God is the God of the living [Matt 22b]

You do not know the power of God

Matt 22:23-33

Key verse I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living." [32]

Introduction

Today’s topic is resurrection. It is very difficult topic to discuss or to prove. Sadducees believed God but they denied resurrection. It is an unreasonable combination of faith. Yet here in Sadducees, such way of thinking thrived and even prospered in the lives of many. It is not just Sadducees who lived as such. Many who claim to believe Christ but live with the same mind like these Sadducees. What can we say about this? How can we understand them? Is it unique to them only?  As we explore their thought and the words of God, may God help us to know the truth about resurrection! We may live in the hope of resurrection.

23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.

In the previous passages there was a challenge from Herodians and Pharisees. It was about tax, whether they have to pay taxes to Caesar or not. For Pharisees as an expression of their piety toward God, they felt not obligated to pay taxes to Caesar. Their lives are solely for the Lord and they would not serve any other lords like Caesar. Paying taxes to Caesar is an expression of serving him as a lord. For Pharisees paying taxed to anyone other than God may be considered as a violation of the law of Moses. This comes from the misconstrued idea that they owns God and God is solely for them only. The root of the problem is clear; they thought that knew God but they did not know God fully.

Sadducees

Here comes another group of people, Sadducees. They thought that they were as godly as the Pharisees in their minds. But their belief is totally different from Pharisees. They deny angels and spirituality. They only accept what is written in the 5 books of Moses. While Pharisees consider more God’s authority, Sadducees adhere to human free will. Sadducees apply the law as it is written while Pharisees are willing to make application of the law according to the needs in life.  Pharisees are more broadly based among common people and are respected of their expertise in life but Sadducees are mostly of priests and held the power over the temple and position of leadership. They are aristocrats. Simply their lives are far better off than any other class or group of people of the time.  They are more receptive Hellenism and willing to collaborate with Roman rules. They deny any life after death.

As a whole we can say that for them the life now is more important than anything else. So denying resurrection is quite natural. Who of today may be comparable to these people? They are more like moralistic or pragmatic postmodernists. They acknowledge God but their faith is totally irrelevant to God and His purpose. Again, there is a gross misapprehension of God’s truth.  

They came to Jesus and asked a challenging question.

24 "Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"

Levirate marriage

It is about Levirate marriage. It is described in Deut 25:5-10 and its actual practice is exampled in Gen 38. So it is well substantiated as one God ordained and good.

‘Levirate’ comes from the word ‘levir’[Latin] a brother in law. The marriage of a man with his deceased brother’s widow, in the event of the brother’s dying childless. The first instance of this custom occurs in the patriarchal period. Judah went out to live in a land of Canaanite. There he got a wife and bore three children; Er,the first son,  Onan the second son and Shelah the third son. Er married Tamar, a local woman.   Er did evil in the eyes of God and he died. So Tamar was given to Onan so that Onan may bear a child in Er’s name. But Onan also did evil in the eyes of God and became dead.  SO the third son Shelah was to marry Tamar. But she was too young to marry. So Judah, the father in law of Tamar, told her to wait until his son grew up enough for marriage.

It concerns about inheritance of the deceased brother. Though one’s brother is dead and cannot inherit his inheritance—the land, by having the deceased brother married to his wife, the deceased brother can have a descendant in his name. So the focus of the levirate marriage is perpetuation of the brother’s inheritance. If the dead brother does not exist anymore, then why is it necessary to secure an inheritance in his name? Can we say that even the levirate is designed in preparation for the resurrection of the dead brother? But Sadducees’ eyes are focused on something else. They raised a question: if the widowed wife remarries to her husband’s brothers seven times, then whose wife she will be at the resurrection? If resurrection is true then, at the resurrection, to the seven brothers there will be only one wife. This totally contradicts to the principle that God set from the beginning of creation that one husband has to have one wife.

According to this line of thinking, we can deduce the following:

1.       Whatever the principle of life we have now is carried on even after resurrection. In other word, the understanding that we have now is the only means to understand the life after resurrection.

2.       Out of what we know now, we conjecture what is yet to come at the resurrection.

3.       There is an unwillingness to accept anything that may defy the rule and principles of the present time.

4.       There is no consideration to accept or explore what God can do or what will of God is through his power. 

Through this it is quite clear that these people had no idea about resurrection. Why is it like that?

Why could they not see the things after death?

First death has ruled over all lives on the earth. God in his judgment subjected them under death.  For them the death is the end of everything. From the beginning of creation, death came to be as a punishment for sin. [Gen 3] Death ends the life we have now. As we are, we are totally ignorant of what entails the things after death. Also this death threatens our lives daily. Not only that, death is facts for all living on the earth, whether it is of men or of animals or of trees and shrubs.

Second it is not natural to see the resurrection unless it is revealed by God. They are hidden to the sinful mind who refuse God and His authority and his power.

In explaining the kingdom of God, Jesus quoted this passage from Psalm 78:2

Matthew 13:35 So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world." [Ps 78:2]

We know that anything beyond death is hidden from our eyes, unless it is revealed. Also Jesus alluded that when time comes all will be exposed; hidden things will be uncovered fully. There will be no ambiguity or uncertainty.  

