Two Riddles - Matthew 22:23-40

Scripture #1

 

23 On that day some Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to Jesus and questioned Him,

 

24 asking, "Teacher, Moses said, 'IF A MAN DIES HAVING NO CHILDREN, HIS BROTHER AS NEXT OF KIN SHALL MARRY HIS WIFE, AND RAISE UP CHILDREN FOR HIS BROTHER.'

 

25 "Now there were seven brothers with us; and the first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother;

 

16 so also the second, and the third, down to the seventh.

 

27 "Last of all, the woman died.

 

28 "In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be?  For they all had married her."

 

29 But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not understanding 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 "But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God:

 

32 'I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB'?  He is not the God of the dead but of the living."

 

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

 

The Sadducees Join In

 

The Sadducees' question to Jesus was presented in a different way than the Pharisees challenged Him: Rather than trying to trap Him into angering some group or another with a controversial answer, they wanted to completely baffle Him - thereby not only demonstrating Him to be a fool (thus eliminating the "Jesus problem" that plagued all the Jewish religious elite), but also providing a significant victory for their side of the doctrinal argument they waged with the Pharisees by showing that belief in a resurrection is illogical.  It was a chance to take out two types of enemies at once.  But, once again, Jesus simply could be defeated.

 

Now, to us, the aspect of the Mosaic Law where a man was to marry his late brother's wife so their first child would count as his brother's descendant is not exactly commonplace.  But in terms of the Sadducees' challenge, it's no different that a situation we see as normal: A widow or widower marrying again after the death of the original spouse.  With the "weirdness" of marrying your brother's wife out of the way, it's easy to see why this scenario was an applicable objection to the concept of life after death.

 

But Jesus explained that after we die, we become like the angels.  Note the word like - we do not become angels when we die, no matter what the media and art portray.  Angels are separate created beings with distinctive appearances (see Ezekiel 1:1-28 and 10:20, and Isaiah 6:1-8), whereas our eternal, glorified bodies will be like Christ's (1 John 3:2); additionally, 1 Peter 1:10-12 reveals that God distinguishes between humans and angels in that he allows us to understand salvation on a deeper level (so, becoming an angel would be regressing).  However, we will be like angels in the sense that we will be outside of a social construct involving marriage and romance.  Our relationships with each other will change in eternity.

 



 

Jesus expanded into defending the very principle of life after death, not just refuting their example.  You see, God proclaimed Himself to be the God in the present tense of those 3 patriarchs long after they were all dead in Exodus 3 when He's speaking to Moses through the burning bush.  He did not say, "I WAS the God of..." He said "I AM the God of..."  Since "I AM" is an extremely common name of God used in the Old Testament (it's translated "Lord," so we don't see it spelled out a lot), Jesus used something that even the most uneducated Jew would have been familiar with to refute the Sadducees' lofty theological stance with one blow.

 

Some people claim that life after death was a new concept introduced in the New Testament, but this simply is not true.  For example, the Pharisees believed in a spiritual resurrection of the dead - that's why they fought with the Sadducees!  Here are just a couple of Old Testament examples pointing to life after death:

 

Psalm 23:6 "Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

 

Genesis 37:35: "... Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son..."

 

Would you like eternal life?  Click here to learn how to have it in English, or click here to learn in a different language.

 

Scripture #2

 

34 But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together.

 

35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him,

 

36 "Teacher, which is the greatest 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 foremost commandment.

 

39 "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'

 

40 "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

 

Last Ditch Effort

 

At least in Matthew's account, this is the last question the religious elite try to baffle Christ with.  This question wasn't one with a yes-or-no answer that would alienate some people either way; it was a very open-ended challenge that could mean it opened many people up to offense...or it could mean an epic fail for the Pharisees if Jesus's answer was wise.  The outcome, of course, was the latter.

 

Although it seems like an incredibly simple answer to us who have heard it dozens if not hundreds (if not thousands!) of times, the fact that literally every single command and every single prophetic message can be boiled down to Loving God and Loving Our Neighbors (which is, in itself, a mere manifestation of Loving God) is critical to our theology.  Here I share two particularly major ways it does:

• We Christians believe that we are under the "New Covenant," meaning we don't have a long list of rules to keep, but rather, as a response to God's grace, try to live our lives in a way that pleases Him (Hebrews 9:15, Romans 6).  Since God never changes and His Law is eternally holy (Hebrews 13:8, Matthew 5:17-18), the Old and New Covenants have to "mesh" somehow - and they do by the fact that Old Testament rules demonstrated an itemized way to live out the New Covenant principle during a specific time period God chose.
• We also believe that even those who have never heard the Gospel have the opportunity to recognize in their hearts that they are imperfect and cannot become perfect people on their own (Romans 1:20, Revelation 5:9 and 7:9).  In order for them to be able to try to follow God's standards (just as we do), it has to be able to be boiled down to such simple principles that anyone could think of, not seemingly-random manifestations given only to the Jews like don't eat lobster.

