This a three-month long study of just one week in the life of Jesus. The power of this week lies in all that happened. And it deserves both retelling and a careful scrutiny. Bracketed by Palm Sunday on one end and Easter Sunday on the other, this is the most important week in history. On Friday, Jesus will die. On Thursday, Judas will betray Him. Today’s focus is again, on Tuesday. Tension Tuesday – for this is a day of verbal conflict between Jesus and the religious figures of His day.
And before we read our passage, allow me to set the scene. It’s Tuesday, just seventy-two hours away from His death and about sixty-four hours away from Judas’ famous kiss. So many items are going on Tuesday that we are devoting three Sundays to the happenings on Tuesday. We can call Tuesday of Holy Week or Passion Week, Tension Tuesday, for it’s a day when tensions are high. Essentially, Jesus spends much of the day debating and arguing with the religious teachers of His day. Out of this very busy day, we’ve selected five items to feature:
1) Jesus answers a question about taxes; 2) Jesus answers a question about the resurrection; 3) Jesus answers a question about the law; 4) Jesus asks a question about the Messiah; and 5) Jesus offers His opinion on the religious teachers of His day.
Again, Tuesday is a day of tension – it’s a day when Jesus argued. American history students are introduced to the Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debates where the two opponents squared off for the elimination or the expansion of slavery. The first televised Presidential debate occurred in 1960 against the backdrop of the heated Cold War with the Soviet Union. The young and dynamic senator from Massachusetts, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, stood in contrast to next to the older Vice-President, Richard Nixon, who looked terrible with little to no makeup. Since then, American political debates have cared a great deal more about their presentation. In recent days, maybe you’ve argued whether Pluto is a planet or cats vs. dogs, or even Ford vs. Chevy. More seriously, we are familiar with the debate centered around the legal decision of Roe vs. Wade ushering in abortion on demand. But on this day, Jesus debated the religious teachers on a wide range of topics. Today, we love to debate the issues of the day on our car bumpers from gun control to even Texas succession.
The first volley in their argument was a question about authority: “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” (Luke 20:2) Much of Tuesday is an attempt toward entrapment. “The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people ” (Luke 20:19). And then Jesus offers His opinion of the religious teachers of His day: “And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 47 who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
Sermon Preview
We’re going to explore 3 arguments Jesus debated on this day 1) An argument about politics; 2) An argument about the afterlife; 3) And an argument about Jesus Himself. Now, each of these debates deserves a separate sermon, yet to capture all of Jesus’ week, we must move quickly.
1. Did Jesus Have a Political Party?
You start talking about Jesus and you’ll end up discussing Hilary, Trump, or Cruz in short order. And this was true in Jesus’ day as well.
“The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. 21 So they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. 22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not” (Luke 20:19-22)?
1.1 Political Parties
Luke tells us that “spies” were sent but Matthew and Mark are more specific. They tell us that among the spies were both Pharisees and Herodians (Mark 12:13). The Herodians supported Roman power while the Pharisees did not. Here were two political/religious parties that opposed one another. And while the two parties didn’t get along, they could both agree to join together to rid themselves of Jesus. And by asking Him the question, they hoped to put Jesus on the horns a dilemma.
1.2 Taxes
The tax question Jesus is asked about is not taxes in general. Instead, they are zeroing in on a specific tax – a poll tax. This was an annual tax of one denarius and for nothing more than having Caesar as your emperor.
Many of you have seen the now famous flag, with its “Come and Take It” slogan. The flag orignates from the Battle of Gonzales in 1836 which was really a skirmish but it did mark the beginning of Texas’ revolution. While Texas was under Mexico’s control, a cannon was lent to the settlers to fend the town from Natives in the area in 1831. But several years later, the same citizens wished to defend themselves from Santa Anna’s increasingly aggressive actions. It was then that Mexico officials asked for the cannon back and it was then that the Texians pointed to the gun some 200 yards behind them and said, “Come and Take It.” The flag was made from Noami DeWitt’s wedding dress and has come to symbolize state rights versus the federal rights.
It’s really hard to have a discussion on religion for any length of time without quickly moving into a discussion about politics. Now, the tax issue was explosive in Jesus’ day. When He was but a boy, Roman taxes had caused a revolt in Israel. When Caesar issued this tax about twenty five years before their discussion, an armed revolt took place. A man named Judas the Galilean led the revolt. When Judas the Galilean led the revolt, he did three things: 1) He called on all Jews to refuse to pay the poll tax; 2) He cleansed the temple with an armed group of men by getting rid of all the foreigners. He threw out all the Gentiles, all the Romans. He cleansed the temple. 3) He wanted to let God be their king, not Caesar. He wanted to bring in the kingdom of God. Judas the Galilean was eventually attacked, caught, and executed. Now it’s twenty five years later, and do you realize what’s happening? 1) Jesus has built His entire teaching around the kingdom of God. This was the cornerstone of his teaching. 2) He has just cleansed the temple. He has just thrown out the moneychangers and the animal sellers. And they are seeking to push Jesus to following the same mistake Judas the Galilean did before Him.
