Confrontation Is a Two-way Street: Number 2
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 children for his brother.' Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died, and having no children 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, to which of the seven will she be wife? For they all had her?" But Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God." Matt. 22:23-29, RSV.
The second question in the Jewish counterattack against Jesus comes from the Sadducees--the traditional enemies of the Pharisees. They had not only lined themselves up with the Roman rulers, but they rejected all Scripture except the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses). According to Josephus, the Sadducees held that "souls die with the bodies" (Antiquities 18:1. 4). Thus they denied the possibility of immortality and the resurrection from the dead.
Their acceptance of only the Pentateuch undergirds their question to Jesus in Matthew 22:25-28 about the woman who, according to levirate marriage custom (Deut. 25:5, 6), had seven husbands but no children. Their question sought not only to make light of the very idea of a resurrection, but, at a deeper level, to embarrass Jesus in public.
But once again, Jesus turns the argument against His detractors on two points. First, He suggested that their question is flawed because it is founded on error. Not knowing Scripture, He claims, they also fail to understand God and His power. Like so many modern people, they apparently thought of the future life as a slightly altered version of earthly life as we know it. Not so, says Jesus. God's new kingdom will be along different lines. He didn't tell the Sadducees what heaven would be like because their minds couldn't have grasped it if He had. But He did declare that life in the hereafter cannot be compared to the present one.
In the second part of His answer Jesus quotes from Exodus 3:6, demonstrating that the Sadducees were even ignorant of the part of Scripture that they accepted. God, Jesus noted, is the Deity not of the dead, but of the living, pointing forward to the resurrection of the patriarchs (Matt. 22:32).
Here is a challenge for modern Christians. Most of us probably view heaven in terms of earthly realities. What are the high points of that approach? What are its problems? In what ways does the Bible teaching on the topic transcend our usual ways of thinking about it?
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 children for his brother.' Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died, and having no children 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, to which of the seven will she be wife? For they all had her?" But Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God." Matt. 22:23-29, RSV.
The second question in the Jewish counterattack against Jesus comes from the Sadducees--the traditional enemies of the Pharisees. They had not only lined themselves up with the Roman rulers, but they rejected all Scripture except the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses). According to Josephus, the Sadducees held that "souls die with the bodies" (Antiquities 18:1. 4). Thus they denied the possibility of immortality and the resurrection from the dead.
Their acceptance of only the Pentateuch undergirds their question to Jesus in Matthew 22:25-28 about the woman who, according to levirate marriage custom (Deut. 25:5, 6), had seven husbands but no children. Their question sought not only to make light of the very idea of a resurrection, but, at a deeper level, to embarrass Jesus in public.
But once again, Jesus turns the argument against His detractors on two points. First, He suggested that their question is flawed because it is founded on error. Not knowing Scripture, He claims, they also fail to understand God and His power. Like so many modern people, they apparently thought of the future life as a slightly altered version of earthly life as we know it. Not so, says Jesus. God's new kingdom will be along different lines. He didn't tell the Sadducees what heaven would be like because their minds couldn't have grasped it if He had. But He did declare that life in the hereafter cannot be compared to the present one.
In the second part of His answer Jesus quotes from Exodus 3:6, demonstrating that the Sadducees were even ignorant of the part of Scripture that they accepted. God, Jesus noted, is the Deity not of the dead, but of the living, pointing forward to the resurrection of the patriarchs (Matt. 22:32).
Here is a challenge for modern Christians. Most of us probably view heaven in terms of earthly realities. What are the high points of that approach? What are its problems? In what ways does the Bible teaching on the topic transcend our usual ways of thinking about it?
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