1 Corinthians 2:7 No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

Colossians 1:25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness-- ²⁶ the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.

As we have seen in these verses, it is quite clear that many things are hidden from the eyes of sinful men. Among these information or truth about resurrection and new life after resurrection are hidden.

How can anyone come out of this?

What did Jesus say about them?

29 Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

Jesus pointed out two things that they did not know: When one does not know these two things, he or she remains in darkness of death. He has no way to get out of this confinement. What are the two things that help one get out of the confinement of death? One is the scripture and the other is knowing the power of God.

1. First, they did not know the power of God.

When it says that one does not know the power of God, it means that one does not know God in his full authority and power.

This is like many people of today who claim to know God and yet think that God is irrelevant to our present situation since he has done his work of creation and is now sleeping somewhere and has no direct or indirect intervention to our lives.  Then why is it significant that they did not know the power of God in regard to resurrection?  The reason is because these people understand and reason within his or her realm of thought and knowledge. The knowledge that we live by is what we see every day and what we learn from our history or ancestors. The world is described in this way in the words of God.

Matthew 4:16 the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."

Here it is said that Jews were living in darkness, shadow of death. This is not because they were subjected to Roman Empire but because they had no remedy for life. even if they can make best out of what they have, the final end is death and they must succumb to death no matter what they do. This is darkness.

Also Paul depicted this very concisely: 

²⁰ For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature-- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Rom 1 20-23

So it is clear that when one denies God and his power, there is nothing that they can rely on except their own. What do they have as their own? What do we have as our own? To the best of our effort and knowledge, the end is all too clear to deny; that is death. Any extension of what we know and what we have does not go too far beyond the life we have now! Simply without God and his power, we cannot escape from the power or existential reality of death. It has been over thousands years as long as we know of our ancestry.  We are confined as the prisoner of death that supersede all power and authority we have.  In such condition, what can one conjecture about resurrection? What are the options that they or we have? Making a simple extension of what we know here! This is exactly what these Sadducees were doing.  They extended what they know as facts in this life to the world of resurrection. We all marry and this is the essence of life. Life without marriage cannot be thought about especially for the Sadducees whose joy is in this world, of which marriage life takes the center stage.  Also it is impossible because if we do not create our descendants through marriage, then we will be extinct in a matter of a generation. Also the commanding principle of marriage is one wife to one husband. This is the rules of life now. This rule is absolute. It is proven by facts and in this principle we lived and are living.  It ended in the death of seven brothers died after marriage to one wife. But if they all rise to life, there will be a great problem. Whose wife can she be among 7 brothers? It is defying God’s principle that there is one husband and one wife!

What is Jesus answer?

30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

At the resurrection, there will be no marriage. No man dies and there will be no procreation. Through resurrections of billions of people, God is fulfilling his ultimate goal, filling the earth with God’s people as he had planned from the beginning of creation. At this time, there is no more need of procreation. So there won’t be any marriage!

Second what is the power of God? We will become like the angels in heaven. There are many distinctive characteristics of angels. One of them is that they live forever before God. They do not suffer sickness or death. They do not marry or given in marriage. How can this be possible? Daily, we live in mortal body and we know and feel to our bones the finite nature of our body; weak, feeble and vulnerable to all kinds of sickness. It is unimaginable to think a body that last forever from this mortal body.

In such mortality of our present body the people in Corinth asked the similar questions.  

¹² But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 1 Cor 15:12.

³⁵ But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" . 1 Cor 15:35-36

But it is possible. It is possible only by the power of God, who created us from the beginning. The mortal body can be changed to immortal body. So it says in 1 Cor 15. 

³⁵ But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" ………..³⁸ But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. ..⁴⁰ There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. …⁴² So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; ⁴³ it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; ⁴⁴ it is sown a natural body, it is raised ……⁵³ For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

Second : They did not know the scripture.

The word of God is the truth that unveils even hidden things. God’s word is written for men in human language. But in it is the truth that sustains the entire sphere of God’s creation. This includes life after death. The truth entails entirety of the creation from its beginning to the eternity. It has power to make a break through the confinements of death. Because it reveals all things even that are pertain to God’s character. Yet many of us look at it and understand it according to what we know. We often fail to know God’s truth that transcends human knowledge. Why?

The best example is here as Jesus pointed out.   

31 But about the resurrection of the dead--have you not read what God said to you, 32 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' ? He is not the God of the dead but of the living." 33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

This word is written in Exodus 3:6.

