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Luke 20:20-47

Key Verse: 20:37b,38

"...for he calls the Lord 'the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."

Study Questions:

1.    What was the purpose of those who came to question Jesus? Who sent them? How did they flatter Jesus? What did they ask him? Why was this question a trap?

2.    What was Jesus' answer and how did it silence them? What do citizens owe "Caesar"? What do we owe God? (Dt 6:5; Mk 16:15)

3.    How are the Sadducees described and what was the intent of their question? What was the sad story they invented and what was their question? What does this reveal about their thought world and their philosophy of life? (27-33; 1Jn 2:15-17)

4.    What truth did Jesus teach about the difference between this world and hea­ven? What does it mean to be like angels? How does the passage from Exodus (37; Ex 3) reveal that there is no death in the living God?

5.    What question did Jesus ask them to open their spiritual eyes? Who is Je­sus? What warning does he give those who hope only in this world? (41-47)

Luke 20:20-47

Key Verse: 20:37b,38

"...for he calls the Lord 'the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."

Study Questions:

1.    What was the purpose of those who came to question Jesus? Who sent them? How did they flatter Jesus? What did they ask him? Why was this question a trap?

2.    What was Jesus' answer and how did it silence them? What do citizens owe "Caesar"? What do we owe God? (Dt 6:5; Mk 16:15)

3.    How are the Sadducees described and what was the intent of their question? What was the sad story they invented and what was their question? What does this reveal about their thought world and their philosophy of life? (27-33; 1Jn 2:15-17)

4.    What truth did Jesus teach about the difference between this world and hea­ven? What does it mean to be like angels? How does the passage from Exodus (37; Ex 3) reveal that there is no death in the living God?

5.    What question did Jesus ask them to open their spiritual eyes? Who is Je­sus? What warning does he give those who hope only in this world? (41-47)

There are three questions in this passage. The first ques­tion to Jesus was raised by the Jewish leaders about whe­ther the Jews should pay taxes to Caesar or not (20-26). The sec­ond ques­tion to Jesus was from the Saddu­cees about "whose wife will she be" (27-40). The third question was made by Jesus, about how a descen­dant of David, the Christ, could be David's Lord and Christ. Today's passage is as it could be. But through the religious leaders' questions and Jesus' answers we learn several precious spiritual truths.

First, our obligation to Caesar and to God (20-26).

The religious leaders deter­min­ed to trap Jesus so as to hand him over to the authority of the ­Roman governor (20). They sent spies, who pre­tend­ed to be honest. They asked Jesus, "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"

The Jews did not complain about the burden of this tax, for it was less than $5. Nevertheless, taxation was a boiling question among the Jews, and it had been the cause of incessant riot and rebel­lion against the Roman imperialists. At that time, the Jews claim­ed that they had no king but God, and that paying taxes to Caesar was treach­ery to God. So their question to Je­sus could be a trap to Jesus. If Jesus said that this tax should not be paid, the Pharisees would report at once to Pilate so that Jesus would be arrested. If Jesus said that this tax be paid, the frantic Jews would stone him to death.

What could Jesus do in this situation? Look at verses 23-25a. "He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 'Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?' 'Caesar's,' they replied." He said to them in verse 25b, "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." It was indeed their tricky question. But when Jesus an­swered them on the basis of the truth of God, they were un­able to find a basis to trap Jesus in what he had said there in public. And as­tonished by his answer, they became silent (26).

When Jesus said, "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's," he was speaking to them about man's basic obligation as a citizen of a nation, as well as a citizen of the kingdom of God. If a man lives in a country and enjoys all its privi­leges, he must fulfill four basic ob­ligations: the obligation of paying taxes, the obligation of national defense, the obli­ga­tion of performing excellent elementary education, and the obligation of labor. In a time of war, all eligible men in their twenties are obliged to be drafted and go to the front lines of battle and fight against the enemy, and many of them die.

