. They quoted these verses just to borrow the authority of the Scripture to advance their own corrupted and perverse claim that there is no resurrection. When they didn’t honour the Bible author God’s intension, they had very poor understanding of the bible. Most of all, because they love the world so much more than God, they couldn’t hear God’s word and his revelation through the Scripture.
In the second place, they were so inhumane people. When we see their made-up weird story, we find one thing about their inner world. It is their lack of humanity. To make hypothetical story to discredit resurrection, they hypothesized 7 marriages of one woman and her 7 times of widow life and 7 brother’s consecutive death without even single child. What a super-miserable and most likely never happening story! But if only they could discredit resurrection, they could make up such story. Their thought worlds were very sick and they were inhumane people.
Thirdly, they were death-bound people. Through the hypothetical story they made, we can imagine how smart they are to invent a very extreme story not to believe resurrection. However, paradoxically this shows that they were really bound by the power of death. The reward of desperately refusing the resurrection truth was just that they were tightened all the more by the power of death. What a misery this is! However they didn’t realize their misery. They were very self-sufficient by spiritually blinded eyes with their worldly success and wealth.
Sadducees are the representatives of all who seek only worldly success and secular pleasure without God and resurrection faith. They live based on their human rationalism, rationality, and logic. They put their human logic or idea above God’s word. They can look smart and nice to people’s eyes but to God they were very arrogant and dangerous people. Unfortunately in the campus, there are so many little Sadducees who follow Sadducees’ life style. They are intellectual and smart but spiritually very rebellious and proud to God. As a result, their hearts and minds are dark, foolish, and futile. They suffer from the power of sin and death. How can we help them? From Jesus we can learn how we can help them.
II. Jesus teaches faith in the living God (29-33)
Sadducees only wanted to discredit Jesus and resurrection. Yet Jesus was not hurt by them. Instead, he had shepherd heart toward their wickedness and spiritual ignorance. Jesus replied to them in verses 29-32. Look at verse 29. “Jesus replied, ‘You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.’” Jesus diagnosed very accurately their problem in one word. Their problem was that they did not know the Scripture or the power of God. In fact, many times, our unwillingness of accepting God and the spiritual truth; such as resurrection comes from our “not knowing the Scripture accurately.” As for resurrection, even in books of Moses which Sadducees admitted as God-given books, there was a great revelation from God that enables us to know who God is and there is resurrection in him. It was Exodus 3:6. Jesus gave this word to help Sadducees. Look at verses 31-32. Let’s read these together. “But about the resurrection of the dead – have you not read what God said to you, ‘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.” As you know when God appeared to Moses, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had already died long time ago; more than hundreds years ago. But when God introduced himself, he used present tense, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” This means that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were living before God although they had died long time ago. This means that there is resurrection. Jesus confirmed this revelation by his word. “He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” Yes! Indeed our God is not the God of the dead but of the living! It means when we believe in him, we are always alive before him. When we study the bible with sincere heart and desire, we can know God’s revelation through the bible and can have clear and firm resurrection faith.
It is interesting that Jesus said to Sadducees, “…have you not read what God said to you…?” Jesus did not say, “…have you not read what God said to Moses…?” Historically, God was speaking to Moses. But Jesus taught the Sadducees that God was speaking to them. Isn’t this really amazing? These wretched guys could claim God’s revelation to Moses as their own. This is true for us as well. God speaks to us through the bible and he wants us to know him through the Bible. God does not want us to study the bible just as past history only because God speaks to us in the present through the bible. When we truly hear and learn the bible, we can know the power of God. In the bible, there are so many story about the power of God. Even one word of God, if we really accept it, it has power to transform us. Most of all, when we accept the word of resurrection, we are transformed from physical being to spiritual being who can see and enter the kingdom of heaven by faith and we can understand the nature of heaven.
Look at verse 30. “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” The kingdom of heaven is not a mere continuation of life on earth as we know it. It is very new and different. In heaven there is no marriage. There is, however, one marriage. It is the spiritual marriage of Jesus to his holy bride the church. It is perfect union. We will be like Christ. We will be like the angels in heaven. 1 Corinthian 15:42-44a describe about our future being in a best way comparing with our current human body. It says, “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” Revelation 21:4 says, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Heaven is glorious beyond our present understanding. Those who believe in Jesus will all be raised into holy children of God. And this resurrection faith and hope greatly direct our present life on earth. It helps us to focus our life on eternal life and God’s kingdom and live life worthy of eternal life instead of seeking worldly honour or petty pleasure in this world.
When our Lord Jesus Christ taught the Sadducees about the resurrection and the kingdom of heaven, he knew that his crucifixion is imminent. He would be hung on a cross and die for the sin of the world. Yet Jesus said with confidence that God was the God of the living. Jesus was sure that God would receive his spirit. Jesus was sure that he would live in glory with the living God. Jesus was sure that God would raise him from the dead and crown him King of kings and Lord of lords. When we have resurrection faith and hope, we can live like Jesus enduring hardship for the gospel serving God’s flock on campus.
In the campus, there are many little Sadducees who don’t believe resurrection and only care about worldly things; human success and pleasure. They greatly suffer because they cannot overcome the power of sin and death. For the suffering people under the power of sin and death, Jesus came to bring them back to God’s eternal kingdom. Jesus has single desire to bring the kingdom of heaven into people’s hearts.
In today’s passage, Jesus clearly teaches that there is resurrection. God is the God of the living. In believing in God, we can always live in the power of resurrection. We can always overcome all the elements of death and the power of death. With this life we can serve little Sadducees-like campus young students and be used preciously by God in advancing his kingdom in their lives. May God bless each of you to believe the resurrection power in God and live life worthy of the resurrection truth! Amen.