A Day of Testing Matthew 22b Feb 02 2025

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 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. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

(Pray…)

Paying Taxes to Caesar

This chapter is broken up into different sections - or events

We’re starting in verse 15 - after last week, we learned about the Wedding Garment

Today, we’ll start off with the Pharisees trying to trip up Jesus in what he says

This time the Pharisees don’t go themselves - they sent their disciples

They also sent the Herodians to go along

The Herodians were a Jewish political party that aligned itself with the house of Herod

They were ultimately looking for independence from Rome

The Pharisees and the Herodians were not always friendly with one another

But they both wanted to trap Jesus and do away with him

They ask him, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

They thought they really got him with this “either/or” question

It was a test - and Jesus knew it - Jesus even said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?”

Can you imagine starting off with a comment like that when someone asks you a question?

The Bible says that Jesus was aware of their malice

So, Jesus answered them - he always gives a response - it’s not always an answer - sometimes he answers people with another question of his own

But he doesn’t fall into their trap - he says, “Show me the coin for the tax”

“Coin for the tax” means, “Since you’re talking about paying taxes to Caesar, show me the specific coin Rome wants when you pay your taxes”

Now this coin would have the image of Caesar on it -

And there was also on the coin, a statement which would have been offensive to a Jew, “Tiberius Caesar, son of the Divine Augustus”

In ancient Rome, even their coins reminded you that you must worship Caesar

If Jesus told them to not pay taxes, then could be arrested for tax evasion

If he emphasized that they must pay taxes, then he would essentially be in favor of accepting other gods

But Jesus had them tell him whose image is on that coin

When they said Caesar - Jesus said, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

We live in this world, but as Jesus said, we’re not of this world

Jesus was brilliant here because he included the phrase, “and to God the things that are God’s”

In other words, we must follow the rules and laws of this world - as long as it doesn’t interfere with our walk with the Lord

Let me summarize what he said -

Go ahead and pay your taxes - but also obey the Lord

Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

Then the Bible says that on the same day, the Sadducees came up to trick Jesus

The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection - and they come up to Jesus with a question about resurrection

They came to the right place, at least

The Sadducees, who denied a resurrection, asked the man who had said, “I am the Resurrection,” (John 11:25) about resurrection

And they used a ridiculous hypothetical example

It’s so rich, I want us to read it together

Matthew 22:23–28 ESV

The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and 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.”

What of it, Jesus?

She was married seven times - how is this going to work out in your so-called heaven?

This is really silly - they’re trying to force their point by using seven brothers in their story

Two brothers would have been enough

Seven is the same level of hyperbole Peter used when he asked Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”

Here’s how Jesus answered the Sadducees

Matthew 22:29–30 ESV

But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

I’ve always thought it’s interesting how men and women are attracted to one another

Men like manly things - fire, loud cars...

Men don’t like soft, frilly, feminine things...

Until the right woman comes along...

Women are the same...

God puts a natural attraction between man and woman so we can procreate and fill the Earth

That will be gone in heaven

Our focus will be for Jesus - and we will worship him for eternity

Jesus then added one more thing - this is very interesting what he says here -

Matthew 22:31–32 ESV

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 God of the dead, but of the living.”

In other words, God is not the God of dead people!

Think about it

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are very much alive - we can’t see them here on Earth - they are currently with the Lord

The Great Commandment

I love this next part

The Pharisees hear that Jesus silenced the Sadducees

The Pharisees first sent their own disciples, along with the Herodians to trick Jesus

When that doesn’t work - they sent the Sadducees

All of this was underwritten by the Pharisees - they should have quit when they were ahead

But they kept thinking that one day, they’ll finally get him

So they’ve sent all of these people - and they gather together to formulate a plan

And who do you suppose they send next??

A lawyer!

And the lawyer decided to ask Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?

As I read the OT Bible, I can’t find any commandment which is stated as the greatest

One might expect that Jesus would have picked one from the Ten Commandments

Keep the Sabbath?

Have no other gods before Me?

Whatever one Jesus says, this young lawyer could then use against him

They could trap him in his words

Jesus could have just said, “There is no command greater than the others”

You and I would have never given it a second thought

Usually Jesus gives an oblique answer - or turns it on them with another question on his own

But he gives a straight answer - but he changes it a little -

The lawyer asked for one commandment but Jesus gives two commandments!

[First slide]

Matthew 22:37–40 ESV

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. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

They asked for one commandment. But these two - one from Deut 6:5 and the other from Lev 19:18, are inextricably linked

You can’t love God without showing love for others. And you can’t properly love others unless you love God with everything you got

This “straightforward” answer was really a rebuke -

The Pharisees always looked for quantitative solutions

They added their own addendum of 38 items to the law of the Sabbath

They were concerned more about what they could do - and what others should do

Jesus centered all of the Law and the Prophets on these two commandments about love

Jesus is saying that everything is based on love

Whose Son Is the Christ?

In the last remaining verses of this chapter, Jesus gives the Pharisees a test of his own

He asked them, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”

Their answer: “The son of David”

And here is where Jesus uses Scripture to tell them who he really is

Matthew 22:43–46 ESV

He said to 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?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Jesus is quoting from Psalm 110 and he’s setting them straight

It’s not about resurrection - it’s not about a Roman tax - it’s not about the greatest commandment

The reason why they are enemies with Jesus is because he is the Messiah - and he is Lord

In the genealogy, in one sense, he’s a direct descendant of David

The problem is that he’s Lord - he is worthy of praise and worship

He wasn’t born like all other descendants of David - he was born of a virgin - and was conceived by the Holy Spirit

He’s a man, but not like you and me - Jesus came as man, but also as God

Immanuel - God with us!

Close

As I close, I want to go back to the great commandments -

Love the Lord with everything you got

Love your neighbor as yourself

I’ve heard pastors use these commandments to say, “We must try really hard to strive to achieve these commandments”

I remember years ago in Pastor’s School in CA - the teaching was wonderful - all about grace

One night after hearing heavy teaching that it’s not about our ability to follow rules

I’m in my car pulling out of the parking lot

Professor is standing there

Me: “I’m trying to process what you said, but Jesus told us to love God with everything and love others as yourself”

Professor: “That’s great - as long as you realize that it’s impossible”

Please hear me

I am not saying that we shouldn’t follow those two commandments

But I am saying is that they are impossible to achieve without Jesus

Let me ask - serious question -

Is there anyone in this room who perfectly loves the Lord with all of their heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your mind?

And do you truly love your neighbor as yourself?

Personally: I fail at loving God like that - I’m not even mindful of him many times throughout the day

And I’m not really sure I’ve ever loved my neighbor as myself - truthfully, I love myself more than anyone

Christianity is not about God making bad people good

Christianity is about taking wretched sinners and redeeming them

All of us are a work in progress

Paul talks about our lives - that we should “walk in a manner worthy of God” (1 Thess 2:12)

Then Paul said this in 1 Thessalonians:

1 Thessalonians 3:12 ESV

and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,

And then this -

1 Thessalonians 4:1 (ESV)

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.

May the Lord make us increase and abound in love for one another

And please God more and more

Are you on that journey?

Are you allowing God to work these two greatest commands in your life?

Are you yielding to him? Because it’s not about us - it’s about him

(Pray…)

Communion

(Pick one…)

Matthew 26:26–28 ESV

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Luke 22:19–20 ESV

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

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