Learning the Jesus Way of LifeSample

The God of the Living

Pray: Jesus, give me the faith to go where you go, do what you do, trust what you say, and love how you love. Today, I commit to following you. Amen.

In today’s passage, Jesus is once again put to the test, this time by a group known as the Sadducees.

Who were the Sadducees? They were a Jewish faction made up of the priesthood and the wealthy. They were rich, powerful, supported by Rome, and horribly corrupt. They controlled the temple, the center point of God-worship in Israel, and the Sanhedrin, the group that governed all legal and religious issues for the Jewish people.

Because of their power, influence, and departure from the will of God, it was only a matter of time before they would face off against Jesus. Almost everything Jesus said and did went against their beliefs and practices. So, by definition, if Jesus was right, then they were wrong. In addition, Jesus’ movement was a huge threat to the Sadducees’ shady relationship with Rome, a relationship that stuffed their pockets and hurt the rest of the Jewish people.

The showdown between Jesus and the Sadducees was inevitable. When the time finally came, Jesus struck first.

The act of clearing out the temple when Jesus first arrived in Jerusalem was an attack on the authority of the Sadducees, the people who ran the temple. Jesus was sending a message—loud and clear—that the time had come for their corruption to end and for God’s way of doing things to be restored.

Jesus showed up on their turf, stuck His nose in their business, and made an example of them for all to see.

Jesus wasn’t playing games. And neither were the Sadducees. They were hellbent on preserving the power they had amassed for themselves—to the point that they were even willing to orchestrate the death of Jesus. But that’s a future story.

For now, we are going to watch their first retaliation against Jesus. This one takes the form of a conversation because, at this point, they aren’t quite desperate enough to resort to crucifixion.

That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 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. 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?” Matthew 22:23–28 NIV

They pose a question to Jesus that is designed to trip Him up, just like the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians did earlier. The fact that this question is a set-up is obvious because the Sadducees are asking Jesus to answer a question about the resurrection, even though they don’t believe in it.

It’s similar to when people today try to trip Christians up with questions like, “If God created everything, then who created God?” Or, “If God can do anything, then can He create a rock too heavy for Him to lift?” Or even, “If believing in God is so important, then why wouldn’t God make His existence more obvious?”

Most of the time, questions like these aren’t being asked with genuine curiosity. They’re being asked with an agenda. The purpose of these questions is to point out supposed flaws in the belief system of the person being asked the question. And, while it is true that these questions can create doubts, discovering the answers to these questions will build your faith. And the good news is that there are great answers to all of these questions—but that's for another Bible Plan. Let's get back to the Sadducees.

These questions may create doubt, but the answers will build your faith.

The Sadducees had an agenda. They wanted to make Jesus look foolish by showing how irrational believing in the resurrection is by presenting a challenging hypothetical scenario. But they grossly underestimated the wisdom of Jesus.

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” Matthew 22:29 NIV

Before Jesus answers the question, He, again, speaks to the questioner. He cuts right through the facade and gets to the root of the issue. Jesus says that the Sadducees, the spiritual leaders of the Jewish people, “do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”

Jesus is not mincing words here. Because love doesn’t ignore truth. He is speaking plainly and directly to correct their false teaching and to call out their need for repentance. Jesus wants them to turn from their sins and come back to God.

Jesus starts by teaching them about the power of God.

“At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” Matthew 22:30 NIV

Marriage was designed by God for the purposes of companionship, procreation, and to reflect the three-in-one nature of God. It is a good and important thing. But marriage is not the final thing. Marriage is a sign pointing to the way things will be at the resurrection. When Jesus returns, the purposes of marriage will be fulfilled. Loneliness won’t exist. Death will be no more. And we will see God in all His glory.

This does not mean a husband and wife who have committed themselves to one another in their earthly lives will be losing something. By God’s power, their relationship will change, but it will not lessen. Their relationship will be, like all things, made even more wondrous because it will be a relationship untainted by sin.

After this, Jesus educates them on the Scriptures.

“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.” Matthew 22:31–32 NIV

Here, Jesus quotes what God spoke to Moses in Exodus 3, a Scripture that every Sadducee would have known like the back of their hand. So, when Jesus asks the question, “have you not read what God said to you,” He already knows the answer.

The Sadducees claimed to respect the Scriptures, but they missed the meaning of these words. Why is that? The Sadducees only saw what they were looking for. They opened their Bibles, looking for what they already believed and conveniently overlooking all the verses that challenged their views. Over time, they became very confident that they knew what God really wanted and very critical of anyone who disagreed with them.

So often, we do the same thing. Because, like the Sadducees, we have been infected by the disease of sin.

Sin blurs our vision. It blinds us to reality. It deafens us to the voice of God. This is why we need the help of the Spirit and the perspective of other people. Without them, we will fall victim to false interpretations.

We all suffer from what psychologists call “confirmation bias.” Our brains are wired to take in information that we already agree with and to filter out information we don’t agree with. We’re guilty of this, and so were the Sadducees.

They failed to recognize Jesus as the Messiah because they were looking for someone who believed, taught, and practiced all the things they did. Jesus didn’t fit neatly into their plans, wishes, desires, or dreams. More often than not, He was in total conflict with what they wanted. So, they rejected Him. Because instead of being willing to follow Him, they wanted Jesus to follow them.

We, too, will be tempted to recreate Jesus in our own image. It's a lot easier to follow a bobblehead Jesus who sits quietly on our desk, nodding in agreement with everything we say and do. But that’s not what we need. We need a savior to rescue us, a teacher to correct us, and a lord to lead us.

When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

Matthew 22:33 NIV

Application: As you read the Scripture for today, ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to what you need to see and open your ears to what you need to hear. Let the truth of God confront your confirmation bias and make you more like Jesus. Make note of anything that makes you uncomfortable. Those are probably the things you need to hear most.