The Examination

While she was cleaning the sanctuary as part of our church work day yesterday, Cynthia Harris came across a bulletin from August of 2018.

Looking at that bulletin, my mind went back to what was a scary and somewhat overwhelming time for me.

I had just returned from a six-month period spent as a missionary in Haiti, having left a newspaper career that had spanned most of my adult life.

I was less than a third of the way into my seminary studies and working toward the conclusion of a very hard semester.

I had been called by this church to be its interim pastor upon the departure of my good friend, the Rev. Chris Surber.

All at once, I had lots of ideas about how to be a pastor and no idea about how to be a pastor.

Something most of y’all probably don’t know about that time is that prior to my ordination as a pastor here, I took part in what’s called an ordination council.

An ordination council is when a group of ordained ministers gets together to examine a candidate for ordination and then votes on whether that candidate should, in fact, be ordained.

Think of an ordination council as something between a job interview and a dissertation defense.

The idea behind such a council is to ensure first of all that pastoral candidates are not going to be teaching heresy and then to ensure that they have taken the time — whatever their level of education — to develop a robust and coherent theology.

In the case of my ordination council, there were a half-dozen pastors of churches from the Suffolk area present in our library one Saturday in August of 2018.

Prior to that morning, Pastor Chris had sent me a list of 20 questions to answer in writing, along with the instruction to be “succinct” in my answers.

When I looked back over my answers yesterday, I was reminded just how nerve-wracking the experience had been. Pastor Chris’ questions were wide-ranging, and they challenged me to think deeply both about what I believe and about what kind of pastor I intended to be.

You may not be surprised to learn that I was NOT succinct. The final document, with my answers to those 20 questions, ran to 29 single-spaced pages, including several pages of footnotes.

You see, I wanted them to know what I believed. I wanted them to know that I took this ordination council seriously. I wanted them to know that I took my calling to be a pastor VERY seriously.

I wanted to pass this inspection, this examination. And I wanted to leave no question unanswered.

And this week, as we continue to look at a series of select events in the life of Jesus the week before His crucifixion, we’re going to see a similar examination to which He was subjected.

The interactions we’re going to look at this morning all take place on the Wednesday before the crucifixion.

You might recall that the three parables we examined last week also took place that Wednesday.

Jesus was teaching in the temple that day, and both the parables and His interactions with the Jewish leaders that we’ll study today were part of what turned out to be a very busy day for Him there.

So far in this short series, we’ve talked about how Jesus used three separate sets of events on three different days of Passion Week to present Himself in various roles to the Jewish people.

In His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the day we know as Palm Sunday, He presented Himself as Israel’s rightful King. In His visit to the temple early that evening, He presented Himself as Israel’s Passover lamb.

When He cleansed the temple the following day, He presented Himself as the nation’s Righteous Priest. When He cursed the fig tree, He presented Himself as its Faithful Prophet and Just Judge.

And when He told the set of three parables we talked about last week, He presented Himself in an indirect but clear way as the Son of the living God.

What’s clear from the initial words of Israel’s religious and political leaders in today’s passage is that they hadn’t accepted Jesus in any of the roles He had presented in the previous days.

They would acknowledge Him only as a teacher, but not as the one who fulfilled and perfected all of the Old Testament’s models and types for Israel’s leaders.

And what we’ll see today is that, in their arrogance and disbelief, they actually CONFIRMED the role they and the rest of the world most desperately needed Jesus to fulfill, that of Passover lamb.

We’re going to be looking at Matthew’s account of these three interactions, and you’ll find them in Matthew, chapter 22.

While you are turning there, let me remind you about the Passover lamb.

Now, the first Passover lambs were sacrificed by the Hebrew people in Egypt. You’ll recall that the Jews were slaves there, and Moses had been sent by God to get the Pharaoh to let them go.

But the Pharaoh had refused, and God brought nine plagues upon that land. And each time, the Pharaoh had hardened his heart, refusing to let the Hebrew people go and refusing to acknowledge the God who had sent the plagues.

So, finally God instructs Moses to tell the people to choose an unblemished lamb for each household on the 10th day of the Jewish month of Nisan, to inspect it over the course of four days, to kill it on the 15th day of Nisan, to spread its blood on the doorposts and lintels of their homes, and to eat the roasted lamb that night.

And on the night when they had killed and eaten the lamb, God went through the land of Egypt and killed the firstborn male of every household. But He passed over the homes of the Hebrew people who had spread the blood of the lamb on their doorposts and lintels.

And in the aftermath of this great tragedy, the Pharaoh relented, and he let the people of Israel go, and then God led them out of bondage in Egypt.

And what was going with this plague was three things: First, God demonstrated His power and sovereignty to the Pharaoh and the pagan people of Egypt.

Second, God taught the enslaved Hebrew people a lesson in faith — that He would do for them what He promised to do.

And third, God showed the Hebrew people that HE would do for them what they could not do for themselves — SAVE them.

You may recall that I said when we started this series that the best understanding of the timeline of the week before Jesus’ crucifixion has Him entering the temple on the 10th day of Nisan.

