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A Day of Debates – Matt. 22
A Day of Debates – Matt. 22
Jesus' life was filled with controversy about religion. He did NOT accept all beliefs and all teachings. He did NOT hold the idea that whatever one believed was ‘truth to that one’. In deciding questions about religion, He constantly held to one source to discern the truth: the Word of God.
He has been under fire from the religious leaders during most of his 3 years of preaching. He now enters into their home-field. He is received by the people as the King of Israel, the promised son of David. He challenges the very authority of the leaders by cleansing the temple of things that THEY had ‘authorized’. He must be silenced (they said in their hearts). They must find a way of discrediting his teaching. So, in public they challenge him with what they held to be the most difficult questions of the day.
The Pharisees join with the Herodians to ask about paying taxes to the Roman emperor. The Sadducees ask about life in the resurrection. The lawyer asks about which is the greatest commandment. These were indeed the religious questions that were being debated by these very groups at that time.
Jesus answered each one. He did not equivocate or dodge. His answers were plain, strait forward, and easily understandable. What I find fascinating is the nature of his answers.
The first answer is based upon simple logic. It is the Emperor’s money; he can demand what ever conditions of use that he wants.
With the question of the resurrection He goes to the heart of the problem of the Sadducees. It wasn’t their question, but the foundation upon which their question was based. It was their attitude toward the authority of the scriptures that was wrong. “You know neither the scriptures…”. A wrong view of the scriptures brings about a wrong view concerning God for they also did not know the power of God. Hence His stinging question: “have you not read what was said to you by God?”. When one reads the scriptures that Moses gave (cp. vs. 24), it is reading what God said. If God said it, they should believe it. The fact that they did NOT believe it led to their question.
Likewise, when asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus simply quotes from the law and makes the application. Then, in the same vein of thought Jesus asks them a question concerning the scriptures. He quotes the Psalm of David, BUT He states that David said this BY THE SPIRIT.
How one approaches the reading of the Scriptures has more to do with their religious questions than the questions themselves. It is that which is spoken by the Spirit. It is what God says to His people. It is the word of God that people are to not only read and understand, but to live by.
While we have a new covenant, it is the same God that has revealed his word unto us by His Spirit (Eph. 3:3-5). We are to read (Eph. 3:4; Col. 4:16; 1 Thess. 5:27; 1 Tim. 4:13; Rev. 1:3), understand (Eph. 5:17; Mark 7:14; 2Cor. 1:13-14; Col. 1:9) and do (Matt. 7:21-26; 12:50; John 14:15, 21; 1 John 2:3-4). That attitude would answer a lot of current religious questions.
Hugh DeLong