Likewise, we, the children of God, have basic obligations to God. First, we must love God. Deuteronomy 6:5 says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." When we love God, we can love our parents. If we honor God, we can honor our brothers and sisters. Sec­ond, we must stand clearly on the side of God. This world is a battleground be­tween God and Sa­tan. So we, the children of God, must stand on the side of God. We, the children of God, should be the soldiers of Jesus Christ. We must equip our­­selves with the truth of God so that we can defend the gospel of Jesus against the schemes of the devil (Eph 6:11). Third, we must obey Jesus' world mis­­­sion com­mand (Mk 16:15). It is to obey the ultimate purpose of God for world salvation.

Second, "Whose wife will she be?" (27-33)

After the Pharisees' spies left Jesus speechlessly, the Sadducees came to Jesus with a question. At that time, they held the poli­tical power of the Jews. Ironically, they controlled the high priesthood, though they did not believe in the resurrection. They were extremely nervous if someone dis­turbed their wealth and established position in the world. What was worse, they were political collabor­ators with Rome. In order to rule the reli­gious world, they adopted the five books of Moses' Law, but set no stock in the prophetic books, which urged them to repent. They believed in free will.

Their question to Jesus was based on the Law of Moses. For example, when Er, the first son of Judah, died with no heir, Onan his younger brother married Tamar, who had been his older broth­er's wife. When Onan also died, Tamar had to wait for Shelah, the youngest son of Judah, to grow up and become her husband (Ge 38:1-11). Their question was as fol­lows, "'Teach­er,' they said, 'Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died child­less. The second and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?'" (28-33) The Sadducees were the object of aspiration to all the people of the time. But when we analyze their ques­tion, they were trag­ic in their thought world and were under the power of death. It is a very eerie and grotesque story.

In this story, we see the wealthy Sadducees' tragic thought world. In verses 29-32, they talked about the death of seven brothers. All of them died young and childless. This is also a story of a most sorrowful woman, who had married these seven brothers, and then she died too, unable to fulfill her duty of bearing an heir to the family. The Sadducees were only thinking about tragic death--the first brother's death, the second brother's death, and all the seven broth­ers' deaths, and the death of a woman who had watched seven hus­bands' deaths. Their thought world was tragedy because they had no resurrection faith.

The Sadducees' integrity was nothing but greed. The gist of their question was, "At the resurrection, whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?" In other words, "Who among the seven brothers will grab her as his wife?" The picture of this scene is exactly a demons' carnival. The Sadducees had grabbed money; they had scrambled for poli­tical power; they had obtained the places of honor in socie­ty. Even though they had worldly wealth and honor, they were under the power of sin and death because they had no resurrection faith. They were similar to Nicodemus. He had a golden chariot, a sash around his chest as a Sanhedrin member. But he came to Jesus to beg heavenly sunlight. Their agony of life was, "whose wife will she be?" among the seven brothers, because they did not have resurrection faith.

The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, so they had no spiritual eyes to see the kingdom of God. So they saw only the things of the world. They also heard only the things of the world. When they rejected the res­ur­rection of Jesus, they were confined in the things of the world. As we see, the Sadducees had no fear of God in their hearts. The Sadducees had no absolutes of God in their hearts. As a result, they were relativistic. A relativistic mentality made them scatterbrains and the servants of Satan, eager to kill Jesus. Leo Tolstoy wrote so many good humanitarian novels. Among them, "Resur­rection" seems to be the best. But he was too proud to believe in the resur­rection of Je­sus. So, at the moment of his death, he rose from his bed, came out on the street near a rail­road station, and cried out, "Tragedies, trage­dies!"  These days, we see so many Americans are like Sadducees. They say that they are Chris­tians but they don't believe Jesus' resurrection. When they do not believe the resur­rection of Jesus, they become ungodly people. Ungodly people seek phy­sical pleasure such as several days of vacation with their hard-earned money. They not only indulge in the sin of sexual immorality, they also condone their chil­dren to enjoy the sin of sexual immorality. Some people strongly encourage their children to be "normal" persons. It means they must follow the trend of the world. But the sin of sexual immorality brings forth a high divorce rate and many broken-hearted young peo­ple. It also discourages young students not to study diligently but to enjoy phy­si­cal pleasure. As a result, they become like children of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Sad­ducees' tra­gic question re­minds us of 1 John 2:15-17. It says, "Do not love the world or any­thing in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

