Under the Scope of Jesus

Mark 12:35-44.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 30, 2020.

Our passage today is broken up into three teachings that are connected.  Here, Jesus puts the scribes themselves under the microscope of judgment as they have done to him.  Jesus is not doing this out of spite.  Rather, it warns others not to follow the life of these men, and it gives opportunity for the Holy Spirit to convict some of the scribes so that they can be saved.  Truth opens the door for salvation and freedom from our sins.  This is exactly what the scribe in Mark 12:34 needed to hear.

We will all one day come under the judgment of Jesus.  If we listen to God’s Word and the Holy Spirit then we will have nothing to fear about that day.  However, if we follow the desires of our flesh then we will not be prepared for that day.  God loves us too much to leave us without a warning, or to leave us without the help that we need in order to follow Jesus.

Until that Day comes, we must be careful how we live our lives, and what purpose we pursue.  Our own judgments can be fraught with error and self-deception.  Only coming into a relationship with the Truth himself can truly set us free from our self-wisdom and the so-called wisdom of this world.

Jesus on the teaching of the scribes

Verses 35-37 come on the heels of a particular scribe whom Jesus stated was not far from the Kingdom of God.  Though the following lessons can be helpful to the rest of us, it is more than likely that Jesus is throwing a lifeline to this scribe through this first lesson.  The scribe was close, but close is not good enough.  To close the remaining distance, he would need to recognize the errors of his group and fully embrace the wisdom of Jesus.  Otherwise, he would just be led astray.  You can’t hold onto Jesus and the wisdom of the group that were in when you came to him.  You will eventually hold onto one and despise the other.

The scribes were teachers of Israel and masters of the Law of Moses.  They taught the people that God had an anointed man that He would send, Messiah.  This Messiah would be the son of David.  Everything about this teaching is correct.  Psalm 2 is the classic passage that promises an Anointed One or Messiah sent by God to be King over Israel and all the earth.  This promise of a righteous king from God was supplemented by more prophecies through the years.  God promises David that one of his descendants would have an everlasting throne.  The phrase “son of David” can mean an immediate offspring, but it can also refer to later descendants by extension.

The Old Testament does reveal these teachings, but it is best summed up by the angel who spoke to Mary the Mother of Jesus in Luke 1:32-33.  “He [Jesus] will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.  And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Jesus then highlights the problem.  In Psalm 110:1, David is clearly talking about the promised Messianic Kingdom.  However, he refers to the Messiah as his lord, and he does so “by the Holy Spirit,” that is under the inspiration of God.  We are not told what the typical scribe taught about this verse and the identity of David’s lord.  Today, if you go to Jewish commentaries or online articles, you will find that they give several possible answers that can point to David talking about Abraham, or someone else.  Ultimately, they will deny that it can ever refer to Jesus.  However, these are not views that were established by the scribes in those days.  Those modern views were developed in response to Christian teachings.

Basically, Jesus is showing that these who claim to be masters of the Law had a problem in perfectly explaining it.  They were correct in some things that they taught because they were using the Scriptures.  However, they did not know everything, or not nearly as much as they thought they did.  They promoted the concept of an oral tradition handed down from Moses that explained the written tradition.  It is clear that some of these traditions were not actually from Moses.  If they had taught what they knew was true, but then humbly admitted areas of ignorance, then they would have been able to hear the Spirit of God speaking through Jesus.  Pride and arrogance, declaring that you have all truth, is not what any prophet of the Lord ever claimed.

So, how can the Messiah be David’s descendant and simultaneously be his lord?  To be his son, the Messiah would have to be a descendant of David, which Jesus was.  However, in those cultures, the elder is always higher than the younger.  This is not a mere mistake either because Jesus establishes that David was a prophet and was writing this psalm as a prophecy, which is what the scribes believed.

Though God is faithful to give us revelation, that is, things we cannot know without Him telling us, He doesn’t tell us everything.  Through Jesus, the world has received a greater revelation of the Truth of God.  However, even we must not be arrogant.  We must humbly teach what is clear and be honest about what is not.  The scribes pretended to be able to identify the Messiah, and yet could not explain this puzzler.  This should have been a red flag that there was something about Messiah unexplained.

The answer is in the reality of who Messiah is.  There was something hidden about the true identity of Messiah.  In his Gospel, the apostle John describes the reality that Jesus was a man born of the woman Mary.  Yet, he was more than a man.  He was the eternal Word of God by whom the whole creation was brought into existence.  John purposefully uses the language of Genesis 1 to reveal to us that when the Father spoke, it was Jesus who went forth to make His will happen.  Thus, the Messiah would be both human and divine, man and God.

