Wednesday, April 1, 2020
That same day Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. They posed this question: “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name.’ Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children, so his brother married the widow. But the second brother also died, and the third brother married her. This continued with all seven of them. Last of all, the woman also died. So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.” Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven. “But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead—haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead.” When the crowds heard him, they were astounded at his teaching. Matthew 22:23-33
Frankly, if I
were one of the husbands in this scenario, and lasted past the first couple of
rounds, I think I might have been tempted to enter witness protection and move
to the remotest part of the world I could find.
When the line of succession keeps dropping like flies you don’t hang
around to watch the show! The Sadducees
were not unlearned, but they were, for all their power and position, fools;
they were a perfect portrait of an April Fool’s Day joke gone bad.
Jesus told
the Sadducees their argument was non sequitur; their logic was disconnected
from truth, and they hadn’t really understood the Scripture, which was vital for
governance among God’s people. On top of
that – and worse – they hadn’t considered the power of God; they were too
steeped in keeping their places of human power.
Jesus didn’t
just insult the Sadducees and walk away.
Using Holy Scripture, which the Sadducees had been charged to live-by, he
opened their minds to the reality of eternity.
He showed them that marriage on earth, as sacred as it is, but
foreshadows relationship in Heaven. The I
Am of eternity, Almighty God, the always living One,
transcends all, especially the childhood playground of earthly wisdom. Jesus was teaching the Sadducees to forsake
their little rules-keeping mindset and give way to the power of God to lift
them over the horizon of spiritual blindness.
That Jesus
did this in front of the crowds of onlookers may have seemed like an insult to
the proud Sadducees. However, it was (if
they’d been at all humble), a teachable moment with eternal blessing in the offering. But the Sadducees hadn’t come to Jesus with honest
hearts – their intent was to trap him into making a foolish statement; they
came with a lawyer’s trick question. In
the end it was the April Fool’s turn of all time. The powerful Sadducees had strutted up to
this upstart rabbi to discredit and humiliate him in public. But it was they who walked away humiliated,
defeated, and nothing but shame to show for it.
They’d come to Jesus looking to show him up for the charlatan they
believed him to be, but they became the show.
April Fool!
For You Today
Coming to
Jesus with a proud heart can be as dangerous as being husband #5 or #6 in a
Sadducees’ power-play. You can wind up a
fool seven times over. That, in Biblical
thought, is perfection in foolishness.
