The opening chapters of the book of Revelation are interesting in regards to thinking about pastoral ministry. The Lord himself has written letters to seven churches, telling them things like they live where Satan’s throne is, are going to be imprisoned and killed, need to resist the strong temptation all around them to compromise the faith, will have to suffer economically in their culture in order to hold fast to Christ, and need to persevere in doing these things that will result in their great suffering. So what do you then say next? What do you say to a people to whom you’ve already said, “Obey, though it will cost you your very life?”
I’ve tried to think through what I would say pastorally to a people who are about to die for the sake of the gospel, and it’s challenging to think about what would be most key to say. Jesus, however, does something that perhaps we wouldn’t anticipate. He doesn’t dive into a treatise about why God allows believers to suffer or simply sit silently, things that we may find ourselves doing in such circumstances. Rather, he gives them in Revelation 4 a vision of the greatness, glory, and majesty of God seated on his throne.
There’s not really any commentary on it. It’s just a description of God’s glory, majesty, greatness, and holiness. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Despite all the things you may think you need right now, what you really need is to be reminded of who your God is, who it is who sovereignly sits on the throne and rules over all things.”
Many times with regard to living the Christian life well, we’re eager to know what to do. We want a list of instructions for how to handle difficult seasons at work, directions for how to raise our children so that they become godly and mature, or a list of steps for what we need to do in order to have a faithful walk with the Lord. And application from the Scripture given in concrete ways is extremely helpful and necessary. I’m not denying that. In fact, I make it a goal of mine to make sure that the rule for my preaching is to provide concrete particular application as much as I can. But sometimes you find yourself looking at a text of Scripture and realizing that the application is just to marvel; just realize who Jesus is and stand in awe of him. And I think that’s the right application of the text we’re looking at this morning, Matthew 22:15-46.
Now, it might not seem that this is the case when you first look at the text. After all, this section of mainly has to do with the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees asking Jesus varied questions about a number of different issues intending to trap him. They ask about paying taxes, about how marriage works if resurrection s true, and what the greatest commandment in the law is. Consequently, following Jesus’ answers to these questions, we learn things about the Christian’s responsibility to governing authorities, some particulars about resurrection life, and the design of God’s law. In other words, it seems tough to say this text is about one main thing, and it is especially challenging when that one main thing doesn’t pertain to taxes, resurrection, or how the law hangs together. So, why then, am I saying that this text is meant to draw our attention to Jesus so that we might marvel at him and worship him?
Well, it’s because I think we get a glimpse of what Matthew wants us to see in this interaction between Jesus and those who come after him to trap him not when the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees are initiating the conversation but when Jesus does, in verses 41-46. You see, this text hangs together by each section dealing with a question. The first by the Pharisees and Herodians, the second by the Sadducees, and the third by a particular Pharisee who was a lawyer. But each of these leads up to one final question by Jesus to his opponents. And I believe it’s his way of saying, “You’ve asked a number of questions, but they’ve all been a smokescreen in your vain hopes of avoiding the main issue, namely, who I am as the Messiah.”
Therefore, I believe that this text is mean to have the same effect on us. It’s meant to make us pause and reflect on who Jesus is as God’s promised king. Now, before we get to that, I do want to walk through Jesus’ three interactions with his opponents and glean all that we can from his answers to their questions. In the first interaction, we learn that,
Matthew makes very clear to us in verse 15 that this first question posed to Jesus was not asked from a place of sincere inquiry. He says in verse 15, “Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.” We then read in verses 16-17, “And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances [that is to say, they’re being insincere and buttering him up]. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?’”
Now, the reasons they thought this was a good question to entangle Jesus is because of a couple of reasons. First, most of the Jews, especially the zealots, taught that the Roman poll tax was a God-dishonoring tax that was idolatrous as it suggested one’s willing submission to Rome, a position only fit for God. Consequently, if Jesus answered that one should indeed pay the tax to Caesar, then a certain segment might well accuse him of teaching idolatry. On the other hand, the Herodians (who were bringing the question along with the Pharisees) would have had pro-Roman sympathies and, consequently, thought the tax was fitting. Furthermore, if Jesus said that one should not pay the tax, then this group may well report him to Rome and carrying out treasonous teaching. So, it seemed that no matter which way he answered, he was going to get himself in trouble with some group and make himself unpopular at best.
But Jesus knew their intent, saying to them, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?” (v. 18).