As a human, he would qualify to pay the price for humanity’s rebellion, but as God He would have the power to pull it off.  In Jesus, God has stepped into our world and put His back under the crushing weight of sin that lies upon us.  He has lifted it up and offers us to be rescued out from underneath of it by his grace.

Jesus on the life of the scribes

So, the scribes lacked humility in their teachings.  Next, Jesus moves to their lives and how they lived.  He starts out by telling people to beware of them.  They are not innocent and will lead people into the ditch.  Those who are supposed to be their teachers were not worthy to be listened to.  Even today, we must beware of the many teachers in this society.  We can be led astray by people who look good, but are not.  Humility will do us in good stead.

Jesus points out several things about the scribes.  First, they desire to look good in front of others with their long robes and long prayers.  These were the daily trappings of their life in front of others.  The second thing is connected to the first.  They desire public honor from others, like honored seats at public events.  Now, the problem is not that people are honored, or that the scribes were honored.  The Bible tells us to honor those who lead well.  The problem is that such honor had become their desire.  Their desire should have been to know God and to help others to know Him.  They should have worked to receive the honor and praise from God and not from the people.  Many in this world operate to get the adulation of the crowds and their co-workers.  They hope by it to be elevated.  The Bible shows us another way.  “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.”  1 Peter 5:6 (NKJV).  And, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”  James 4:10 (NKJV). 

Their desire for honor wasn’t their only lust.  We are told that they devoured widow’s houses.  The picture here is of their lust for the religious donations of wealthy widows by which they would benefit.  Instead of caring for the plight of the widow, they saw them as a means to an end.  It is fitting that the next section is about a widow, so I will save some comments about this situation until then.

Jesus also notes that their long prayers are only for show; they are a pretense.  Again, it was about getting people’s honor, not God’s.  The length of our prayer has nothing to do with its goodness.  It is the target of our prayer that matters more.  Am I truly speaking to God and desiring Him in it?  Or, am I putting on a show so that people will think more highly of me than they ought?  The scribes may have looked good on the outside to those who couldn’t see their hearts, but God had seen through them, and He brings them out into the open through Jesus.

Jesus ends by declaring that they will receive a greater condemnation.  The Bible doesn’t explain exactly what a greater condemnation would look like, but it will be greater nonetheless.  James says it this way in chapter 3 verse 1.  “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” 

We could say that this makes Jesus look judgmental, but he is speaking the truth.  The previous scribe who wasn’t far from the kingdom of God was also in jeopardy of being influenced by his peer group.  He would need to change; he would need to reject that mindset that he was mixed up in.  Only embracing the Truth could set him free.  The Bible warns us of our condemnation so that we can flee to Jesus and be saved from it.  That is why it says that He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and believe in Jesus.  They would receive a greater condemnation, if they didn’t change their hearts and minds about Jesus.

So, their teachings and their lives were not the light that they pretended to be.

A poor widow is contrasted to them

Just as wealthy widows were the hunger and target of the scribes, Jesus uses a poor widow who could offer the scribes nothing.  In their eyes, she is practically worthless and can bring no honor to them or God.  This is a powerful contrast that Jesus reveals.

They were in the temple compound and people would be coming and going.  Some would be bringing sacrifices and others financial offerings to put in the offering box.  Many rich men had come and put in large bags of money, but then a poor widow comes to the box and puts in two small coins.  Several times up to now, we have mentioned that a denarius was one day’s wage for a common laborer.  Two mites would have been equivalent to 1% of a day’s wage.  Let’s say about $1.50.

Jesus asks who has given more.  When the honor of people is your desire, large amounts of money are more important.  Yet, God does not judge like humans judge.  We tend to honor those who give the most, and despise those who give the least or nothing at all.  However, God sees the heart.  This widow was giving all that she had.  Perhaps, she was desperate and was down to her last dollar.  She could buy her last meal with that dollar and then starve, or she could take it to the temple and offer it up as a prayer to God.  Please, God, see me; help me!  Oh, did God ever see her that day.  He just happened to be in the temple in human form that day.

We don’t know the rest of her story, but we do know that God saw her.  I think, somehow, she was taken care of from that day on.

 There are two sides to religious donations.  Those in charge of receiving are not always rotten.  It can be done righteously, and God expects it to be done so.  Also, those who give are not always pure as the driven snow.  It can be done wickedly.  The key to receiving is to recognize that it is a holy thing devoted to God.  He will hold any financial trustees accountable to the holy gifts of His people.  The key to giving is to give it to the Lord and not remain attached to the gift.  We can be overly controlling over how funds are spent.  Even in the area of charity to others, we must recognize that how they spend it is between them and God because you were giving it in the name of the Lord.  It is a holy gift.  If you receive such “holy” funds then you should fear God enough to put it to good use and not be spending it upon your lusts. 

