Sunday Devotional - Sadducees
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Happy Mother’s day to you! A big thank you to all the loving mothers out there, and thank you for tuning in and watching/listening as we continue to seek God through His word. In our chronological walk through the life of Christ, today we are looking at Matthew 22:23-33. Jesus is in the last couple days of his life on earth before His crucifixion. It’s Passover week and all of Israel is there in Jerusalem, and the air is tense as different groups are coming to Him in order to trap Him and give reason behind the execution they are planning. Last week at our drive-in radio service we saw that the Pharisees teamed up with their rival political enemies, the Herodians, in order to trap Jesus over a question concerning taxes to Caesar, and immediately after Jesus defeated that attack, a new one was presented by a group called the Sadducees.
The Sadducees were a group of religious leaders, yet they were in opposition to the Pharisees. If the Herodians were the political adversary of the Pharisees, the Sadducees were the religious adversary of the Pharisees. The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection of the dead, nor in an afterlife, nor did they believe in angels or spirits. (Acts 23:8) These two religious groups were enemies of each other, but, as they say- the enemy of my enemy is my friend- the Pharisees and the Sadducees on this day left their differences behind in order to concentrate their focus on grilling Jesus. Let’s look at the passage, go ahead and pause, and read Matthew 22:23-33.
The hypothetical question posed by the Sadducees was a bit outlandish for sure. I’m pretty confident that even with this being the Mosaic law and cultural practice of the day, that after the 4th brother or so died, all the other brothers would have jumped to the conclusion that this woman was super bad luck and they would have run for their lives. But as outlandish as the hypothetical question may be, at its root is a very important, serious question being presented here to Jesus, that needs to be answered. Coming from their “no belief in the afterlife” background, the Sadducees were in a way questioning the very existence of the resurrection, of Heaven, through their basic premise that Heaven logistics wouldn’t make sense in certain scenarios- scenarios like a woman having to pick which husband she would want to be with in the afterlife, if she had had several on earth. Perhaps they imagined Heaven can’t be real, because it didn’t make sense in light of what they knew about life. Perhaps they choose not to believe in the afterlife, because the afterlife didn’t fit into their box of what was considered possible, or didn’t fit into their box of what was considered reasonable. Maybe we could boil down their whole presentation to this question- How can Heaven be logical if we can come up with a scenario that would prove it’s illogical?
And Jesus pointed out that their assumptions were incorrect, based on two mistakes. And these two mistakes are the same two mistakes typically committed anytime there is question leading to a false conclusion concerning God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, theology, religion, etc. The two mistakes committed, verse 29, are: not understanding the scriptures and not understanding the power of God. Most theological and spiritual questions can be answered through properly understanding the scriptures, and having a proper understanding/respect for the power of God.
The Sadducees claimed to know scripture, but they had failed to consider Exodus chapter 3, when Moses encountered the LORD at the burning Bush, and the LORD said “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Exodus 3:6), The LORD didn’t say “I was the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” In using the tense of the verb “am,” God was declaring that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who had all been dead for over 200 years by this time, He was declaring that they still were living beings who called on the LORD as their God. On a side note, this passage would also put holes in the theory of “soul sleep”- the idea that when we die, our souls remain in unconscious sleep until Jesus returns and brings about resurrection day. There are other verses that bring down that theory as well, but for time sake, let’s stay on track.
There are also other verses Jesus could have used to defeat the Sadducees theory of no afterlife, He could have quoted them Daniel 12:2 “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” He could have quoted them Isaiah 26:19 “Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.” These verses as well prove the existence of resurrection and eternal life after death, but more than likely Jesus quoted the passage from Exodus with it being a book of Moses, as they had quoted to Him, Moses from Deuteronomy 25:5.
Now in this encounter, Jesus answered their attacking question with grace and truth, using scripture to prove they were incorrect in their assumptions. And what I want to point out to you today is that if we’re not careful, we can fall into the same line of thinking as these Sadducees. You might say, “no, not a chance, I believe Heaven is real and have never doubted, nor never will.” But that’s not the line of thinking I am referring to. The Sadducees line of thinking here is more general, it’s taking on a spiritual perspective by looking through earthly glasses. This is how we often err as did the Sadducees. Some might say to err is human, but to arrrgh is pirate, to which I couldn’t agree more wholeheartedly, but don’t humanly err on this! Often, we make the mistake of pouring in so much into our earthly identities, as mothers, fathers, grandparents, spouses—we pour so much into our career paths, hobbies, interests- and yet we forget to pour so much into the identity we have in Christ, that will remain forever. Jesus basically said to these Sadducees, “there is an afterlife- God is the God of the living not of the dead- and in that afterlife things will function radically different than they function here on earth.” The identities and functions of the Sadducees would fade away, and what would remain would be a new realm filled with those who clinged to an identity in Christ.
The identity we hold in this temporal life will pass, and our true identity will remain. The logistics of husbands and wives will fade away, the logistics of parenting, functioning in a career, pursuing earthly pleasures, will one day fade away. It doesn’t mean they are meaningless here- no- the responsibility of wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, workers, are to be taken very seriously, but not void of taking very seriously the reality that these systems are temporal in nature. Even the gifts of pleasures and hobbies have eternal value, though they are temporary pursuits, if we function in them within our true identity in Christ.
You’ve probably heard about couples who really struggled in their relationship after their kids were raised and out of the home. Over the years, through focusing on the kids and all their activities and milestones, somehow along the way the couple drifted apart and lost certain connections with each other. And then all of a sudden, the kids are gone, and a sense of purpose is felt as lost. And the Mother doesn’t know what to do now that she isn’t mothering as much, and the father is saying- “who is this woman I’m married to?” This is the kind of situation that I don’t want you as believers to experience when all that you know of this life is gone. When you can no longer pursue all that you have always pursued, when you no longer are able to function in the identity that you for so long functioned in, and when one day you walk through death’s door and wake up into an eternal reality- I don’t want any of us to be there thinking- “I guess I should have cultivated my spiritual identity a little more…” I don’t want us to get used to wearing a mask at the right time, walking down the grocery store aisle the right way, standing 6 feet from others, doing all the things we have to do in order to remain healthy in this temporal life, and along the way somehow neglect doing the things that will make us healthy in the eternal life to come.
Church, I encourage you to step back from life for a moment, and look at the heart and character issues needing attention that perhaps only you and God see. Perhaps now might even be a time to repent of spiritual apathy, and renew your heart before the Lord. Seek to understand and apply His scriptures, and seek to rightfully understand His power as your Creator, God, and King. I love you church- hope to see you soon!