The Sadducees were tragic because they were spiritually blind, and they could not digest the tragic things of the world with spiritual meaning. On the other hand, those who have spiritual eyes are not tragic, even though they live in the midst of the tragic world. Mil­ton was blinded when he was young. In the midst of his suf­fering, he thought of God. Then God opened his spir­itu­al eyes. As a result, he could write "Paradise Lost," one of the most excellent classics. Paul, who suffered for the sake of Christ more than one can say, said in Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Those who have opened their spir­itual eyes can see the deep meaning of human sufferings and agonies and can grow in the image of God, like Joseph in the Old Testament.

Third, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (34-40)

Jesus knew that the Sadducees had no spiritual eyes to see beyond terrestrial phenomena. With great compassion Jesus taught them a Bible truth. Look at verse 34. "Jesus replied, 'The people of this age marry and are given in marriage.'" Jesus knew what people of the world are mainly eager to do. To mankind, birth, marriage and death are the three main events of life. Most people want to marry from age 12 and live in this world forever. Most women devote a great deal of time to solving their marriage problems. One lady spent 13 years of her life trying to solve her marriage prob­lem and became a mental patient. Since Adam's Fall, women were cursed only to desire a husband day and night. The peo­ple of the world seem to be doing many great things. But they are doing the same things as the people in the time of Noah. They are eating and drinking; they marry and are given in marriage; they are cheat­ing and being cheated. Those who are enslaved by the things of the world cannot see the glorious Risen Christ.

Read verse 35. "But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage..." Through Je­sus' death and resurrection God gave us a new birth into a living hope in the kingdom of God (1Pe 1:3,4). Through Jesus' death and resurrection God gave us the grace of forgiveness, eternal life, and the kingdom of God as our inheritance.  In the kingdom of God, there will be no more marriage problems or broken family problems. There will be no procreation and no death. Those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will be like angels. They will look most beautiful. They will look like Jesus (1Co 15:49). They are happy all the time. Here, Jesus is explaining the spiritual world through resurrection faith.

The Sadducees, however, insisted that they could not be­lieve the res­urrection of the body because there was no precedent for it, still less any proof of it in the books of the Law. But Jesus gave them an answer from the book of Exodus. Look at verses 37,38. "But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord 'the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." This phrase, "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob," is an important Bible truth and is repeated over and over again in the Bible. It is repeated to emphasize that our God is the living God. It is repeated to emphasize that in the living God we are all his children when we believe in the resurrection of Christ Jesus. Amen.

"The God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob" means that man is immortal. "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob" means that God is not only the Father of Abraham, but also the Father of Isaac and of Jacob. It also means that before the living God, the three of them are all alive, even though they died a long time ago. Contrary to what the Sad­ducees thought, death is not the end of everything. We are born to be the immortal children of God through his Son's resurrection.  "The God of Abra­ham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob" means that our God is the God of the living. Hori­zon­tally, God is the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Vertically, God is the God of Abraham and the God of David and the God of Jesus Christ. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. There is no death to those who be­lieve in his Son's resurrection. There is no consuming sorrow in his Son's resurrection. There are no tears in our eyes in his Son's resurrection.

Fourth,  "Whose Son is the Christ?" (41-47)

Look at verse 41. "Then Jesus said to them, 'How is it that they say the Christ is the Son of David?'" If the Messiah was supposed to be a de­scendant of David, how could David call Jesus his Lord and Christ and the Messiah? Jesus' question was logically para­doxical, but spiritual, and it is based on the promise of God. They knew the Bible, so they understood what Jesus was saying. But in their stubbornness they could not believe that Jesus is the Lord and Savior. Jesus rebuk­ed them for their hypocrisy and unbelief, because they do not believe in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ (45-47). We admit that the American Dream itself is good. We see that the people of the former U.S.S.R. and many other nations are eager to pursue the American Dream. But they must study the Bible and come to know the true meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection.

When we believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we will be clothed in the likeness of Jesus Christ, all beautiful and handsome. May God richly bless you to believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ.