Matthew 22:15–46
Jesus gave 4 examples of how to put God first.
The religious leaders did not want people to be Jesus’ disciples. They wanted to stop them. Jesus’ parables made the leaders even more sure that they must stop them (Matthew 22:15). Again, the leaders asked Jesus a question that was unfair. (Compare Matthew 21:23–27.) The Romans were the people who ruled the Jews at that time. The Romans did not know the real God. Some Jews thought that it was wrong to pay any taxes to the Romans. It could be dangerous for Jesus if he agreed with these Jews. But he might say that it was right to pay taxes to the Romans. Then the Jewish people probably would not like this. And he would not be so popular with them.
Note: There is more about the Romans in the Word List.
Jesus gave a very clever answer. There is God and there are the political leaders. Both are responsible for different matters. So, it is not a matter of choosing one or the other. Jesus said that people must give the right honour to each of them.
Christians today have hard situations. It can be difficult to obey Jesus’ teaching. But the principles that Jesus taught are clear. Later, the apostles emphasised them too. (Note: Read More Explanation for Matthew 10:1–4.) Now read Romans 13:1–2. There, Paul taught that we must obey the authorities of the state. Then he emphasised that Christians must be good citizens. (Read Romans 13:6–7.) Paul also encouraged Christians to pray for political leaders. (Read 1 Timothy 2:1–2.)
Sometimes people make the Bible mean what they want it to mean (Matthew 22:23–33).
There were different religious ideas in the time of Jesus. The Pharisees had their ideas. They asked Jesus a question in the previous section. But it was really an unfair question. In these verses, the Sadducees asked Jesus a question. But it was an unfair question too. The Sadducees often argued with the Pharisees about this matter. So they tried to make Jesus agree with them. But they just wanted to cause trouble for Jesus.
The Pharisees believed that a person’s dead body would come back to life. This would happen on the ‘last day’. But the Sadducees refused to believe that. This was because they did not find it in the books of Moses. (These were the first 5 books of the OT.) They used Deuteronomy 25:5–6 and Genesis 38:8 for their question. They did not want to know the truth. They just wanted Jesus to look foolish.
But Jesus repeated from one of those 5 books of Moses. The truth that they denied was there too. Jesus referred to Exodus 3:6. The Lord is the living God. His goodness to men does not end when they die. God had promised good things to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So, Jesus was saying that there must be life after death. Only then could these three men share in those good things.
In OT times, God dealt with the whole of a person. It was not just a person’s body. It was not just a person’s mind. So, God’s promises were for the body too. This meant that when a person died, it was not the end. His or her body would come back to life. (But note something here. The Pharisees believed that the dead body, as it was, would return to life. Jesus did not believe that.)
The Sadducees read the Bible. But they did not ‘think God’s thoughts’ about it. They had not listened to what God’s word actually meant. They kept their own opinions when they read the Bible. They did not have a right understanding of God either. (Read Matthew 22:29b-30.) This was part of their problem.
The Sadducees should have believed that God was really God. Then, it would have been easy to believe that he could make dead people live. They were able to think about the future. But it was only as it related to their present experience. But they should have believed that God is really God.
We can understand the Sadducees in one way. Then, nobody had come back to life and never died again. But we cannot have that same excuse. Jesus came back to life very many years ago. And he is still alive today. The evidence is very strong. But people still refuse to believe the truth.
Love God and love your neighbour (Matthew 22:34–40).
In this passage, Jesus answered a most important question. It is: ‘How can I please God?’ The Pharisees often discussed this question. The OT records 613 different laws. (248 laws encouraged people to do certain things. 365 laws were against certain other actions.) There were so many laws from which to choose. It was hard to know which were the most important laws.
At first, it seemed that Jesus thought the same as most of the Pharisees. (Compare Luke 10:25–27.) But this cannot be true. The words of Matthew 22:40 show the difference. In Matthew 22:37–39, Jesus explained the importance of the two commands. All the OT laws come from these two laws. The teachings of the prophets come from them too.
We can explain what Jesus meant in this way. The Pharisees thought that the laws were like many different bricks. Each brick (law) was separate. They did not relate to each other most of the time. But they thought that two bricks were larger than the other bricks (laws). These were the laws that are in Matthew 22:37–39. The Pharisees felt that they could gain credit with God. They did this by obeying all the laws. But especially they obeyed the two great commands that were the most important ones.
But Jesus did not think like the Pharisees. The two great commands were like the substance that stuck the bricks together. The two great commands made all the laws into something like a wall. Without that substance, the bricks were just a pile that had no use. So the two great commands set the standard. All the other commands came from them. Both the great commands were part of each other too. Love for God will show itself in love for other people. And real love for other people comes from real love for God.
God had promised to send the Messiah. The Jews believed that he would be David’s son. This belief came from two passages in the OT. They are Isaiah 11:1, 10 and Jeremiah 23:5. (Jesse was David’s father.) There is much about the Messiah in the OT. But the religious leaders failed to look at all the teaching. They had a book called ‘The Psalms of Solomon’. It was one of their most famous books. It showed what they thought about the Messiah. They thought that he would just be a national hero.
Jesus tried to teach them more from the OT. He spoke about Psalm 110:1. This verse refers to Messiah as more than just David’s son. The Messiah is David’s Lord and God. Jesus had already offended the Jews by his claims. In this passage, Jesus referred to their OT. The claims that Jesus made for himself were the same as for the Messiah in the OT. And if Jesus was David’s Lord, then he was their Lord too. So they ought to give honour to him.
Perhaps we cannot understand why Jesus spoke in this way. The religious leaders were against Jesus more and more. The previous two chapters of Matthew’s book showed this. Love for God and love for other people were vital. Jesus had emphasised this. (Read Matthew 22:34–40.) In this section, Jesus showed an example of that love. He offered something to those who opposed him. He offered knowledge of himself to them. This could make it possible for them to become his friends. This was what Jesus wanted.
After this time, Jesus spoke only to the crowds and to his disciples. Soon, the religious leaders would leave. They would make plans to kill Jesus. He knew all about this. But, first, Jesus appealed to them in a loving way for the last time. He did not use force. He was gentle. He just wanted to lead them to the truth about himself. But the religious leaders did not want to know the truth. This was very sad. In Matthew 26, they were sure that they must kill him.
Questions
- I have not seen God. So how can I love him? I love other people. Is that the same as love for God? Can we separate these two loves? If we can, how can we do it?
- What is the value in having a church that the state supports? Read Matthew 22:15–22. Does Jesus’ teaching help us to decide the answer to that question?
- Some people say that they love other people. They think that this is enough. But they leave out part of the verse. The part speaks about love for God too. So, they are making the Bible mean what they want it to mean. Can you think of any other verses that people use in this way? First, make a list of your own favourite verses from the Bible. Is your own understanding of them correct?