While crossing the Mount of Olives on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus cursed a fruitless fig tree and it withered from its roots. His disciples marveled at the speed of the miracle, which was one of judgement: the tree symbolised the Jewish religion of his day, which was showy but unproductive. Jesus instructed them on the power of God-given faith to remove obstacles. Without doubt, words of faith could move mountains.
Meanwhile, the religious rulers, threatened by the royal reception the people were showing Christ and angered at his act in cleansing the temple court, conspired together to snare him with trick questions. The first came from the chief priests and the scribes, who were adept at the Hebrew version of “dotting every “i” and crossing every “t”).
THE FIRST QUESTION: “WHO GAVE YOU THE AUTHORITY?” (Matthew 21:23-27)
“By what authority do you do these things — who authorised you to teach and preach?” In response Jesus said to them “I will also ask you one question; then answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.” In making his answer to their question conditional upon their answer to his, Jesus was asserting his authority right at the start. If any other man had done this, the religious leaders would have cut him off with — “I asked first!” Their mute acceptance displayed the strength of his authority – and the weakness of their own.
The Lord’s counter question: “The baptism of John — was it from heaven or from men?”
The result of this question was that they began to do what they had wanted Jesus to do: wrestle with the consequences of an inadequate answer. “They reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men –’ (They feared the people, for all reckoned that John had been a prophet.)
“So they answered and said to Jesus, ‘We do not know’.” What an admission! Caught between “a rock and a hard place” — a confession of their disobedience to the truth on one hand, and their cowardice on the other! So they pleaded ignorance, and so doing disqualified themselves.
Are you now between “a rock and a hard place” — unwilling to accept the truth but refusing to deny it? If so, you may be a moral coward. Your refusal to either accept or reject Jesus Christ may disqualify you for a spiritual leadership role in life. How long will you allow God’s insistent call go unanswered?
Jesus is God’s last word to humanity. (Hebrews 1:1) He won every war of words by either exposing the folly of the questions asked by his opponents or by asking questions that none of them could answer.
“No man ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:46) “And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.” (Mark 1:22) Pleading ignorance, the chief priests and scribes said, “We don’t know.” They knew all right, but their moral cowardice condemned them to silence. “And Jesus answered and said to them, ” Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
The chief priests and scribes deserved no answer — their impotence made them unworthy of one. It was bad enough that they had rejected John the Baptist’s message, but to say that God did not send him would bring the anger of the people down on their heads.
This first question and non-answer encounter established Christ’s authority over the religious leaders, whose spiritual and moral impotence displayed their lack of any real authority. They had thought to undermine Jesus by questioning his authority, but their shameful failure to answer the Lord’s counter question forced them to confess their ignorance in front of the people.
Who next, the people must have wondered, will be foolish enough to try to trap Jesus with another trick question?
Jesus followed up their question with yet another of his own, in the form of a parable. Two sons, he said, were asked, separately, by their father to work for a day in his vineyard. “I will not,” the first answered, but later regretted his words and went. The second said, “I go, Sir,” but did not. Jesus then asked the question: “Which of the two did the will of his father?”
“The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.” (Matthew 21:28-32)
The son, who had answered his father respectfully, calling him “Sir,” represented the chief priests and scribes. Not for them an outright refusal when empty words came easily to their lips. Continuing his John the Baptist theme, Jesus contrasted the very correct, lip-serving, religious leaders to the outcasts of Jewish society – those who had been unresponsive to the Law, but after hearing John’s call had repented.
In the parable of The Wicked Vinedressers (Matthew 21:33-41), the son who said he would go but didn’t — the unbelieving religious leaders — becomes a group of murderous workers. The parable looks backward and then forward. It states that the Jews who had rejected the prophets would murder the king’s son — a treasonous crime!
Their punishment would be a miserable death, and the vineyard would be leased to vinedressers who would return the owner fruit in their seasons. In Matthew 21:43 Jesus disclosed that the vineyard was in fact the kingdom of God, which would be taken from the Jews and given to a fruitful nation.
“And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they saw him as a prophet.”
In the parable of the Marriage Feast (Matthew 22:1-14), a king sends out his servants with invitations to his son’s marriage feast, but for various reasons some refuse the invitations. Others mistreat the servants badly, and even kill them.
The parable is a prophecy of the rejection by the Jews of God’s invitation to the “marriage supper of the Lamb.” In the 40 years that would follow the descent of the Holy Spirit, the apostles would preach the gospel of the kingdom — “to the Jew first”— throughout the whole Roman Empire. The Acts of the Apostles records how the apostles suffered and died for their witness.
“But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.” (Matthew 22:7) This prophecy would be fulfilled in AD 70 when, after a 42-month siege, the Romans would break through Jerusalem’s walls, sack the city, slaughter almost hundreds of thousands of Jews, take many more thousands to be slaves, and destroy the Temple.
“Then (the king) said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all they found, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.” After AD 70 the gospel would no longer be preached “to the Jew first” but to all nations. “Many are called, but few are chosen.” It is not the call alone, but the response to the call that determines who God chooses.