Praise God that when we have a clean heart in this area, both as givers and receivers, then a true blessing can be upon the community in which we live.  This widow, who would be despised by the great teachers of the day, gave far more that day than they would ever know.  She would receive the pleasure and honor of God in far greater amounts than the trickle that the scribes would receive from others.  God is the husband of the widow and the Father of the orphans, and if we want to be like Him, we will be too!

Scope of Jesus audio

The Most Important Command

Mark 12:28-34.  This sermon was preached on August 23, 2020.

Our story today completes the attempts to trap Jesus with his answers, or debate with him.  However, it is worth noting that the man questioning Jesus in this passage does not seem to be trying to trap him.  He seems honestly to have an answer to his question from Jesus. 

What is the most important command of all the commands given by God through Moses?  Another way of putting this is to ask, “Just what is God trying to accomplish through these commands?”  Is it just mere domination?  Is it perfection?  What is it?  This question reveals that even people under the Law of Moses understood that there was more to Judaism then the sacrificial system.  Jesus makes it clear that God wants relationship with you and with me.  He wants a relationship with us that is marked by a reciprocal love.  In a world that has little time for “loving God,” I appeal to us to soften our hearts and listen to the heart of God in this passage.

Which is the first commandment of all?

Whether we call it the first commandment of all, or as Matthew 22 describes it, the greatest commandment of all, the heart of this question is to find the unifying principle that ties all the other commands together.  It recognizes that sometimes two laws can be at odds with one another.  In such cases, a sense of the “spirit of the law” must be understood in deciding which should be obeyed, or at least, how to solve the dilemma.  A case in point, the Law stipulated that a newborn male was to be circumcised on the eighth day following its birth, but what if the eighth day was a Sabbath?  What should an Israelite who wants to be obedient do?  Other such cases existed and had to be dealt by their communities.  Of course over time, any legal system becomes a long list of situational decisions.  Just imagine the complex maze of laws and regulations that are like a web surrounding each citizen of the United States of America.  What is the most important law of our land?  What are we trying to accomplish as a people?  Clearly, there would be different answers to that question based upon who you ask.

We are told by Mark that the man who poses this question is a scribe.  In Matthew 22:35, he is described as a lawyer.  This is a man who has spent his life studying the Law of Moses, copying it, and most likely teaching it.  What is interesting is the way he is described.  The man is impressed with the way Jesus answered the Sadducees in the previous section.  He decides to ask Jesus a controversial question in order to see what he will say.  He doesn’t seem to be trying to trap Jesus, but rather, he is curious to see what Jesus will say.

The condition of our heart in asking questions of God is important.  If I am questioning God with an accusatory heart, or a hardened heart that wants to trap the reasoning of the Bible, then I am unable to hear the truth of what God wants to say to me.  However, if I ask questions with a humble heart and with a desire to learn then I will be able to hear the truth of God.

Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5.  This is called the Shema Israel, which is Hebrew for, “Hear Israel!”  It is interesting that the coming command is prefaced by a statement that, “YHWH our God, YHWH is one.”  In light of the polytheism that was going on in those days, this is an important distinction.  It emphasizes that their allegiance is to be singular and is therefore much simpler than those whose allegiance is divided among many gods or things.  This is going to be important later because the One God is also the One Creator of all people, but more on that later.

The actual command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  They (we) were to love God with every part of their being.  Notice that though these divisions within us tend to be internal concepts, they all beg an external expression.  If you love someone with all of your heart then it cannot but create external expressions.

It is interesting that this answer is not one of the 10 commands per se.  However, it can be seen as a positive expression of the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.”  All negative commands seek to protect or accomplish a positive thing.  At the least, this commandment calls for faithfulness to the One True God.  Yet, faithfulness is best when it is an expression of an underlying love.

It may seem odd to command love.  However, in the context, Israel had not only become physical slaves in Egypt, but in that condition, they had begun to worship the false gods of Egypt.  This really is a faithful God calling His people back to faithfulness, and a loving God calling them back to a relationship of love.  Our world is steadily casting off any love or faithfulness to our Creator. 

It is important for believers to recognize the power of loving God, not because we have been commanded, but because he first loved us!  It was God who delivered Israel from the armies of Pharaoh and led them to Sinai.  It was there in the context of His great salvation of them that He calls back to a relationship of love.  It is also the Lord Jesus who died on the cross for the sins of the world who calls us into a relationship of love with the Father through him.  He has loved us with so great a love, but will we respond with love in return?  That is what this is all about.