1.       God appeared to Moses in order to fulfill the promise that He gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God promised Abraham that his descendants will be a great nation and would become a source of blessing for many nations. This promise was reaffirmed to Isaac, his son and Jacob, his grandson. By the time when God spoke to Moses, a descendant of Abraham, these people were dead long time. But God appeared to fulfill the promise that God made to Moses ancestors, Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac. The reason for God’s appearance to Moses was to fulfill the promise God made to them. If they were dead and they did not exists anymore, then whatever promise God made to them were irrelevant not only to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but also their descendants, Moses and his people suffering as slaves in Egypt.  This promise is meaningful to them as well as to his descendants only when they were still alive and able to see what’s happening to their descendants. Simply speaking God who made the promise for blessing to Abraham and his descendants built his covenant in the basic premise that all those who received the promise would rise from the dead to see and join with their descendants. So is true to the descendants who received the promise of God. The promise itself, as well as covenants that God made to his people, is framed in the sphere of God’s world which exists from eternity to eternity. In him is the whole history of human race from its creation to its fulfillment of ultimate purpose of God by its creation. At the center of this is resurrection. In this resurrection, a wide door to the world of God that lasts to eternity. The engaging event that God created is the covenant; Abrahamic, Noahic, Mosaic, Davidic, and New covenant. All these covenants lead men to the world of God, through the door of resurrection.

2.       God appeared to Moses in the mountain Horeb. When God introduced himself to Moses, he said that he is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. All these three were Moses ancestors. None of them were living at this time of Moses call. Actually they had been dead for long time at least more than 500 years[BC1985-1480]. But God called himself as the God of Abraham. Since God does not identify himself in reference to a dead person, or a person does not exist anymore, it is odd to call himself as the God of Abraham, if Abraham was dead and did not exist. God was not talking about history of the past. But God is speaking the present situation: Now God is the God of Abraham. That means that Abraham was still living in God, though he had been dead and buried over more than 500 years before. So is true to Jacob and Isaac. All of them were still living in God though they had been dead so long.

Why couldn’t they see this though they read this passage so many times? Wasn’t it just for the Sadducees only?

33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

The whole crowds were astonished at what Jesus said about this passage. It was not just Sadducees but all of them did not see this truth. Pharisees read so many time and did not see it. The teachers of the law read and did not see this truth. Almost every one there knew of this scripture but they all did not see this truth. Why?

The most common nature of men is his blindness to God’s power and his authority. As Paul said in Rom 1, sinful men rejected God and did not honor God as God. So the true authority and power of God is hidden from his eyes. The most important attribute of God is revealed in his work of creation. God created all things that we see to exist. When one denies this, he denies God’s power and his authority. He cannot see the power of God. In him only there is power of resurrection because he created life from its beginning. So it is said that God is life. In Him is life:

³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of men.[John 1:2-3]

God made effort to plant this truth to Israel when they were roaming in the desert.

Deuteronomy 8:3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

It is all too clear that when we starve, eventually it will end in death! There was no food for one million people in the desert. It was not just days or months. It was over 40 years!

Their lives were sustained for 40 years in the desert by God’s power and His provisions. No farming No hunting! It was all by God’s power that they were fed and their lives were sustained.  In this way God demonstrated unquestionably that God is the source of life and God is life! God can give and create life.

Through this, figuratively speaking, they passed through death and then to life again by God’s power and his provisions. As Jesus pointed out, correct understanding of the scripture leads one to the power of resurrection and when one knows the power of God, he can get to know the resurrection. So it is all about knowing God as he is.

It is God who makes this thing possible. Who else can make this possible? As we know, yet, no men have overcome the power of death. In the beginning, God created men from the clay. Also God ordained the death of all living when man sinned against God. God alone can undo the power of death. When one accepts God’s authority to judge sinners to death, he can also accept that the same God has power to raise the dead to life as well.

So Jesus came to show the life through the death.  When Lazarus was dead and buried in a tomb for three days, Jesus told him come out. The dead Lazarus came out in burial clothes.

Yet we all rejected God and were under the power of death. So no one could see and hope for anything beyond the death. It was all too clear as we see the response of the disciples.

When Jesus said that he must die, Peter said this way

Matthew 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. ²² Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"

Since then Jesus taught them two more times about the necessity of Jesus’ death. But they could not overcome the grief over coming death of Jesus.

John 16:6 Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. ⁷ But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

But Jesus had to die and Jesus had to rise from the dead so that we all may see the resurrection. Unless we see the resurrection, we will still be living under the power of death. So Jesus chose to die so that we may see the power of resurrection.  Otherwise, we may know but we cannot see the resurrection. We will still be under the power of death and no hope for the resurrection.

When Thomas saw risen Jesus, he said this way:

John 20:27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." ²⁸ Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

God demonstrated this in His Son Jesus. God knew our inability to read the scripture correctly because our minds are framed under the power of death and what we know is only of this world. God showed this to us in the most vivid way through His son’s death and resurrection. To Know God is to believe in Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. When we do so, even now we can see and understand the world of resurrection. We can make a breakthrough into the eternal blessing in and with God. The door is ‘resurrection’

Going back to Sadducees, their motto is clear: make the best of my life now. For such people, now is the time for everything for life (1 Corinthians 15:32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.")

But when we can see and hope for the life of resurrection, our life goal must change. It shall not end in death. Our goal and plan of life shall be framed for the resurrection. We must focus our lives in the coming ages, life in resurrection with God, and his son Jesus. We must know him better and we must obey him and listen to him.

May God richly bless you!