It was the same day the Jews were bringing their lambs in to begin inspecting them for blemishes that would disqualify them from being sacrificed for that year’s Passover observance.

What I said then was that Jesus was presenting Himself as the ultimate Passover lamb, the unblemished Lamb of God, whose shed blood would cause God’s just wrath because of mankind’s sin to pass over those who put their faith in Jesus.

So, if Jesus was going to die as the Lamb of God, it was necessary that He be examined before Passover for any blemishes, for any faults.

And that’s just what happens in the temple in the exchanges we’re going to look at today.

In this long passage, we’re going to see three different groups of Jewish leaders attempt to find fault with Him.

They wanted to prove that He was no better than any other rabbi in Judea. And in each of those exchanges, what we’ll see is that those leaders walk away frustrated.

Let’s pick up in verse 15 of chapter 22.

Matthew 22:15–22 NASB95

15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said. 16 And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any. 17 “Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? 19 “Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax.” And they brought Him a denarius. 20 And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 And hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away.

We see in this portion of the passage two groups of Jewish leaders — the Pharisees and the Herodians. In a moment, we’ll see the Sadducees come into the picture.

What you need to understand about these three groups is that they were the religious and political leaders of Judea at the time.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were opposed to one another in matters of both politics and religion. The Herodians were aligned with the Sadducees in matters of religion. But they were closer to the Pharisees in matters of politics.

Think of it like the Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians of modern American culture and politics. Each group might agree with another on SOMETHING. But none of them agree with the others on EVERYTHING, and they all have violent disagreements with one another on some things.

That’s pretty much what it was like for these three groups of Jewish leaders. So, the very fact that two of these groups came together to question Jesus in the temple already makes the interaction suspicious.

But then, Matthew comes straight out and says they were trying to trap Jesus.

They didn’t have a sincere desire to hear what Jesus had to say. They just wanted to find a way to force Him to stop teaching and to stop telling these parables that called them out for the hypocrites and sinners they were.

And so, they put their heads together and came up with what they thought was a surefire way to trip Him up.

They would ask Him about the poll-tax, which was a Roman tax on each member of Jewish society over a certain age.

If Jesus said it wasn’t lawful or permissible to pay the tax, then they could report Him to the Roman authorities for sedition. And if He said the poll-tax was permissible, then the people would turn against Him, because they hated having to pay this tax to the Romans.

But Jesus knew what they were. They were hypocrites. They used the respectful title of address by calling Him “Rabbi” or “Teacher.” And they poured out false compliments upon Him, telling Him they knew He was truthful and taught the way of God in truth.

But if they really believed He taught the truth, then they would be following Him, rather than trying to entrap Him. They would be worshiping Him, rather than trying to destroy Him.

And so, He calls them hypocrites, and then He gets a Roman coin, a denarius, and draws attention to the image that’s stamped onto that coin, the image of Caesar.

And the point He’s making in verse 21 is that these religious and political leaders are focused on the wrong thing. They’re focused on what to do with the coin that has Caesar’s image on it.

Instead, they should be focused on what to do with themselves, they who — like us — bore the image of the God who made them in His image.

As one commentator puts it: “As the coin bore the emperor’s image, and so testified to his ownership of it, so human beings bear God’s image, and so testify to His ownership of them. God has an even more fundamental claim on people than Caesar did. The Jews should acknowledge Caesar’s claim by paying their taxes, but what is more important: they should acknowledge God’s claim by obeying Him.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Mt 22:21.]

In the context of this part of Jesus’ ministry, obeying God meant putting their faith in Jesus.

And don’t think that this teaching was just for the Jews at the temple that day. This is STILL what we’re called to do: pay taxes to our government and give ourselves to God through faith in Jesus.

God made us in His image to have fellowship with Him and to display His character throughout the earth. And we can only have this life we were meant to have through faith in Jesus.

So, the Pharisees and Herodians are amazed, and they leave this interaction with their tails tucked between their legs. They were unable to find fault with what Jesus has said.

Now, enter the Sadducees in verse 23:

Matthew 22:23–33 NASB95

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; 26 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.

Now, the first thing to understand about this interaction is that, as Matthew tells us, the Sadducees didn’t believe in resurrection from the dead. For the most part, they were agnostic Jews. They didn’t put much stock in the faith teachings of the Old Testament.

And so, the very question they ask about what things will be like after the resurrection suggests that they, too, are coming to Jesus with insincere motives. They, too, are just trying to trap Him.

And the question they ask reads very much like a riddle they might have posed to the super-religious Pharisees in order to jab at them.

It hinges on something called Levirate marriage, which was a custom of the ancient Near East that encouraged an unmarried younger brother to marry and have children with his deceased older brother’s widow in order to perpetuate the family’s name and fulfill the deceased older brother’s inheritance.

And what Jesus tells them is that they don’t understand the power of God. They think the resurrection is simply an awakening, rather than a transformation.

They don’t understand that God is able to completely change the way in which we will exist in heaven. They don’t understand that there will no longer be a need to perpetuate the human race through procreation.