Now, Jesus refers to a second most important commandment.  Although the question doesn’t ask for the second, the connection between the two is so strong that it should not be left off.  Jesus tells the man, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  At the heart of sin, there is me loving myself.  Loving myself doesn’t always lead to sinning against my neighbor, but it is at the root when I do.  This command tells us that we should not only place boundaries on our attempts to love ourselves, but that we should take care to love our neighbor too.  Yes, it is noble not to steal from my neighbor, or give false testimony about him, but what does it mean to love him?  Instead of stealing, I would be a protector of his things, and instead of lying about him, I would be a protector of his reputation do the degree that aligns with truth, or rather God.

Love is wanting and acting for the well being of another.  Malachi 2:10 says, “Have we not all one Father?  Has not one God created us?  Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of our fathers?”  If I love God then I will recognize that He made other humans (my neighbor) too.  He loves them, or at least wants a relationship of love with them, just as much as He loves me.  Though I am special to Him, I am not more special than the other person.  Each of us is a holy ground, a recipient of God’s love.  To transgress this through actions that are not love is to trample the love of God’s heart.  You cannot do the greatest commandment when you are transgressing the second.  This is another way of stating the Golden Rule.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  However, it is even grander.

It is important to note that in Matthew 22:40, Jesus states that all of the Law “hangs” on these two commands.    In some way, each law in the Old Testament is working out what it means to love God or to love your neighbor within the context of their culture.  Of course, cultures vary and are not always based upon the recognition of God.  We are still called to hear God’s Word and to hear His Holy Spirit teaching us what it means to love people in our culture, and in innumerable ways.  Through life, God continually calls us to wrestle with the question, “What does love do now?”

The Scribe’s Response

The scribe is duly impressed with the answer that Jesus gives.  He even states that these two commands are greater than all the sacrificial system commands.  The sacrificial laws and activity were not as important as loving God.  They were simply an expression of loving God.  In other words, there is nothing particularly good about killing an animal when you sin.  However, if God tells you to do it then it becomes an opportunity to demonstrate the true nature of your relationship with Him.  Christians are not under the sacrificial commands of the Law of Moses, but these concepts are still important to us.  We do not obey God’s Word because it makes sense to us, even though we have received an understanding of it.  Rather, our obedience, or lack thereof, expresses the truth of where our relationship with Him is.  The prophet Samuel brings this up when he tells King Saul that it is better to obey God than to make sacrifices to Him.  Clearly, there is a primary importance to loving God, which leads to obeying Him.

Jesus tells the scribe that he is not far from the Kingdom of God.  It was the desire of all Israelites to be able to participate in the Kingdom of God when Messiah arrived.  May God help us to have a heart that is open to His Word, to Jesus.  If we are to keep a place in the coming Kingdom of God at the Second Coming of Jesus then we must guard our hearts.  It is not enough to be only near the Kingdom. 

We don’t know if this man was one of the 3,000 saved on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2.  However, in Luke 10:28, Jesus had a similar discussion with a man about the greatest command.  There, Jesus told the man, “Do this and you will live.”  The “this” refers to the command.  When our lives are surrendered to Jesus, we will focus it on loving God and loving our fellow man, but not just as I define it, or as our culture defines it.  We love people by working for their well being as God defines it.  This is why we tell people about Jesus, even though the world may castigate us for trying to convert people from other religions.  Actually, we are not trying to convert people to our religion.  We are extending God’s offer of love to them.  This is why we warn people about sin, as defined by God, rather than pat them on the back as they embrace it.  We cannot kill our unborn children and think that God will approve.  We cannot marry people of the same sex and think that God will approve.  Only sophistry of the highest level would allow a person to do so.  Failure in these areas is not only a lack of true love for the other person, but also a failure in loving God.  I pray that you will see the amazing love of God calling us out of a life of faithlessness and into a life of His love.

Most Important Command audio

Trapping Jesus-Theology

Mark 12:18-27.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 16, 2020.

We continue looking at the various teachings that Jesus gave within the temple compound during the week leading up to his crucifixion.  Some of these teachings are initiated by Jesus, but some of them are initiated by the various groups that did not like Jesus.  The antagonists today are a group called the Sadducees, more on them in a bit.

The trap today has to do with theology.  What does the Bible actually teach?  As the Sadducees try to trap Jesus with his own words, we are given a proof once again that Jesus cannot be trapped by mankind.  He doesn’t just know the truth; he is the truth.  As you listen to this passage today, I pray that you will come to understand that the modern world is not any better at “trapping God” than the ancient world was.

We may have greater technology, and we may have furthered the discussion of philosophy to a finer point, but we are still fallen creatures trying to prosecute the one who is not fallen.  It won’t work.  In the end, Jesus will be proven true and all who stand against him will be proven to be liars, lying to ourselves internally, and lying to the world externally.  Trying to trap Jesus is to trap ourselves in the end.

Our only hope is to surrender to Jesus and ask him to save us because we cannot save ourselves.  Let’s look at this passage.