The Second Question: “Should a Jew pay tax to Caesar?” (Matthew 22:15-22)
After the chief priests and the scribes retired, red-faced, the Pharisees plotted how they might entangle Jesus in his own words. “And they sent to him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true, and a true teacher of the way of God; nor do you care about appearances, for you are not biased toward one person and against another. Tell us, therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?
In saying that Jesus would not be biased towards Caesar and against the Jews; or against Caesar and toward the Jews, the Pharisees were beginning with flattery. The very lack of bias they lauded Jesus for would (they thought) make him unable to answer their trick question. But if he were foolish enough to decide for one against the other, that would show that he was biased, and so neither “true” nor “a true teacher of the way of God”!
The Herodians represented Rome’s puppet king, and were present as witnesses, if Christ’s answer challenged Rome’s authority to tax the Jews. “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 Jesus asked them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”
“They answered, 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’.”
The Lord’s answer showed no bias for or against God or Caesar, but recognised that money could rightly be directed to both the sacred and the secular. In questioning, “Is it lawful?” the Pharisees meant, “Should we give God’s money to idolatrous Rome?” Any separation between the sacred and the secular would to them have been inconceivable
Was the Lord’s answer merely a pragmatic way of resolving the problem presented by the question? I think not. What is certain is that the principle of separation of Church and State, which has been accepted by progressive societies for many centuries, has its origin in Christ’s straight answer to a crooked question.
Those societies that still combine the sacred and the secular cling to a pre-Christian concept. Christians obey Christ’s injunction, and render what both Caesar and God require. This enables Christ’s followers to be good citizens in Christian and non-Christian societies.
Of course, when Caesar demands that which is God’s due, Christians refuse. They then accept the consequences of their refusal, in order to restore the balance. This may take time, and may come about only through much suffering. (Revelation 6:9-11)
“When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him and went their way.”
The Third Question: “Who Will be married to Whom in the Resurrection?” (Matthew 22:23-33
“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 (unmarried) brother shall marry his wife and raise offspring for his brother. Now there were 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 also died. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they were all married to her.
The Pharisees were the fundamentalists of their day, and the Sadducees the Modernists. Both groups would have regarded the question as impossible to answer, strengthened by the woman’s increasing dilemma during her lifetime as to which one of the seven brothers would claim her in the resurrection! The Sadducees claimed their question arose from a real-life situation, but more likely it was hypothetical. (In any case, from their point of view the choice of her eternal husband would not be the woman’s!
The Sadducees, who believed only in what they could see, wanted to disprove the very idea of a future resurrection, no doubt hoping that in failing to answer their question, Jesus would disqualify himself and the Pharisees. “The Sadducees say there is no resurrection — and no angel or spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.” (Acts 23:6) The Sadducees believed “resurrection” meant living on in the lives of their children and grandchildren
“Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.” Jesus first addressed their ignorance in regard to “the power of God” — His ability to raise both sexes to a level where they will be “equal to the angels” (Luke 20:36), and in spiritual union with all resurrected believers
Whose wife? That wouldn’t matter. In this present life it’s not hard for us to opt for joy over laughter — the first being indescribably better! We differentiate in matters of food (fillet mignon over burgers), music (Beethoven over the Beatles), and of clothing, housing, and a thousand other things
If your marriage is good now, it will be better in heaven. How much better? Better than you can imagine or than words could possibly describe. God’s resurrection power will bring you into it. If you have lost a loved one who was a believer, you’ll find that one in the Resurrection, in a new way
So much for the Sadducees’ lack of knowledge about God’s ability to lift human relationships to a higher level! Jesus then addressed their ignorance of the Scriptures (since they denied that Moses had taught the Resurrection).
“But 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.” Neither the Sudducees’ question nor the Lord’s answer dealt with the present state of the dead, but with the Resurrection. This is obvious from the repetition of the word “resurrection”:
“The Pharisees say there is no resurrection.” (v. 23
“Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife…will she be?” (v. 27
“For in the resurrection they neither marry…” (v. 30
“But concerning the resurrection of the dead…” (v. 31
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all died in faith, not having received God’s promises, which they perceived, believed, recognized and confessed (Hebrews 11:13). They died in anticipation, desiring “a better, that is, a heavenly country. So God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.” (Hebrews 11:16)
“For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:8) The apostle Paul wrote: “Now if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen, and if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
“Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified that God raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up — that is, if the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen, and if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile: you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable.” (1 Corinthians 15:12-19
No resurrection means no faith, no forgiveness, and no future. That’s why the Sadducees valued only material things. Christ’s answer to their crafty question reintroduced them to a life of anticipation in hope of the Resurrection. “And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.”
The power of (Christ’s) resurrection (in the lives of Christians at present spiritually) is amazing! It enables us to live an “above” life rather than the “below” one they lived before knowing Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. How much more amazing then will life be in the physical resurrection? Those who believe in Jesus will be able to answer this question after they rise to meet their Lord Jesus!
I do hope that you will be one of them!