Mateus 22
Steven Cole · Citado em PreceptAustin
Mateus 22
Cole - Jesus’ answer stunned the pretenders. In one succinct sentence, He showed that God and Caesar each have legitimate realms of authority with corresponding responsibilities. But if there is a conflict between realms, God is supreme over Caesar. By asking His critics to produce the Roman coin, Jesus underscored the fact that they were enjoying the benefits of Caesar’s government. They used his coinage; they enjoyed many civil improvements and benefits that he provided. Thus they were obligated to give him his due. And yet, by His final statement, “to God the things that are God’s,” Jesus affirmed that it would be wrong to go along with Caesar’s blasphemous claim to deity, which was stamped on each coin. One side read, “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus” ("divine Augustus"? Woe!); the other read, “Pontifex Maximus” (“Chief Priest”). Jesus meant that above Caesar is God. We must never go so far in rendering unto Caesar that we violate our obligation to God, the supreme sovereign who rules over all....By His statement, “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” Jesus acknowledged that God has ordained civil government and given it a proper sphere of authority. God ordained civil government for the good of society. Paul explains this in Romans 13:1-7, where he commands, “Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God” (Ro 13:1). He goes on to state that the government “is a minister of God to you for good” (Ro 13:4). When Paul wrote this, the godless Nero was emperor. Thus we must conclude that we are not free to disobey or rebel against wicked rulers, unless they command us to violate God’s higher law. (See his sermon Guile, Government, and God for more on the role of government and how Christians should interact). THOUGHT - Let's apply the truth in this passage - Who's image do you bear? By creation all men bear the image of God (Ge 1:26-27). But only by redemption do men bear the image of Christ. So let me ask "Whose image do you bear?" As Paul says if we bear Christ's image, we "are not our own, for we you have been bought with a price: therefore we are to glorify God in our body." (1 Cor 6:19-20-note) That is the way we render to God the things that are God's! We "present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is our spiritual service of worship." (Ro 12:1-note) Dear Christ follower, are you rendering to God what is due to Him Alone?
Mateus 22
Cole - Jesus shows us that the source of sound doctrine is not human reason, but Scripture properly interpreted. Both the Sadducees and Jesus held to the authority of Scripture. They begin by quoting Moses and Jesus answers them by quoting Moses. But these men gave undue emphasis to human reason, which led them to disregard certain Scriptures; and they underestimated the power of God to raise the dead and give them a whole different existence in heaven. Mk 12:24 quotes Jesus, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures, or the power of God?” (Why You Should Care About Doctrine) Not understanding ("knowing" - eidotes = perfect tense of eido) the Scriptures (graphe) - Not understanding (eidotes = perfect tense of eido) means that they had failed to come to a perception or realization of the truth of the Scriptures! Imagine their reaction when Jesus made this cutting statement to these pride filled men! Note that Scriptures (graphe) is used 51v in NT and almost all refer to the Old Testament. 🙏 THOUGHT - Not knowing (understanding) the Scriptures: It is possible for a person to have much Bible knowledge, yet not fundamentally know the Scriptures. Paul later told Timothy to hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me (2 Timothy 1:13+). This suggests that Biblical truth has a pattern to it, a pattern that can be detected by the discerning heart. It also suggests that one can lose this pattern (thus the command to hold fast). The Sadducees had Bible knowledge, but they did not hold fast the pattern of sound words; many today are like them in this respect. (Guzik) Nor the power (dunamis) of God (theos) - Their second major error was they lacked a true perception of the (dunamis) of God (theos) which would have also rubbed them the wrong way! Power is the great Greek word dunamis which refers to the intrinsic power and inherent ability of the omnipotent God to carry out some function, in this context to bring the dead back to life! It is therefore not surprising that dunamis is translated miracle some 20x in the NT. In short these religious leaders do not know God (revealed in the Scriptures) nor the power of God! That's about as blunt as one can get! As we would say today "In your face!" Dwight Edwards makes an excellent point - There is a vital balance in knowing both of these essential ingredients for radiant godliness. In evangelical circles today there is a tendency to know one OR the other, but too seldom are they both entwined significantly in the same life. Many focus on knowing the Scriptures, but fail to appropriate the power of God which is so necessary for the Word to be properly applied and obeyed. Others are preeminently concerned with the power of God but lack the stability and cutting edge which only the Word of God can provide (Eph 6:17+). Like Stephen, we must (ED: CONTINUALLY) seek to "be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom (Acts 6:3+). (Mark Commentary) Geddert - Jesus’ response critiques the Sadducees on two points. They misconceive the nature of the resurrection life. They also erroneously reject a (properly understood) resurrection life. Those of us who wish we knew more about that resurrection life might wish this text were considerably longer. What are their misguided images of a resurrection life? What will it really be like? Jesus critiques a conception of a resurrection life that assumes the following: • That the resurrection life is a simple continuation of this life, with all its relationships intact. • That offspring would still be needed as designated heirs of men who die childless. I think it is going beyond the evidence of this text to insist (as some do) that in the resurrection life these things happen: • Gender distinctions will disappear. • There will be nothing corresponding to intimate relationships. • None of the conditions of our prior earthly life will be remembered or be relevant. We are told too little to insist on any of these. What seems clear is that those raised will not enter into marriages as we know them in this life. Producing offspring to solve inheritance problems will no longer be necessary. That is likely the point on which we will be like the angels. The Sadducees would not be persuaded by Jesus’ clarification that we will be like angels; they do not believe that angels exist. Jesus’ only clear statement about the nature of the future resurrection life is that God is powerful enough to design it. Jesus critiques their doubts that God can work out the logistics of a resurrection life. When asked about the nature of the resurrection life, I would rather say, “God will find a way of working that out!” That is better than advancing a series of options and dilemmas each option would create. (Believers Church Bible Commentary) In summary, notice that in the mold of the Master Rabbi that Jesus is, He answers their question by beginning with a question of His own (Jesus answered....). And what a question it is! First he flat out tells the Sadducees that they are mistaken. Now pause a moment and imagine you were a fly on the Temple wall. Can you see their faces? Their posturing? Their leaning over to one another? etc. What a question to begin answering what they thought was a "water tight" argument that they could not lose! In effect, from the very beginning, Jesus is saying in essence "You lose!" You Sadducees are sad you see because you don't even understand your own Scriptures. Woe! Are their faces flushed yet? Their nostrils are beginning to flare! And then Jesus tops it off with the accusation that they did not even understand the power of God! They must have been thinking "Does God have power to somehow resolve the absurd riddle of one wife and seven husbands in heaven?" They are beginning to worry that their water tight argument is beginning to leak and for good reason. They do not have a clue that they have just confronted the Wisdom of the Cosmos, the One Who is infinitely wise. And He is about to respond with that infinite wisdom which will slam shut their mouths in utter dismay! 🙏 THOUGHT - Let's apply this - Jesus is saying you don't understand Who God is and what He is capable of! You haven't been reading your Bibles! Now this is what happens often when people challenge our Christian faith, but often they do so out of ignorance of God and/or ignorance of His Word. Some people do this sincerely. But others are like the Sadducees and are trying to trap us in some obscure Biblical doctrine, some supposed inconsistency of the Scriptures, etc. They have made a profession of knowledge of God but, as is often the case, these individuals know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God! Which means that we as followers of Christ must know our Bibles and be convinced of the power of God. Peter says it this way "Sanctify (aorist imperative - This is imperative! see our need to depend on the Holy Spirit to obey) Christ as Lord in your hearts (NOT JUST YOUR HEAD!), always being ready to make a defense (apologia) to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence." (1 Peter 3:15+). If you were confronted today by an individual skeptical about the resurrection from the dead, would you be able to give an accurate, Biblically saturated account for the hope (not hope so, but hope sure) you have firmly founded in the truth of the resurrection (cf Acts 23:6NLT+, Acts 24:15+)? Are mistaken (4105)(planao from plane which describes "a wandering" and gives us our English word "planet") means literally made to wander and so to go (active sense) or be led (passive sense as of sheep in Mt 18:12-13) astray. In spiritual terms, planao means to be made to err from the right way, the highway of truth and holiness. Straying in the spiritual sense occurs when one does not adhere to the truth (James 5:19+) and/or forsakes the right way (see 2 Peter 2:15+) In this passage planao is in the passive voice which indicates an outside force or influence causes the deception. In this case it is their unregenerate heart that causes the deception that leads one down the wrong path. The present tense indicates the sad truth that these religious men are unsaved and are continually being led astray from God and ultimately being led into eternal separation from His presence.
