Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
These days between Palm Sunday and Easter weekend are of course very special to Christians and all of humanity, for it is what Jesus Christ accomplished this week, nearly 2000 years ago, which makes sin-forgiven, eternal life with God possible! The Bible does not give us an easy to follow detail of exactly what Jesus did each day on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this, what some people call “Holy Week”. Of course we know Jesus was crucified on Friday morning and His upper room evening meal with the disciples, His betrayal by Judas and denial by Peter, all happened on that Thursday evening.
The Gospel accounts of these days before Thursday evening are given to us in Matthew 21:18-26:16; and Mark 11:12-14:11; and Luke 20:1-22:6; and John 12:20-50. As you read those accounts you’ll find Jesus did a great deal of teaching. Some of it might be considered public debate with the Pharisees or Sadducees, and some of it was private teaching with His disciples. Jesus was aware that His time was drawing short before the Passover weekend during which He would be crucified and then rise from the dead. Jesus was very calculated with each passing hour in these days, fully aware of all that would happen on the weekend.
I think it’s fair to say that His disciples, even though they’d been with Jesus for many months and Jesus had several times predicted His death, burial and resurrection, the disciples simply could not wrap their minds around those concepts. They refused to believe it; they were very reluctant to discuss it or even listen carefully whenever Jesus spoke of His death and resurrection. I guess I can’t blame them, can you? It seemed preposterous and they couldn’t imagine life without Jesus!
The disciple Matthew was led by the Holy Spirit to give us more detail of these few days with Jesus than any other Gospel writer. Matthew, you’ll recall, had been a tax collector which meant he was a man familiar with keeping detailed records. As a tax collector he had been viewed as a traitor by his people. He was Jewish and his name was Levi, one of the most revered Jewish names, but he was employed by the Roman government to collect Roman taxes from his fellow Jews, and he was trained to do it deceitfully, manipulatively and forcefully if needed. Jesus had met with Matthew at his tax collector booth in Capernaum and called Matthew to leave his despicable tax collecting and follow Jesus. (Matt. 9:9-13) Now, as a committed disciple of Jesus, Matthew was a transformed man, and he wrote the story of Jesus passionately trying to prove beyond any doubt that Jesus is in fact the long awaited Jewish Messiah.
In these days between Palm Sunday and Friday crucifixion, the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem intensified their accusations of Jesus, making every attempt to ensnare Him in some religious argument or find Him breaking some religious law from the Scriptures, even the obscure ones.
Today, let’s watch as Matthew helps understand what happened as Jesus is confronted by both these highly respected religious leadership groups, the Pharisees and Sadducees, in Jerusalem, during these days of Passover week. First is the matter of paying taxes! Oh my, that’s a very contemporary problem isn’t it for then as now there are always many people who have great disagreement with how the taxes are being spent by the government and therefore they give thought to not paying taxes as their means of objection.
Matthew reports some Pharisees said to Jesus: “We know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others… tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” (Matt. 22:15-17)
Jesus, of course, recognized their attempt to pit Him against the government, but Jesus asked them to show Him a Roman coin. When they did, Jesus pointed out that Caesar’s profile and inscription was on one side and so Jesus said: “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” We understand, don’t we, my friends? God creates us and sustains our lives, and the best use of everyday of our lives is to give God our lives by living everyday for His glory and honor!
But of course we live in houses and drive on roads and so the government, of whatever country in which we live, provides us a structured society, laws and national security. Taxes finance the structure & function of society, law and order, and national defense. Right? Corruption in government is dealt with differently in different societies and ultimately every government will stand in ultimate accountability before Holy, perfect God, corporately and individually! I see that in Hebrews 4:13.
Matthew tells us it was then the Sadducee religious leaders who confronted Jesus, this time with a religious question that is often asked of me today. What about marriage relationships in heaven? Specifically the Sadducees quoted a highly revered and historic Jewish practice: “Moses told us that if a married man dies without having children, his brother must marry his widow and raise up offspring for him. Now there were 7 brothers among us. The first one married and died and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother…” (Matt. 22:23-28) I think we probably can see where this hypothetical story is going…all 7 brothers ending up having been married to this one dear woman. Then the question: “Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since all seven of them were married to her?”
If we put this in the modern context of where you and I live, it’s probably not brothers following this ancient practice, as much as it is widows or widowers marrying a second or third time. Or far more frequently it is divorcees marrying a second or third time. And so their question is VERY relevant, isn’t it, my friends? Even in my own family, my 97 yr old Dad has had two dear wives, one my mother, who died 40 years ago and my father then married a dear widow and after 33 years she has passed into eternity. As my Dad sometimes says, ‘I have two wives in heaven!’ But of course Dad’s second wife has her first husband in heaven, from whom she was widowed, when he died 40 years ago. So what about it friends? What about husbands and wives in heaven? It’s a very contemporary question isn’t it?
The answer Jesus gave that Palm Sunday week is just as relevant today as it was that day: “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven!” (Matt. 22:29-32) Jesus was NOT saying we become angels in heaven after we are resurrected after our death. No, Jesus is saying our eternal life will not be like our earthly life in that we will not deal with death or divorce, marriage or similar relationships. We will be in our heavenly, eternal bodies which will not marry, not have babies, not ever have illness or even grow old. In that way we will be like the ageless angels.
Our relationships will be holy, pure and God glorifying in every way, like the angels, and it will be God’s holy love that will unite all of us in God’s presence, not a romantic or erotic love. We will all be the family of God united in Jesus Christ whom we have trusted for our salvation! Now I don’t totally understand exactly how that will be, but I trust Jesus, how about you, my friends?
And it’s all possible only because of what Jesus accomplished during that remarkable Passover/Easter week. Once again let’s take some time right now to thank Jesus for all He has made possible for us! Here’s a wonderful worship song to help us praise Him;
Today’s Scripture: Matt. 22:15-33.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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