Passion Week Devotion #4
Text: Matthew 22:23-40
Pastor Daniel "Booney" Joyner
“The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”
29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Jesus entered Jerusalem for what we know as “Passion Week.” He had been teaching among the people. In this particular section we see a concentrated effort of the Sadducees and Pharisees to catch Jesus in a trap in order to give them something upon which they could accuse Him. In seeking to trap Jesus, they actually gave opportunity for Jesus to give an understanding into some of what He was going to do in just a few short days.
In the first part of this section, we see the Sadducees seeking to catch Jesus with a hypothetical situation in order to disprove the reality of the Resurrection. It is important to note here that Matthew makes known to us that the Sadducees do not believe in the resurrection. They gave a hypothetical situation shaped around the Levirate marriage. This was a practice established in the Hebrew culture that when a man died and did not have a son, his brother would take his wife and the first son born to her would carry the deceased husband’s name so that his name would not be removed from the people of Israel. They gave a hypothetical where a man died and his wife was eventually married to all six of his brothers. Their question was who her husband in heaven would be. It is important to note that their concern was not who would actually be her husband, for again they did not believe there would be a resurrection. They were not concerned with the answer, rather their intent was to try to prove there was actually no resurrection at all.
But rather than get involved in foolish hypotheticals, Jesus simply pointed out that they not only misunderstood the very nature of the resurrection, but they also missed the clear truths that God Himself had taught. Jesus pointed back to Exodus 3 when God revealed Himself to Moses stating, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” All of these men were dead during the time of Moses and had been for some time. This led Jesus to point out an obvious truth about the very nature of God. He is not the God of the dead but the living. If that is true, then these men who at that time had God as their God (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), though they had completed their days on earth were alive. Jesus pointed to the very words of God to prove the reality and the validity of the resurrection. Later that week, Jesus would further verify the truth of the resurrection by conquering death and resurrecting bodily Himself. Indeed, Jesus is alive! And not only that, the reality of the resurrection gives us who are in Him a hope that this life is not all there is. There is a resurrection to come.
Jesus is then confronted by the Pharisees, this time regarding the law asking, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Like the Sadducees’ question earlier, they were not sincerely seeking an answer as much as they were trying to get something they could bring against Jesus. Jesus, like He did with the Sadducees, answered in a way that revealed their misunderstanding of the very thing they presumed to know. Jesus quoted from the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) and stated that the great and first commandment is that, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Jesus then quoted from Leviticus 19 and gave the second commandment that, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus then stated that, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Jesus gave a summation of the entire Ten Commandments and the teachings of the Old Testament in these two statements. To keep the commandments is to love God and love your neighbor perfectly. Think about this: Jesus condensed the entirety of the commands in the Law and the Prophets into two sentences, and even in that we are still unable to keep them. Even if we take all of the commandments of the Old Testament and condense them down to two commands, we are still utterly incapable of obeying them and we still stand guilty of disobeying the law of God.
But here is the good news! You see, Jesus kept both of these commandments perfectly. Jesus perfectly and completely loved God and His neighbor. Yet, what was Jesus heading towards by week’s end? The cross. What would he do there? Die. Why is this important? Because if Jesus perfectly obeyed, He should not die, yet He did. In this we see what Paul taught in 2 Corinthians 5:21 when he wrote, “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” Christ perfectly obeyed in the place of His people and also died a sinner’s death in their place to satisfy the wrath of God towards their sin. What good news this is!
Today, we find ourselves in uncertain times. We face uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 virus. We face uncertainty about what impact this will have on our lives in the future. We face a stark reminder that is imminent. But church, in the midst of this fear let us remember this truth: Death is not the end. The reality of the resurrection should give those of us who are in Christ an unshakeable steadfastness regarding whatever uncertainties this life may bring. We know we have a greater city awaiting. We will be resurrected to be with our God. We will be resurrected to a land with no more virus or death or uncertainty. Let this truth give you comfort and resolve in the midst of this turmoil.
Prayer: Father, You know my heart is prone to wander and stray. I am prone to be concerned about circumstances in an unhealthy manner. And, at times I am prone to be presumptuous disregarding things that should concern me. I can also be like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day and be tempted to think self-righteously, causing me to actually profane Your name and fail to acknowledge Your grace toward me or my need for You. Forgive me. Help me to walk in humility before You, taking hope in Your provisions in Christ, in His death and resurrection and the life that it secures and insures. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.