Mateus 22
Cole explains that "The Sadducees’ error was based on some wrong assumptions. They wrongly assumed that life after death would necessarily be just like life now. Thus they took the Mosaic allowance for a brother marrying his deceased brother’s widow to raise up offspring for him, and wrongly applied it to life in the resurrected state. They wrongly assumed that people will marry monogamously in heaven, just as they do now. Based on their assumptions, the idea of a woman having seven husbands in heaven was logically absurd. But their assumptions were wrong." (Why You Should Care About Doctrine)
Mateus 22
Cole - Jesus taught that there is such a thing as doctrinal truth and doctrinal error, and that truth matters. He didn’t say, “Hey, it really doesn’t matter what you guys believe, just as long as you’re sincere.” He didn’t say, “I love you guys! You’re my brothers, even if we disagree over this little matter of the resurrection!” He didn’t say, “I respect your views. Everyone is entitled to his own opinion.” He told them authoritatively that they were greatly mistaken and He set forth the reasons why. As Allan Bloom pointed out a few years ago in his best seller, The Closing of the American Mind ([Simon and Schuster], p. 28), the intellectual community has relegated religion to the realm of opinion as opposed to knowledge. It is simply a matter of one subjective and uncertain opinion versus another. Undergirding this is the view that all truth is relative and that tolerance the chief virtue (pp. 25-27). He said, “The point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to think you are right at all” (p. 26). The result of this is that you can have two people holding to opposite views in the spiritual realm and they both can be right, since religious “truth” is simply one’s subjective ideas or experience of it. Vance Havner - God of the Living When the Sadducees asked our Lord about the woman who had had seven husbands and wanted to know whose wife would she be in the resurrection, He answered by analyzing their trouble as error born of ignorance—ignorance of the Scriptures and the power of God. He declared that in the resurrection we neither marry nor are given in marriage but are as the angels in heaven. Then He gave them God's own word, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" and ended with the declaration, "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (see Matthew 22:32). God did not say, "I WAS the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but "I AM...." Always the great I AM whose infinitudes never put Him in the past tense, in His sight nobody WAS but everybody IS. Nobody is dead and everybody who has ever lived is still living. We are so accustomed to think of the dead as corpses lying in graveyards. But those bodies are only the remains, the temporary vehicles of their earthly stay. They themselves are still in existence somewhere. Moses and Elijah came back to the Mount of Transfiguration and the disciples recognized them. That raises questions as to what we will be like after death and before the resurrection but settles one major issue, we will still be living somewhere. God is not the God of the dead but of the living. I found a dirt road behind the motel where I am staying this week in Michigan. I've been walking in the glorious September sunshine meditating on the God of the living. He does not deal in dead things. My loved ones are all alive on the other side. One of these days the trumpet will sound and their spirits will be joined to their new resurrection bodies and death will be swallowed up in victory. What a big swallow that will be! Corpses and funerals and cemeteries will be a thing of the past and we shall gather around the throne of the living God, the God of the living. He is the Author of life and there never would have been any death had not the devil invaded creation. But on that day Satan and his cohorts will be where they belong and we shall meet at the river of life around the tree of life to enjoy life everlasting. But I need not wait for that day for my eternal life to begin. It started when I trusted my Saviour and I have it as surely as I will ever have it, though not as completely as when I see my Lord on that "Great Getting-up Morning." But now I have the promise of my inheritance and the foretaste of glory divine and if this be the first installment, what will it be like when I am paid in full! Until then I shall taste the powers of the age to come and work up an appetite for the Supper of the Lamb where the celebration never ends. I worship the God of the living. My soul is not dwelling in the macabre realm of tombs and ghosts. Everybody past and present is alive. All who died in Christ are more alive than ever, they are but on His other side. We need to "come alive" in our thinking and walk with God in His Everlasting Now. (Though I Walk Through the Valley) Mark 12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. Since God spoke of Himself as the God of the patriarchs, centuries after they had been borne to their graves, it stood to reason that they were yet living; and on this ground our Lord met the allegation that there is no life beyond death. Death is not a state or condition, but an act. — We speak of the dead; but in point of fact there are none such. We should speak of those who have died. They were living up to the moment of death; but they were living quite as much afterwards. Death is like birth, an act, a transition, a passage into a freer life. Never think of a death as a state, but as resembling a bridge which, for a moment, casts its shadow on the express train, which flashes beneath, but does not stay. All our dear ones are living. — As vividly, as keenly, as intensely as ever: with all the love and faith and intelligence with which we were wont to associate their beloved personality. It may be that they think of us as only half alive, compared with their own intense and vivid experience of the life which draws its breath from the manifested presence of Gad. Oh, do not fear that they will cease to recognize, know, or love you! Always it remains true, “Without us they cannot be made perfect.” Those who live on either side of death may meet in God. — Those who are present in the body, and those ho are absent from it, meet in proportion as they approach God. When we count near Him in thought, and prayer, and love, we are come to the spirits of the just made perfect. God is the glorious center of all the lines that radiate into all worlds. “Ye are come to God, the Judge of all,… and to the spirits of the just made perfect.” Meyer, F. B. Our Daily Homily G Campbell