But not only don’t they understand the power of God, they clearly haven’t understood the Scriptures. That’s the point of what Jesus says in verses 31 and 32, when He quotes what God said to Moses from the burning bush.

“I AM the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” God said then. Not “I WAS,” but “I AM.”

All three of those patriarchs of Israel had died long before Moses came along. But God was telling Him that He was STILL their God. In other words, He spoke as if they were — or, at least, WOULD be — resurrected. He is the God of the living, not the dead.

For us, this should be a statement of great hope. We who follow Jesus in faith have been promised eternal LIFE.

That doesn’t mean we will not experience physical death. What it DOES mean is that we will be physically raised from the dead to spend eternity in the presence of and in fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This will be life the way God always meant for it to be. And it is only available to those who turn to Jesus in faith that He is who He said He is and that He will do what He said He will do.

But for the Sadducees, who had already rejected Jesus, all this answer did was frustrate them. Just like the Pharisees and Herodians before them, they were unable to find any fault with Jesus.

The PEOPLE in the temple that day were astonished at Jesus’ authority and understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures. But the Sadducees, who were already prejudiced against Him, were simply silenced, as we see in verse 34.

Matthew 22:34–40 NASB95

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 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 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.”

Having seen the Sadducees silenced by Jesus, the Pharisees try once again to trap Him. They send a lawyer to do the job. This would have been an expert in the Mosaic Law, one who probably taught the Law in the synagogues of Judea.

The Jewish religious leaders had identified 613 commandments of God in the Hebrew Scriptures. They must have thought that by forcing Jesus to say one was the most important, He would be implying that the others were not, which would have been blasphemous.

But what Jesus did was to teach them that all of those 613 commandments were wrapped up in just two: Love God and love people.

In fact, loving the people God loves is one of the ways we love GOD. And as Jesus says in verse 40, this was the essence of the message of all of the Old Testament.

Indeed, it’s one of the primary messages of the New Testament. Loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind implies loving the Son He loves by putting your faith for salvation in Him alone.

And loving God requires us to love those whom God loves — the WORLD, as the Apostle John puts it in John 3:16.

Matthew doesn’t record the Pharisees’ response to Jesus here, but Luke says the lawyers they had sent before Him told Him that He’d responded well to the question.

Once again, the Jewish religious and political leaders could find no fault in the Lamb of God who had submitted Himself to them for inspection and examination.

He who had presented Himself as the Passover lamb three days earlier had now been inspected and examined, and He had been shown to be without fault.

He was, therefore, able to become the sacrifice at Passover. He could be the Lamb whose shed blood would cause God’s wrath for sin to pass over those who followed Him in faith.

Passover was celebrated on Friday that year, and the Apostle John tells us that Jesus was crucified at the same time the Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the temple.

But before the crucifixion, Jesus faced another trial, this one before Pontius Pilate. And just as the Pharisees and Herodians and Sadducees had found no fault in Him, Pilate examined Jesus and came back to the Jews demanding His crucifixion and said, “I find no fault in Him.”

From every perspective — from the perspective of the Jewish religious leaders and political leaders and from the perspective of the pagan rulers of Judea — Jesus was determined to have been without fault. He was innocent. And He spoke with the authority He claimed, from God Himself.

And yet, He gave Himself for the guilty. He gave Himself as a sacrifice at the cross — the sinless and spotless Lamb of God crushed for our iniquities, pierced through for our transgressions.

He who knew no sin became sin itself as He hung on the cross that day. He took upon Himself the sins of all mankind — and the just punishment for them — so that all who follow Him in faith can be saved.

The innocent one died for the guilty ones. He took the punishment we all deserve for rebelling against God in our sins so that we could have what we never deserved — fellowship with God and eternal life in His very presence.

Every one of us will stand before a righteous and holy God one day to be examined and inspected. And we will stand there clothed either in the filthy rags of our own sins and our own meager righteousness by faith in ourselves or clothed in the righteousness of Jesus through faith in Him.

He passed the examination so that we who could never pass it on our own can do it in HIM.

John writes about the judgment at the Great White Throne in the Book of Revelation. When Jesus condemns those who have rejected Him to an eternity of suffering apart from God, what we hear from the unbelievers is the same thing we heard from the leaders who confronted Jesus in these three interactions today: silence.

There will be no arguments. There will be no negotiations. There will be no second chances. The choice they have made here on earth to reject Jesus will have been made for all eternity.

You have the same opportunity today that the Jewish leaders had on that Wednesday of Passion Week. You have the same opportunity today that the people of Israel did when they were enslaved by Egypt.

You have the opportunity now admit that you are a slave to sin and unable to do anything to rescue yourself from it or from its consequences.

You have the opportunity to accept the sacrifice made by the sinless Lamb of God in your place and on your behalf.

You can choose today whether you will trust in yourself to be saved or trust in Jesus. You can choose today whether or not to trust God to do what He said He will do.

You can stand in faith upon the one who was examined and found to be without fault. Or you can wait upon the false hope that a perfectly righteous and holy God will look past the sins of one who has rejected the very Son He sent to offer you true hope.

The Jewish leaders from today’s passage rejected that hope. Will you?