Then, he said, “Show me the coin for the tax,” so they brought him a denarius (v. 19). This particular coin had an image of Caesar on it, suggesting on one side that he was the son of a divine being and on the other that he was a high priest. Obviously this would have been an offensive coin to any devout Jew. And Rome had graciously allowed the Jews to coin their own money, so as not to have to deal with this offensive Roman coinage. Therefore, the mere fact that the Pharisees had this coin may well have demonstrated their hypocrisy. They obviously weren’t too disturbed by the idolatry they argued the coin communicated.
Then, Jesus asked them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” (v. 20). And they answered, “Caesar’s.” So, Jesus responded, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (v.22). And Matthew adds that they marveled at his answer and went away.
So, what then was Jesus communicating with this answer?
Well, first, he was letting us know that there is no necessary conflict between obeying the government and obeying the Lord. That is, if Caesar orders the people to do something, and it is not in conflict with the Lord’s commands, then not only can the people submit to Caesar’s orders without it being an idolatrous act, but they should submit to Caesar’s orders in those cases. They should render to Caesar what is Caesar’s.
So, it is with us. As believers, in a land where we have many laws, we should obey the laws of the land in as much as they are not in conflict with God’s commands. In other words, believers should be known as people who are submissive to governing authorities and laws. We should obey the laws in regards to paying taxes when we are ordered to do so, obey the laws of the highway as they are posted, and so on in as much as they do not violate the laws of God. And in most cases, the laws of the land do not violate the laws of God, do they? God has no problem with us being honest when reporting our income during tax season. In fact, he commands us to do so.
Now, in our constitutional republic with democratically elected leaders, he also has no problem with you running for office and lobbying even to get seemingly insignificant laws changed. I have no problem, for example, if any of you wants to get in a position where you exercise legislative power over speed limits and want to raise them in a few places. Feel free to do it, and when you do, we’ll continue to obey them, only being even happier to do so. Christians should be good, law-abiding citizens. That’s what it means to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars.
However, Jesus also added a second element, namely, that we should render to God the things that are God’s. So, what is God’s? Everything, of course, even Caesar himself. This means that our first priority is always obeying God so that if God’s commands and the commands of government ever are in conflict, then it is a no-brainer. We obey God’s commands. If it means we are put in prison for obeying God, so be it. In the words of apostles in Acts 5:29, “We must obey God rather than men.”
But if we’re honest, the commands of government in our country and the commands of God do not often come into conflict in our everyday lives. And though we are rightly zealous to obey God rather than government in any situation in which they conflict, we need to make sure that we are equally zealous to obey government when such commands are not in conflict with Scripture’s commands. We must, in the words of 1 Peter 2:13-14, “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.”
We should obey the government for the Lord’s sake, only not at the expense of obeying God.
Second, we see that,
Perhaps it’d be more complete to say that the resurrection of the dead—though not exactly like life in this age—is certain because of God’s covenant faithfulness.
The Sadducees see the Pharisees and Herodians have failed, so they decide to take their turn. Now, this was a group that believed a few odd things. To name a few that are particularly relevant to this encounter with Jesus. They only accepted the first five books of the Bible as divine Scripture. They denied the resurrection of the dead. And they denied the existence of angels (see Acts 23:8).
Therefore, they decided to catch Jesus and show the ridiculousness of the resurrection (in their minds) by asking a question that they thought would reveal its absurdity. They said, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother” (v. 24). And this was true. It was a law given in Deuteronomy 25:5-6 that commanded what is called levirate marriage.
The idea is that if a man dies before producing a child, then he has no heir. Therefore, his brother is to marry his widow, bear a child, and that child is to be considered the offspring of the deceased man. The Sadducees then pose a question combining levirate marriage and the resurrection. They say, “Now there were seven brothers among us. the first married and died, having no offspring left his wife to his brother. So too the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her (vv. 25-28).
Now, Jesus doesn’t pull punches in light of their attempt to show the absurdity of such a glorious doctrine as the resurrection. He simply asserts, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (v. 29). Then, he proceeds to correct them on two things. First, they’re wrongly thinking that there must be a perfect one-to-one parallel between life in this age and life in the resurrection. There simply isn’t, particularly in regards to marriage. Jesus says, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven” (v. 30).
When we are raised from the dead to eternal life, we will no longer be married. There’ll be no marriage relationships between husbands and wives, and one reason is because there’ll no longer be procreation. But this isn’t a step back from something glorious now. Obviously in a state of glorification, we will no longer have sexual relations (as they angels do not), but we will love one another perfectly. The Sadducees had simply wrongly understood life in the resurrection.
But they also underestimated the power of God. Jesus continues, “And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘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” (vv. 31-32).
