M A T T H E W 22  V 15-46

 

This passage is  continuation from the previous message. We find Jesus still attacking the Jewish religious leaders in three more lessons.

In the verses 15 to 22, a Pharisee tried to ensnare Jesus, first by paying tribute to the Lord’s integrity, and then trying to lure Jesus into committing Himself to say something which would justify getting arrested. They were confident that they were putting Jesus in a position where He would err.

This was in Palestine, a country occupied by the Roman Empire, so they asked Jesus if it was proper to pay the Romans taxes, If Jesus stated yes, that would cause the public  to condemn Him, and if He said no, they could report Him for disobeying the authorities.

There were three taxes imposed, a growth tax on produce of grain or wine which a person produced; a poll tax to be paid at a percentage for every man and woman. and an income tax.   After the restitution of the Temple, a further tax was demanded by the Romans, which would be used for a Temple in Rome.

Jesus however, was wiser than they realized by asking for someone to produce a coin. On the coin there was a head inscribed on it, so Jesus asked whose head it was, and they answered Caesar. Jesus then told them to pay to Caesar that to which he was entitled, and to God that which belonged to God.  This is why the teaching of Jesus is timeless, He lays down principles.

A Christian has a dual citizenship, as a citizen of the country lived in, for all the social services provided by the local and national authorities. As Christians we should be responsible and pay the taxes for our welfare and security.  But we are also citizens of heaven, so we owe to God and Jesus, as good people we have a duty to God and country.

This action of Jesus exposed the Pharisees.

The Sadducees bore enmity to the Pharisees, and were happy to see them humiliated. They decided to have an attempt to catch Jesus. They were the wealthy and aristocrats of society, and prone to side with the Romans, in return for privileges granted. They clung to Jewish law and the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch, and they ignored the prophets. The Pharisees believed in a life after death, but the Sadducees denied any life after death, despite the Pharisees believing it could be proved by passages of the Old Testament. They believed  all Jews would be resurrected with the physical defects that caused death.

The Sadducees brought forward, a Jewish custom from marriage, to trap Jesus as they asked Him. If a man died without having any children, but had a brother, that brother could marry the widow and have children.  They raised a situation in which there were seven brothers, who one after another married the woman, without any children being born. In this case, they asked which brother would be the one for the woman at the day of resurrection?

Jesus pointed out the question was based on an error of thinking heaven was just a continuation of earth. There will be a new relationship for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, cannot be a God of dead men, He is a God of the living. Jesus had thereby shattered them, for there is life after death.

Jesus was giving religion a new definition. He quoted from Deuteronomy, which tells we must give God a love which is total commitment of love to God. Jesus also quoted a verse from Leviticus   which stated our love of God should involve a love of those made in God’s image.

Our Lord teaches, in the next world we will have a new body, yet different in constitution.

He is of course, speaking only of those saved. He omits all mention of the lost.  We will  not marry, or be given in marriage, as we will be angles of God.

We know little of life to come. It is state in which there will be no hunger or thirst, without sickness, old age and death will have no place, No more will marriage be needed. Those admitted into heaven, shall forever more serve God, and be in His presence.

 

in In the final verses of this chapter, Jesus refuses His followers to call Him the Messiah until they understood what that meant. The title Messiah was seen as the son of David, who would destroy all the enemies of Israel, and be a leader of nations.

Jesus asked the Pharisees whose son they thought the Messiah would be, and they answered David. Jesus turned to the Scriptures to show He could not, be David’s son, nor a person of David’s line.  The correct title would be, Son of God. Here Jesus makes His greatest claim He would not be an earthly conqueror like David, but as Son of God would demonstrate the love of God from the Cross