A question about the resurrection

Our question today has to do with whether or not there is such a thing as a bodily resurrection of those who have died.  Although it is not precisely stated that way, Mark makes it clear up front that the Sadducees do not believe that a resurrection day was promised by God, and this is the source of their question.

So, who are these Sadducees?  Let’s take about 6 minutes to look at the history that has led up to this point.  During the 500’s BC, Israel was defeated by the Babylonians (modern day Iraq).   Many of the Israelites were taken back to Babylon as captives.  Then, the Persians defeated the Babylonians (they were from modern day Iran).  The Persians allowed the Jews to return to Israel in order to rebuild their country, Jerusalem, and the temple.  This was going on from the end of the 500’s through the 400’s BC.

The next change happens as the Greek empire under Alexander the Great rises up and defeats the Persians.  From 330 BC to 167 BC, the Greeks dominate Israel and the apex of their control comes under Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) who ruled from Antioch, Syria.  Over the course of these 160 years, Israel was heavily influenced by the Greek culture, which called itself Hellas and its peoples the Helenes.  By the end of this period, many Jews had adopted Greek ways, using Greek names, refusing to circumcise their young, and adopting a Greek calendar, which changed the days on which the feasts of the Lord landed.

It is in this context that Antiochus Epiphanes lights the fuse of Israel by outlawing Jewish rituals, mandating the worship of Zeus, and slaughtering a pig to Zeus on the temple altar in Jerusalem.  The next 50 years (167 BC to 110 BC) would be a tug-of-war between the Greeks and the rebel Israelites.  It would also be a fight between Hellenized Jews who wanted a Greek government and those who wanted to stay faithful to the Old Testament and Yahweh.

During this time, a number of priests left Jerusalem and developed the Qumran community in the wilderness above the Dead Sea that we know by the Dead Sea Scrolls.  They saw Jerusalem and its priests as corrupt and so they went into the wilderness to wait for Messiah to show up and fix everything.  The priests who stayed in Jerusalem called themselves the Sadducees, which is a Greek form of the Hebrew name Zadok.  The family of Zadok was the High Priest family.  Even though the high priests were starting to compromise, the Zadokites or Sadducees felt that the High Priest should be followed without question.   They were made up of the High Priest, the priests faithful to him, and many of the upper class in Israel.  At some point, a more conservative group who had not gone into the wilderness began to separate themselves from the Sadducees, and that is the Pharisees.

The Sadducees did not believe in human spirits, or angels (see Acts 23:7), and thus they did not believe in a holding place for departed spirits (the grave) or a possible resurrection of these spirits.  They were essentially the liberal “Christians” of their day.

Now that we have established who these Sadducees were, let’s look at their approach to Jesus.  Instead of asking Jesus to prove from Scripture that there is a resurrection, they use a different strategy.  They remind Jesus of the Kinsman Redeemer law mentioned in Deuteronomy 25:5.  They then share a hypothetical story about a man who marries a woman, but dies without a child being born, i.e. no heir.  The Law of Moses required the nearest kin, like a brother, to marry the woman and father a child with her that would legally carry the name of the man who died, and inherit his estate.  This may seem strange in our modern culture, but this was very common throughout the ancient world.  Their cultures were family and tribe oriented.  Everything was done to keep the family and tribe strong, especially things having to do with offspring and inheritance.  A widow had a problem.  Who would take care of her?  However, if she was childless then she had another problem.  Who would take care of her in her old age?  The family also has a problem.  What shall we do with the dead brother’s estate, allow it to be severed and spread among the rest of the tribe, or legally supply an heir for him?  Whether or not you think this is the proper way to deal with these things, the duty of a kin was to protect the name and inheritance of his close relatives.  In fact, the whole story of Ruth centers on this law.

Now, in our hypothetical story, a second brother marries the woman, but dies before an heir is conceived.  The same thing continues happening with all of the seven brothers, until the wife dies in the end having never had a child.  This hypothetical situation sets up the absolute worse-case scenario for this law.  It is similar to what happens in the story of Judah and Tamar.  Tamar marries Judah’s firstborn, but he dies before a child is conceived.  Then, Judah’s second son is married to Tamar, but he refuses to help her become pregnant.  He dies as a judgment from God.  So now, Judah’s third son should marry Tamar, but Judah is gun-shy.  He suspects that his third son will die too, and so he creates a ruse to keep the marriage from happening.  So, most likely this story would never actually happen.  Most people would see the woman as cursed and refuse to marry her at that point.

It is important to see that the Sadducees are employing a debating technique that is called Reduction to Absurdity.  Instead of rejecting your opponents view, you pretend as if it were true and show that it leads to an absurdity.  They feel that their hypothetical creates such an absurd situation that the initial idea of resurrection should then come into question.  The absurdity comes to the surface with the question, “Which of the men will have her as their wife in the Resurrection (that they don’t believe in)?” 