1.3 Horns of a Dilemma
They thought, “Let’s see you get yourself out of this one.” You see, if Jesus answered in favor of the tax, a large segment of Israel would have lined up against Him. And if Jesus answered against the tax, a group would have gone to Pilate and said, “Jesus is an insurrectionist.” The authorities would have crushed him. This was a catch twenty-two and no-win situation. So when Jesus asked for a denarius, the anticipation built to a climax in the crowd – “What’s He going to do?”
Speaking of taxes, did you hear about the Christian that sent the IRS a recent note? “Dear Sirs, My conscience has bothered me. Here is the $175 I owe in back taxes.” Then he included a P.S. “If my conscience still bothers me, I’ll send the rest.”
Back to our story. But Jesus immediately perceived their craftiness, and said to them: “’Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?’ They said, ‘Caesar's.’ He said to them, ‘Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.’ And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent’” (Luke 20:23-26).
There are two things you should notice in verses 21-22: 1) While Luke lists their question only once, it’s Mark’s gospel that tells us they asked the question twice; and 2) they frame the question in order to receive an either/or answer. “So they asked him, ‘Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. 22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not’” (Luke 20:21-22)? But Jesus turned their either/or question to a both/and, and escaped their trap. Jesus refused to be baited by the over simplistic question. Inside Jesus’ statement is two commands: 1) Jesus tells us to obey our government authorities – “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” and 2) Jesus also commands us to never give Caesar ultimately what he wants – our ultimate allegiance. By refusing to answer their over-simplistic question, Jesus answered the question in two senses. First, Jesus refused to advocate a revolt but neither did He teach us to give ultimate allegiance to the system of government. But in another sense, He advocates a revolution that ends all revolutions. Jesus teaches His followers no political system deserves your ultimate allegiance for no political system will truly deliver the revolution we all need. The kingdom of God always comes before the kingdom of men.
2. Will I Live Again?
No sooner had they debated over politics, then a debate ensued on the afterlife. “There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife” (Luke 20:27-33).
While the Sadducees believed in God, they did not believe in the resurrection. While they believed in God, they believed in a very stripped down, non-super naturalistic version of the traditional faith: “For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all” (Acts 23:8).
The Pharisees and Sadducees didn’t like one another. But the principle “My enemy of my enemy is my friend,” doesn’t work here and here’s why. The Pharisees attacked Jesus because they smelled a Sadducee … the Sadducees attacked Jesus because they smelled a Pharisee. The Sadducees didn’t believe in life after death and they only believed in the first five books of the Old Testament. And so they construct this theoretical question in an attempt to show the absurdity of believing you can live after you did. “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her” (Deuteronomy 25:5). Their absurd scenario is based on a woman with seven husbands and no children.
2.1 Jesus’ Reply
And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” 39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question” (Luke 20:34-40).
Jesus tells them their argument is flawed and He makes two points. First, Jesus tells us that not everyone is worthy to share in the resurrected life with God (verse 35). Second, He says there’s no such thing as marriage to another human in the next life. The next life isn’t going to be just like this life. He shows them their flaw by quoting from the account where Moses encounters God in the burning bush. God doesn’t say, “I was the God of your father, the God of Abraham…” Instead, He says, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). Jesus hangs a lot of weight on the tense of the verb for God is the God of the living and not the dead. Abraham is still Abraham and Isaac is still Isaac. The Pharisees agreed on this point with Jesus while the Sadducees did not. The fragile coalition against Jesus is coming apart.
Jesus tells us that life will go on after you die but life will be very different. Saint Teresa of Avila says, “In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.”
2.2 Sinking of Ferry in South Korea
In April of 2014, a multi-story ferry carrying 459 people, mostly high school student on an overnight trip to a tourist island, sank off South Korea’ coast on Wednesday. More than three hundred died as a result and three-quarters of the eleventh grade at Danwon High School died. The maritime disaster, one of worst in South Korea, spread anger across the country. Parents were first told Wednesday that all the students were safe. Only hours later was it clear that scores had been trapped inside the ferry. A school vice principal had escaped the sinking ferry, hung himself, police said, near the spot where parents had gathered to await news of their missing children. “Please hold me responsible for all of this,” Mr. Kang wrote in a note released by police. “I pushed for the school excursion. Cremate my body and spread my ashes over the ship sinking site. I may become a teacher again in the afterlife for the students whose bodies have yet to be found.” How we view the afterlife matters and Jesus tells us there’s a resurrection not reincarnation.
3. Who Is He?
They argued about taxes, government, morality, and the after-life. And at the end of these arguments, Jesus turns around and instead of answering another argument, He makes an argument. But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David's son? 42 For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,43 until I make your enemies your footstool.”’ 44 David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son” (Luke 20:41-44)?
Who is He? It’s the question everyone asks. John the Baptist asked it: And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another” (Luke 7:19)? The Disciples asked it: “…And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him” (Luke 8:25)? And the Centurion sensed it: When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54)!
Have you answered it, yet?
Prayer
Father, throughout our lives, we are involved in so many arguments… arguments in marriage and in our families. We argue over politics and at work. Yet, when we meet you, you quiet us. In your presence, we sense an authority unlike anything or anyone. So many of us go on in life, looking for that one strand of proof. Help them now to find you and see you and sense you.
Thank you for searching for us when we didn’t have the sense to find you or even look for you.
Amen.
