PASSION WEEK – Tuesday

Like I said before, the text doesn’t say, “Jesus taught this on Tuesday,” so this is just a guess. It may have been. I might not.

The scheduled reading for today is John 12. We have already covered all of John 12 that we need to for now, (verses 1-19). You can read the rest if you want, but I’m going to write about verses 20-50 later. Luke 20 makes sense to me to put here. It’s a bit of a bridge between yesterday’s content and tomorrow’s reading. So I’m putting it here.

QUESTIONING JESUS’ AUTHORITY

Jesus has come riding into Jerusalem, hailed as a king. He has driven the sellers out of the Temple. He has healed the blind and the lame in the Temple. And people are gathered around Him to hear Him teach.

The Jewish leaders come to question His authority to do these things. There are 3 groups within the leadership:

• Chief Priests – these would likely include Annas and Caiaphas who shared the role of High Priest, their male relatives, and other members of elite families descended from Aaron. It may also have included the priests who served as temple administrators who oversaw the vast wealth and daily operations of the huge complex.
• Scribes – the scribes were professional scholars of the scriptures. These are the academics who interpret the scriptures but also the commentaries of the rabbis and sages. They also handled temple record-keeping.
• Elders – these would be members of the Sanhedrin, the governing body of Israel established by Moses called “the 70 elders.” The Sanhedrin had members of both the Sadducee (liberal) party and the Pharisee (conservative) party.

This group comes and asks:

“…Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭20‬:‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The authority that the priests and elders had came from God:

“And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and they shall declare to you the decision. Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the Lord will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you. According to the instructions that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left. The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭17‬:‭9‬-‭12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

God was the One who established this authority structure.

Jesus was not a Levitical priest. He was not a Judge. He was not a Levite at all. So, who gave Him the authority to chase people out of the temple and pronounce judgments and moral decisions and tell people how to live?

This is what they want to know.

Now, the obvious answer is that Jesus’ authority came from the Father. And that is Who gave John the Baptist his calling and authority to baptize. John was a Levite and the son of a priest, (Zachariah), so perhaps he got more of a “pass” to teach Israel. But Jesus knows that the Jewish elites did not listen to John. And so He puts them in a corner with one genius question and watches them squirm. They cannot respond to the question about John’s authority without stepping in a hole so they just don’t answer.

The leaders have taken the authority given to them by God and they have abused it. Instead of shepherding the flock, they are getting rich off the flock and interpreting the scriptures in way that keeps the people dependent upon on them. It’s almost cult-like now that I think about it. Don’t question the leaders. They will tell you how to live and how to understand God.

A TRICK QUESTION ABOUT TAXES

The Bible has all the things… Look at this! We have undercover spies infiltrating the group that Jesus is teaching! It’s like some kind of espionage 007 thing. You know how James Bond would sit across a table from some baddie and Bond knows that this guy is trouble but he just sits there all cool and professional; sipping his martini 🍸 (shaken, not stirred). And the spy looks like a normal person. And they have a quiet, polite conversation that is usually loaded with double meaning that only they understand.

One of Jesus’ new “students” opens with flattery then asks a question that – in their current political atmosphere – is the equivalent of a live grenade.

“Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” Luke‬ ‭20‬:‭22‬ ‭ESV‬‬

There is no right answer to this question.

If Jesus says “No” then the Romans will crucify Him for insurrection.

If He says “Yes” then the elders can accuse Him of disloyalty to God, or submitting to pagan Rome and their blasphemous emperor and all the Jewish zealots will want Him dead.

Double-0-Jesus is not ruffled. He knows they’re trying to trap Him. He does NOT have a martini – shaken OR stirred – but with steely eyes, he holds the challenger’s gaze and asks to see a Roman coin. This one:

“Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” “He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭20‬:‭24‬-‭26‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The coin was issued by Caesar and stamped with his image and likeness and name.

Who made you? Whose image and likeness were you made in? Whose name do you bear?

The coin belongs to Caesar.

You belong to God.

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A STUPID QUESTION – UNLESS YOU ARE THE SADDUCEES TRYING TO TRAP JESUS

The Sadducees were the liberal party in Judea. They had developed when the Jews were under Greek-Seleucid rule. Going along with Greek lifestyle and philosophy was, at first, a survival mechanism. But it became a preference. The text tells us that they “deny that there is a resurrection.” But that wasn’t all they denied.

In Acts 23:6-8 Paul gets the Sadducees and Pharisees to turn on each other rather than turn on him. Verse 8 says that the Sadducees not only believed there was no resurrection, they did not believe in angels or spirits. (And that’s why they were sad, you see) They would be very comfortable among a group of modern materialists today.

This group, that does not even believe in a resurrection or angels or spirits, ask Jesus a question about the resurrection.

That’s like an atheist asking, “Is God loving?”

And they concoct this bizarre – and I mean bizarre and statistically impossible, theoretical question about a poor woman who has to be the wife of seven brothers.

Honestly though, y’all… the old movie posters just kill me… the way certain terms were used… very different meanings today.

🤣

And yes, I sing along with ALL the songs in this movie.

Jesus actually answers the Sadducees’ ridiculous question and it gives us some insight into WHY there is no marriage in the future Kingdom and an interesting data point on the future of the redeemed.

“for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭20‬:‭36‬ ‭ESV‬‬

• Resurrected people will have what Paul calls an “imperishable body” that will never grow old or die. Marriage and procreation allow humans to “live on” in a sense through their offspring. There will be no need for immortal people to pass on their genes to keep the human race going.
• Resurrected humans will get a status upgrade. We will be equal to the heavenly sons of God. As Dr. Michael Heiser put it, redeemed humans will replace the rebel sons of God. This may be one of the reasons why the “principalities and powers” of Eph. 6:12 battle so hard against the saints of God. We are about to inherit what they walked away from.

As to the resurrection, God introduced Himself to Moses at the burning bush (Ex. 3:13-16) as both “I Am that I Am” and “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” As in, He IS the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not He WAS. The implication is that Yahweh – the I AM – is STILL the God of Abraham. Now, Abraham has been dead for over 5 centuries by the time of the Exodus, but Yahweh says, He is STILL Abraham’s God. And we know from Jesus’s story of “The Rich Man & Lazarus” that Abraham was very much “alive” and aware and talking to the Rich Man in Sheol. Yahweh is not the “Lord of the Dead” or “God of the Underworld” He is the God of the living. So if He says He is Abraham’s God, then Abraham must still be alive. It’s like Jesus said:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.” John‬ ‭11‬:‭25‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus turns the tables on His questioners with a question of His own.

“How can Messiah be both David’s son and David’s Lord?

I’m guessing the leaders looked a bit like this

Jesus wasn’t intimidated by anything. Ever. At all. He was fearless. And in front of everyone He warns His disciples to steer clear of the religious teachers because they are about to be severely punished. He says it loud enough for everyone to hear.

The elites were not dumb. They were usually able to manipulate and debate people into silence. Not Jesus. They have never encountered anyone like Him before.