I would point out two things.  First, there is an inheritance problem here that they totally blow by.  The laws of the kinsman redeemer had nothing to do with the resurrection.  They were all about a woman having security and a man’s name not being lost within the tribe.

Second, the problem is not nearly as absurd as they make it.  It would be the same problem if we ask, “Whose wife is Ruth in the Resurrection, Boaz or Mahlon?”  The presence of seven guys doesn’t change the question, but they do make it more absurd.  Ultimately, you could just say that the Bible is silent on this issue and therefore God will make the judgment then.  This would resolve the issue without giving clarity about what exactly would happen.  God is just and He can be trusted to give a wise decision.  However, this is not how Jesus responds.

The answer of Jesus

Before Jesus gives his answer, he explains in verse 24 why the Sadducees are wrong on this issue, but he does so in question form.  The NKJV says that they are “mistaken,” but the idea is that they are being led astray, or off the path of truth.  He is posing a rhetorical question, “Are you not being led astray, or deceived?”  The answer is the obvious, yes, and that they should know it.

Why are they being led astray, or better, what is their weakness that has made them susceptible to error on this point? Jesus gives us two reasons.

First, they don’t know the Scriptures.  Of course, they know the Scriptures in the sense of having read them, memorized much of them, and taught them.  However, they don’t intimately know them.  They cruise over passage after passage assuming that they have the truth without recognizing the implications in them that run counter to their philosophy.  Instead, they use Scripture to back up their positions through proof-texts and human reasoning.  If they really understood Scripture then they would not be led astray by people such as themselves who posit absurd hypotheticals, philosophies, and the reasoning of men.  So, their first problem has to do with a real ignorance of the Scriptures and the proper understanding of what God was saying in them.

Second, they don’t know the power of God.  Of course, if you were to ask them if God was all-powerful, they would have said that He was.  However, they wouldn’t apply that power to the resurrection because they have already reasoned that it can’t be.  This same problem happens with those who say that humans don’t have freedom to choose Jesus because that would mean that God is not completely sovereign.  Yet, at the same time that they say that, they are limiting God’s sovereignty by refusing to accept that God could sovereignly choose to give men a free choice.  God has the power and sovereignty to give man a real choice so that he can really choose.  Human reasoning can become a barrier to actually hearing what the Word of God is saying.

When we understand just how powerful God is, the One who created the whole universe, visible and invisible, problems like this dissipate.  Many reject the Bible because of things that sound impossible.  However, if God does exist as the Bible depicts then it is not absurd that He can do that which we cannot conceive being done.

In verse 25, Jesus finally gets to the answer.  Here, he reveals that the Sadducees are assuming something that God never said in His Word.  It doesn’t say anywhere in the Bible that our marriages will continue into the Resurrection in any way.  Now, it is a natural tendency to assume things and not question those assumptions.  Their whole argument hinges on the reality of marriage within the resurrected age.  Jesus reveals that the resurrection will not be a glorified repeat of this world.  Instead, we will be like the angels of heaven.  Angels do not need to propagate their species because God made them immortal. 

Up until now, humans have been a mortal species.  Yet, then we will not be so.  Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.  In the parallel passage of Luke 20:34, Jesus adds some more color to the statement. 

“The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.  But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of God; being sons of the resurrection.” 

The resurrection not only changes us as individuals, but it also changes us as a species.  We can’t properly imagine the resurrected state because we have precious little understanding of what that means.  We have only known mortality.

It is important to understand that Jesus doesn’t need chapter and verse to support what he is saying because he has come from the Father and knows the whole plan, whether it has been revealed before or not.  Thus, in a way, Jesus is revealing new truth.  He confirms the resurrection and he reveals that there will not be marriage there.  Men and women will stand side by side in glorified bodies that are no longer male and female as we know them here.  We will stand together as the adult children of God.  The image is that we as a whole are the bride of Christ.

Yet, the Old Testament does have many passages that hint at, and even declare a belief in the resurrection.  In Job 19:25-27, he says, “For I know that my redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.  My heart faints within me!”  What kind of kinsman redeemer can redeem a person from the decay of their body?  This is an amazing passage and there are others like it.

However, Jesus knows that the Sadducees do not accept doctrine that is not in the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible).  Thus, Jesus uses the Burning Bush passage in Exodus 3.  There, God tells Moses that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  If the position of the Sadducees was correct then He would have to say that He was the God of Abraham, et al.  Yet, He says that He is, present tense.  In some way, Abraham and the other patriarchs were still very much alive.  Their spirits were held in the paradise side of She’ol, or Hades, and God was not going to leave them there forever.  In chapter 12 of his book, Daniel saw the day when multitudes who “slept in the dust of the earth,” would awake and rise “some to shame and everlasting contempt,” and others “to everlasting life.” 

We must not settle for a cultural acceptance of Christianity, but rather pursue a relationship with the Father through Jesus, and the Scriptures that reveal him.  We can only come to know them intimately by the help of God’s Holy Spirit.  Praise the Lord that we serve a powerful God who has made clear His glorious future for those who believe upon Jesus Christ!

Theology audio

Trapping Jesus-Taxes

Mark 12:13-17.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 09, 2020.

Today, we are going to wrestle with the issue of paying taxes.  Of course, nobody enjoys paying taxes.  This was one of the central issues in the founding of the United States of America.  It was considered unfair to have taxation without true representation. 

The issue in our passage today is not really about paying taxes per se, but rather, about the legality of paying taxes to a foreign country that has taken over your country.  Thankfully, we have never been in that situation and we have not had to wrestle with the emotions and decisions that go along with it.  However, many people throughout history have had to wrestle with this issue. 

In those cases, people quickly fall into several categories.  You have the pragmatic compromisers who quickly recognize that they can’t change it, so they might as well make the best of the new situation.  Sometimes such are called collaborators.  On the other extreme, there is the idealistic rebel who shouts out death to tyrants and would rather die than yield in anything, much less taxes.  The majority of people fall somewhere in between the vice.  They don’t like it, but cannot see a way out.  They will do the very least that they must do in order not to be drug off to jail or execution. 

This is the situation of the people of Israel in the days of Jesus, and in fact, it had been for some time.  Whether the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, or Romans, Israel had been in a similar situation for the better part of 500 years.  When would the Messiah show up to set them free from this horrible and humiliating situation?

Let’s look at our passage.

Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

The question put to Jesus in this section was a controversial issue among the people of Israel.  It was even more so for the people of Samaria and Judea (Jerusalem) because their taxes were going directly into the Roman treasury.  Whereas, Galilee paid taxes to Herod Antipas, who was from Israel, and those taxes by and large were used in the area.

Mark makes a note of the ones who deliver this question to Jesus.  We are told that “they sent to him some of the Pharisees and Herodians.”  The “they” here are clearly the elders and chief priests of Jerusalem.  The group they send is a mixed group that does not get along typically.  Herodians were a political group who supported the legitimacy of the Herodian dynasty.  Whereas, the Pharisees were loyal to the Law of Moses and saw Herod and his offspring as illegitimate rulers (they were not from the line of David).  This signals the reality that they are trying to trap Jesus with his answer.  If he says “no” then the Herodians would stir up the Roman Governor Pilate against Jesus.  If he says “yes” then the Pharisees could use it to stir up the common people against Jesus.  It seems to be a no-win situation.

We should note the fair sounding compliments that they give to Jesus.  They say that he is true, does not regard any person, and teaches the way of God in truth.  These are all very good things that any teacher or leader should aspire to be.  However, they do not believe this to be true of Jesus.  Rather, they know that it is the expected description of a true teacher.  This is bald-faced flattery and is part of the trap that they are setting.  Will Jesus look like he is worried about what the people of Israel will say, or is he worried about what the Romans will say?  It is important to note that we can pay someone a compliment without it being flattery.  It is only flattery if you do not really believe it, or are using it to lull the person into a false sense of security so that they don’t see the knife in your other hand.

This question of paying taxes to Caesar is first a question of legality.  For Israel, this is talking about the Law of Moses.  Are we breaking the Law of Moses when we pay Caesar taxes?  In our terminology, we would ask, “Is this constitutional?”  Am I breaking God’s laws by paying this tax and only making Him more upset with me, and by extension the whole nation?  Thus, this is an important question for the average Israelite.

It is secondly a question of practicality.  We are not in the optimal conditions that God has envisioned for us.  So, how does he expect us to proceed under the current conditions?

We are told that Jesus knows they are asking this question hypocritically.  In Matthew 22:18 (a parallel passage), it refers to their “wickedness,” and in Luke 20:23, it refers to their “craftiness.”  These three descriptors give us quite a picture of these conflicts that Jesus faced: hypocrites and crafty in wickedness.  They are not actually seeking the true answer to the question, but rather, ammunition to use against him.  Of course, Jesus let’s them know that he is on to their game by asking them why they are testing him.  They are seeking to make him look wrong in the eyes of Rome, or in the eyes of the people.