So, how can we live out:

• Loving God with all our heart?
• Loving God with all our soul?
• Loving God with all our mind?
• Loving our neighbors as ourselves?

Let's each mull over those questions today, and if you come up with an idea worth sharing, leave a comment. :-)  Or if you have something else to add to our discussion, feel free to speak up!

 

Image Credit: "The queen bee in a hive" by Bienenkoenigin_43a.jpg and B kimmel.  Wikipedia.  Used by permission.



Divorce: A Touchy Subject Then and Now - Matthew 19:1-12

The Trap and the Truth

 

1 When Jesus had finished these words, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan;

 

2 and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.

 

3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?"

 

4 And He answered and said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE,

 

5 and said, 'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH'?

 

6 "So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."

 

7 They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND HER AWAY?"

 

8 He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.

 

9 "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery."

 

It's always best to establish context when studying the Bible.  In this case, the end of chapter 18 was all about forgiveness, which will tie in a bit here.  However, Jesus has travelled to a new region, and Matthew's account largely deals with new subject matter.

 

The Pharisees are laying a trap for Jesus by testing Him on His interpretation of Old Testament Law relating to divorce (probably Deuteronomy 24:1-4): Does the "indecency" mentioned refer to sexual immorality, or just something the man doesn't like about his wife? 

 

But this begs the question...why was this a trap?  Well, my take is that, by getting Jesus to speak openly about this sensitive topic, they thought they were guaranteed to get Him to offend a lot of people, regardless of His answer.  If He said divorce for any reason was okay, the more conservative-minded Jews who disagreed would no longer trust his teaching and integrity.  But if He said divorce was only okay in the case of adultery, that would offend all those who had gotten dicorces for other reasons (or wanted to).  This still rings true today - think how many people, including those who call themselves Bible-believing Christians, get majorly offended when the Scriptural truth about divorce is stated.  But what the Pharisees didn't realize is that getting Jesus to speak God's truth doesn't count as a trap - it's at the core of His being.  John 18:37b: "You say correctly that I am a king.  For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice."

 

Jesus's point is that divorce was never God's plan.  In God's will, marriage lasts as long as both spouses are living.  It's as simple as that.  However, because God knew they would do it anyway, He provided a specific social framework to avoid chaos.  It wasn't optimal, but it prevented the people's hard hearts from resulting in even worse damage.

 

The only permitted reason for divorce, both in the New Testament and in the accurate interpretation of the Old Testament, is if one of the spouses commits adultery.  However, Jesus makes it clear that the victimized spouse striving to forgive the cheating spouse is His will (see Matthew 18:21-35 and the book of Hosea).  If forgiveness isn't possible, divorce is allowed, yes, but it seems that would put a person in the category of having a hard heart, like He references in verse 8.  That's not a place we want to be if we're truly seeking God's will in our lives, and truly holding Him up as our Lord.

 

If you're looking for a lot more information on all the ins-and-outs of the Bible's take on divorce, I highly recommend reading 1 Corinthians 7.  Here are also a few excellent sermons breaking down that chapter and going in-depth on divorce (and singleness, which we'll get to in a minute) (they're audio files and might take a minute to start playing):

1 Corinthians 7 Overview

7:7 - Singleness

7:10 - Remarriage

7:16 - The Purpose of Staying Married

7:25 - More on Singleness

Here also is an excellent written approach in Q&A format about different divorce scenarios:

Page 1

Page 2

 

But please don't let chasing exceptions and answers to the question, "Can I or can't I?" distract you from Jesus's main point: Divorce is never God's will, and the best possible situation is for spouses to forgive each other and remain married.  Period.

 

What about Singleness?

 

10 The disciples said to Him, "If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry."

 

11 But He said to them, "Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given.

 

12 "For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.  He who is able to accept this, let him accept it."

 

The disciples' reaction could be taken as chauvenism ("We can't divorce them?  Then we're never getting married!"), or it could just have been that seeing how prevalent divorce was (and therefore marital disputes) prompted what they said.  Peter was married and had graciously taken his wife's mother into his home, so don't judge these guys too harshly. ;-)

 

But, regardless of what's going on in the disciples' heads, Jesus isn't addressing that - He's branching off into a more serious point.

 

1 Corinthians  elaborates on this point, specifically verses 1-2, 7-9, and 32-34.

 

The idea is that some people have the spiritual gift of singleness.  This means that God has called a few of His followers to be able to resist sexual temptation and not suffer from strong emotional longings for a spouse in order to remain single for life and therefore have more time and freedom to commit to serving God.  In some Christian circles, this is a "duh!" statement, but in others, where marriage is over-emphasized, it's never brought up.

 

I don't have any official discussion starters today, but is there anything you'd like to add to our study (an insight, a perspective, something that stuck out to you, a relevant verse to add)?  Or, are there any questions related to this topic - whether clarification or a new point? :-)

 

Image citation: The Exhortation to the Apostles, by James Tissot.  Wikipedia.  Public domain in the United States.