In other words, Jesus is noting that when God covenant to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob so that he would be their God and they and their spiritual descendants would be his people, this was not a temporary covenant promise. It wasn’t a promise that expired at their deaths. If indeed it was only good to death, then why walk in holiness before God? After all, as Paul later says, if there’s no resurrection of the dead, then we should all just eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
But they dedicated themselves to the Lord because they knew that the eternal God would eternally be their God, and they would be his people in accord with his covenant promise. And if that is true, then he must indeed give his people to life after they die so that he can show himself faithful to his covenant promise. In other words, to deny the resurrection (as the Sadducees were doing) was underestimating God’s power to keep his covenant promises. But not even death will be able to stop God from being faithful to his covenant promises, for he will merely demonstrate his power by raising the dead so that forever he may be God to his people.
The Sadducees had been sadly mistaken, and what’s more is that Jesus had bested them using the section of the OT that they acknowledged was God’s Word. He’d shown them that the resurrection of the dead (though not an exact parallel of life in this age) is certain because of God’s covenant faithfulness.
Third, we see that,
Seeing that the Sadducees were beaten, the Pharisees decide to come back for more and take one more shot. They gathered together and had one of their lawyers ask Jesus another question to test him. He asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” (v. 36). Now, according to Jewish rabbis, there were 613 different commands listed in the law. And there were diverse opinions among those rabbis concerning which of the commands was the greatest. Therefore, to get Jesus to commit to one of these commands would no doubt risk making him unpopular among those who disagreed with him.
But Jesus’ answer is really beyond argument. He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ (vv. 38-39). Jesus took Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, combined them together, and said, “There’s your answer.” But then he added his reason, noting in v. 40, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Let me now try to explain what Jesus is saying. If you told me to go home and murder my wife today, I would answer, “I can’t do that.” And I wouldn’t be suggesting by saying that that I couldn’t take her just in case she started fighting back. No, I’d mean that I can’t do that because I love her. My love for her leads me to seek her good not her harm.
This is what Jesus is saying. If you love God completely, you won’t worship other gods before him, make graven images, or the like. And if you love your neighbor truly, you won’t covet what is his, seek to take his wife for yourself, or bear false witness against him to harm him. In other words, if you love God and neighbor perfectly, it’ll move you to obey God’s laws in every respect. This is why we won’t need a list of commands written on the walls of the new creation. In our glorified state, we’ll love God and neighbor perfectly.
This is what Jesus is saying. And since we’re being sanctified in this age, we no doubt find ourselves growing in love for God and others. And since we’re not ever going to be perfectly sanctified in this age, we continue to need commands and laws, don’t we? But our goal is to be shaped in our hearts, not just that we focus on externals. Our prayer should be, “Lord, help us to love you and our neighbors more, for as we do, we will obey all of your commands.”
So, at this point, Jesus has masterfully answered all of their questions, so then in verses 41-46, he asks one of his own. And as he does, we see that,
Since Jesus had the Pharisees there together, he decided to turn their questioning ways on them. He asked them, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” And they answered him, “The son of David,” which is true. After all, the promise came to David in 2 Samuel 7 that God would raise up one of his descendants to reign over the throne of God’s everlasting kingdom. But Jesus shows that this designation of the Messiah as the son of David, though true, is insufficient.
For he then asks them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet”?’ If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” (vv.43-45). And Jesus is right. In Psalm 110, David calls the promised Messiah his Lord.
What Jesus is showing them is that though the Messiah descends from David according to the flesh, he is more than David’s son. He is David’s Lord. He is the divine Son of God. He is God the Son. And since Jesus had very clearly presented himself to them as God’s promised Messiah, he was showing them very clearly that he was saying this about himself. He is the divine Son of God who took on our human nature and was born in David’s line. He is the son of David and Son of God.
They decided at that point, they should just shut their mouths. And I wonder if indeed it wouldn’t be best for us to stop and do the same. We live our lives, often with so many questions for God, don’t we? Sometimes we’re tempted to ask why he let this happen or didn’t do something else. Sometimes we want to know if he’s listening to us or we ask him why he doesn’t manage things differently. But Christmas is an opportunity for us, I believe, to stop asking questions for a second and simply marvel and stand in awe, for God the Son took on flesh and was born of a virgin, taking on a fully human nature so that he might bleed, die, and be raised for us. And he did that all the while still exercising his might according to his divine nature. God the Son took on flesh and was made the God-man. That should leave us simply to shut our mouths for a second, marvel at him, worship him, and then come to him so that we might follow this glorious Savior. Let us corporately express that our as response to him now as we come to the table. Amen.