The answer of Jesus

At this point, Jesus asks them to bring a denarius to him, which was a silver Roman coin that represented a day’s wage for a common laborer.  It also happened to be the coin that one would use to pay the annual poll tax, or head tax.  When the coin is brought, Jesus asks whose image is on it and what is its inscription.  The common day to day commerce of Israel was dominated by the Romans.  It was Roman currency that was used and it had Caesar’s image on it.  The inscription on the denarius is known from existing coins.  “Tiberius Caesar, the divine son of Augustus, Pontifex Maximus.”  Of course, it is in Latin and employs abbreviations.

There is a dynamic here that we should note.  Jesus knows that it will be the Roman power that will execute him shortly.  Yet, he still tells the people that they should pay taxes to Rome.  Jesus gives an answer that is not slanted to one side or the other.  Taxes are not their problem, but sin.  Jesus is not a poor persecuted victim in Israel trying to fight back against a beast of a system.  Rather, this is the Son of God who has come to save both Jews and Romans from the judgment of God that hung over them both.  Yes, you may or may not be a victim, but be careful that you are not trapped by your own venom.  Your anger at the sin of another can cause you to be blind to your own sin and the fate that awaits you both at the judgment seat of Christ.

Jesus neutralizes the question by giving a principle that is put in command form, rather than answering with yes, or no.  It is funny to see interviewers, who are supposed to be journalists getting to the truth, purposefully ask a question in yes-or-no form and then shut down the person answering when they try to give more context.  Such situations clearly demonstrate that the interviewer is trying to trap the person and achieve a sound bite that they can use against them. 

The word “render” in the NKJV or “give in other translations is a compound word that means you are giving something that you owe or are obligated to give.  His answer did not put God and Caesar in opposition to each other, even though Caesars were worshipped as gods and did not see Israel’s God as anything special.  Jesus basically shows them that the obligations that they have to Caesar should be fulfilled, and the obligations that they have to God they should also fulfill.  He is telling them to pay the tax, and yet, also making it clear that they are still to obey God.  God had never told Israel, “Thou shalt not pay taxes to a foreign government that conquers you.”  In fact, He had warned them through Moses that their disobedience to His commands would lead to their subjection to foreign powers.  They were undergoing discipline because of their disobedience.

All nations and people should keep in mind that God could allow them to be subjected by others as a discipline.  And, when that happens, it is our job to seek Him in order to learn our lessons.  Not all problems come from foreign nations.  I would say that much of the social and political problems that we are experiencing in the United States of America are the results of our own sin, and are a discipline from God.

Of course, the Pharisees and Herodians realize that Jesus has marvelously bested them, so they leave.

There are several things that we should note based upon this command of Jesus.  First, the duties that we have in life, at any level, are not based upon the righteous status of the other person.  Too often, we use the failures of the other person to justify why we do not fulfill our obligations to them.  This is wrong.  If a business is greedy and overcharges, it does not make it right for me to try and cheat them or steal from them.  I have an obligation before God to act righteously even among the unrighteous.

Second, had Israel given God His due, Rome would not have been ruling over them.  Like Adam and Eve after the curse, they couldn’t go back.  The effects of our sins cannot be made to vanish.  We must carry our burden or discipline forward and learn the lesson.  It teaches us humility and the importance of doing the right thing in a tough situation.  No matter how much our culture tries to avoid the consequences of sinful choices, the effects of those choices will always come around to bite us in the end.  We can either double down on fighting the truth of God and the judgments that He gives, or we can accept them and learn from Him by faith.

Third, Christianity is not a call to sedition, but to serving Christ.  It is not, “Rebels for Jesus unite!”  Rather, it is “Pick up your cross and follow me!”  Living for Jesus is radically different than this world can imagine.  On one hand, we are not living for the materialistic things and pleasures of this world.  Yet, on the other hand, we are not creating anarchy so that we can tear the system down.  Both sides see the true Christian as an odd-ball that is not in step with the program.

We must beware the sirens of our culture that sing to us a beautiful and bewitching song.  They are only pied pipers that lead us to destruction.  Only Christ leads us to truly please the Father, and only Christ leads us to true freedom.

Lastly, Caesar’s power, or (insert your government here), is limited by God’s commands.  It is not unlimited.  Government is not God, and only foolish people try to give it god-like powers.  It has a legitimate function in this world because we are sinful people.  Yet, it is sinful too because it is run by sinful people.  Even if we try to circumvent this by creating Artificial Intelligence, the AI will be coded by sinful people.  Sure, it may reach the point where it evolves beyond our ability to affect its code.  Yet, then we would be worshipping a false god, and surrendering our life to it, instead of the One True God.

Whose image is on our money is one question, but it also begs the greater question.  Whose image is stamped upon you?  Do I bear the image of Jesus or do I bear the image of the Devil?  In Jesus, the image of God can be restored in our life, which brings us into relationship with the author of life!

Trapping Jesus Audio