Meeting the Sadducees Challenge

INTRO

Many of Jesus’ interactions were with religious leaders. And in most of these interactions, there was some kind of loving tension. As He loved on the sinful and on the tax collectors, for some reason, people got upset. The religious guys were bothered by everything that didn’t fit the norm or didn’t fit into their 613 laws, rules, and regulations.

TEACHING

Luke 20:1–8: The authority of Jesus was challenged by the chief priests and scribes in the temple complex.

Luke 20:9–19: Jesus told a parable about a vineyard owner who sent servants to check on his vineyard. The tenant farmers beat his slaves and killed his son. After telling the parable, Jesus asked, “Then what is the meaning of this Scripture: The stone that the builders rejected - this has become the cornerstone” (v. 17). The religious leaders set out to kill Jesus because they knew the parable was about them. The Son of Man knew God in human flesh needed to come to earth to connect with us to set us free. He even taught that people should not disrespect the local authorities. Jesus wasn’t here to stir the pot and do illegal things. He came to set people free from the bondage that they were in.

Luke 20:27: The Sadducees had rejected the oral traditions the Pharisees obeyed. They based all of their teaching on the first five books of the Law - the Pentateuch. They did not believe in the resurrection, angels, and spirits (Acts 23:8). What did they have to live for? Wiersbe said, “Resurrection is not reconstruction; it is the miraculous granting of a new body that has continuity with the old body but not identity.”¹In Acts 4:1–2, they confronted the disciples for, “proclaiming the resurrection from the dead, using Jesus as the example.” Anytime the resurrection was taught, the Sadducees had an issue with it. In John 12:10–11, the chief priests decided to kill Lazarus because his resurrection was the reason people believed in Jesus. With this challenge to Jesus, they wanted to prove there was no resurrection from the dead.

Luke 20:28–33: The scenario the Sadducees presented to Jesus was based on the custom of Levirate marriage. According to Deuteronomy 25:5–6, when a man died without a son, the widow married his brother to produce a son to carry on the name of the dead brother. Nelson’s Commentary said, “the law was designed to perpetuate the name of the man who died childless.”²In this scenario, the widow married seven brothers, and all seven died, leaving no children. Finally, the woman died. The Sadducees then asked, “In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be?” They wanted to show that a resurrection would lead to weird results.³

Luke 20:34–36: Jesus answered, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are counted worthy to take part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. For they cannot die anymore.” Even if all these people were counted worthy to be part of that age - the future kingdom of God - even if they participated in the resurrection, they would no longer marry. Jesus’ answers revealed the future age would be different from this age. In heaven, we will be so focused on Christ that we won’t need the helpmate mentality.

Luke 20:37–38: In the burning bush encounter, God called Himself: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 3:6). Isaiah prophesied the resurrection: “Your dead will live; their bodies will rise . . . and the earth will bring out the departed spirits” (Isaiah 26:19). Daniel 12:2 said, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, some to shame and eternal contempt.” The resurrection was also described in the New Testament, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven . . . the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive will be caught up” (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17). The resurrection of the dead will take place in that day - in that age. When that takes place, there will be no marriage and no death. Matthew 24:31 says, “He will send out His angels . . . they will gather His elect from the four winds.” In John 5:28, Jesus said, “Do not be amazed . . . all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come out . . . to the resurrection of life . . . [or] judgment.” In John 11:25, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.”

Luke 20:39–40: Why did scribes respond, “Teacher, you have spoken well”? Jesus had just reiterated what the Law and Prophets said. They recognized that Jesus’ answer was right according to their Scriptures, so “they no longer dared to ask Him anything.” Through loving them and listening to them, Jesus discerned what they needed to hear. The Holy Spirit inside Jesus took over the situation and answered them exactly as they needed to be answered. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul showed us how to interact with people. Paul made himself, “a slave to everyone, to win more people. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win Jews” (v. 19–20). What did Jesus do to interact with the scribes and win them to believe in Him? Jesus spoke their language, exactly what they needed to hear. He recited Exodus, Moses, and the burning bush story. Paul became like those “under the law” or “like one without the law” to win people to Christ (v. 20–21). To the weak, Paul became weak (not overbearing), using “every possible means, save some” (v. 22). Jesus and Paul went after the lost sheep. The American church often franchises everything from somewhere else. They may do what others do and implement into their community what worked in other churches, instead of interacting in a way to meet the needs of the people in their area. Jesus engaged the religious people so well that they complemented Him on what He said. Even though they didn’t agree, they came to the same page.

Luke 20:41–44: Jesus didn’t stop there, instead He asked them a question, “How can they say that the Messiah is the Son of David? For David himself says in the book of Psalms: The Lord declared to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand . . . how then can the Messiah be his Son?” Jesus quoted David’s words from Psalm 110:1.

Luke 20:44: “How can the Messiah be his Son?” If David recognized Him as Lord, the Messiah must be his God, the Messiah who is in control. Jesus was identified as the Son of Man. The first phrase identified Jesus as God and the second phrase identified Him as man. Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Man. In Acts 2:32–36, Peter explained that they were witnesses to the fact that God had resurrected Jesus and exalted Him to the right hand of God. Peter concluded, “Let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Master” (v. 36). In Acts 13:22–23, Paul confirmed that God had promised to bring forth Jesus the Savior from David’s descendants. This fulfilled God’s promised to David in 2 Samuel 7:12–14, that His Son would come through David.

CLOSING

Romans 1:3–4 says, “Concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh, and who has been declared to be the powerful Son of God by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness.” The reason the religious had a hard time comprehending the Lord as the Son of Man was because they didn’t believe in the resurrection. Their hearts were hardened and they were blinded to the truth. Jesus warned the disciples to beware these religious leaders because they had this deliberate hypocrisy as a cover-up to fool people with their own truths and their own identities.⁴They didn’t want to point people to the ultimate truth, and “they rejected their own Messiah and voted to crucify him.”⁵Because they never bought into the truth that the Old Testament talked about the resurrection from the dead that would come through the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, they led a nation into ruin in their time. The religious leaders hardened their hearts. Hebrews 3:7–8 warns not to be like them. We must not harden our hearts to the truth—the resurrection and the life of Jesus Christ.