WWUTT 2217 Jesus Challenged on Taxes and the Resurrection (Mark 12:13-27)

Jesus Is Challenged by the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees

Jesus is challenged by the Pharisees and the Herodians, and then later by the Sadducees, and the answers that he gives directs us to live lives of holiness and look forward to the day of eternity when we understand the text.

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Hey, once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel of Mark, still in chapter 12 today, and we come to a section where Jesus is going to be challenged by a series of questions as he is teaching in the temple.

Let's look at the first couple. So I'm gonna begin reading in verse 13, and we'll go through verse 27 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Then they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to him in order to trap him in a statement.

And they came and said to him, teacher, we know that you are truthful and defer to no one for you are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a tax to Caesar or not?

Shall we pay or shall we not pay? But he, knowing their hypocrisy said to them, why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at. And they brought one and he said to them, whose likeness and inscription is this?

And they said to him, Caesar's. And Jesus said to them, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God, the things that are God's. And they were amazed at him. Then some Sadducees who say that there is no resurrection came to Jesus and began questioning him saying, teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves behind a wife and leaves no child, his brother should marry the wife and raise up a seed for his brother.

There were seven brothers and the first married a wife and died leaving no seed. And the second one married her and died leaving behind no seed. And the third likewise. And so all seven left no seed. Last of all, the woman died also.

In the resurrection when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For all seven had married her. Jesus said to them, is this not the reason you are mistaken that you do not understand the scriptures nor the power of God?

For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But regarding the fact that the dead are raised, have you not read in the book of Moses in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him saying, I am 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. You are greatly mistaken. Now, the next question that comes after this, there will be one more where a lawyer will challenge Jesus asking him what is the greatest commandment.

But we see these first two questions that we're examining here, first from the Pharisees and the Herodians and then secondly from the Sadducees. Now the Pharisees and the Herodians, when they are asking Jesus this question, they want him to say that you don't have to pay taxes to Caesar.

That's what they're hoping for anyway, because then the Romans are gonna get mad at him and then the Romans will arrest him and that will take care of our Jesus problem. That's what it is that they are expecting.

The Sadducees, likewise, they're wanting to ask Jesus a question that will discredit him before the crowd. The Pharisees have already tried to discredit Jesus before the crowd, that didn't go in their favor.

They're trying something else, hopefully something that will get him arrested. The Sadducees are still trying to discredit Jesus as a teacher of the law. So that's what you see in these two questions here.

First of all, with the Pharisees and the Herodians, now a reminder once again, the Herodians were of the house of Herod. They had much to gain from the relationship that the Jews had with the Romans because the Herods had their power thanks to the Roman occupation.

They weren't interested in giving up their power. And here's Jesus, which the people are proclaiming as a King. Remember just a couple of days before, Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey to the shouts of, blessed is he who come, the seed of David.

He is the offspring of David. He is the one that is going to assume David's throne. So the Herodians have a great interest here in making sure that Jesus does not accomplish what the people hope that he does.

So the Pharisees and the Herodians team up with one another. Now, otherwise they don't get along. The Pharisees and the Herods don't care for each other. The Herods are not even Jewish. Yes, they occupy the palace there in Jerusalem, but they were by descendancy Edomites.

They were of Esau's seed, not Jacob's seed. So they were kin, but they weren't Israelites. And there was a great division between the Jews and the Edomites after the Babylonian exile. And there was never a reconciliation between the two of them because the Edomites betrayed the Jews into the Babylonian captivity.

Here in this particular case, they have a common enemy. They hate Jesus more than they hate each other. So the Pharisees and the Herodians team up in order to trap him in a statement. And this is quite the conspiracy, because as I said, once again, they're hoping that Jesus' answer is gonna get him in trouble with the Romans.

Here would be Jesus trying to stir up an insurrection, telling the people that they don't have to pay taxes to Caesar. Now, if it happens that Jesus does say you have to pay taxes to Caesar, well, then they get the bonus effect of the people being incensed at Jesus, because if Jesus is indeed our emancipator, he's supposed to free us from the occupation of Rome.

But if he says we're supposed to pay taxes to Caesar, then maybe he's not the guy that's going to free us. And they won't be so interested in him after all. So however Jesus answers this question, they're hoping it's gonna come out their way.

But of course, you know how this goes. So they come to Jesus and they say to him, teacher, we know that you are truthful. You defer to no one, but you are not partial to any. You teach the way of God in truth.

They're just buttering him up here. They don't really think this about Jesus. But as Proverbs 29, five says, a man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. So they're flattering Jesus and hoping that, you know, they're gonna soften him here to listen to the question that they have to share.

And it may also be in view of the people that they don't mean any ill toward Jesus. They're just curious, just asking a question. We're totally not trying to get him in trouble or anything. So is it lawful to pay a tax to Caesar or not?

Shall we pay or shall we not pay? But Jesus, knowing their hypocrisy, knowing their hearts, knowing that their intentions are only for evil, he says to them, why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at it.

And of course, you know, a denarius being a Roman coin. This was not a Hebrew currency. It was a Roman currency, but the Hebrews used it because of the Roman occupation. And so just as Jesus had previously turned over the tables of the money changers and those who were selling sacrifices in the temple, when he came and cleansed the temple on Monday or that second day of the week, the day right after the triumphal entry, Jesus was overturning the tables of money changers where they would have exchanged Hebrew currency for Roman currency, or there could have even been foreigners that came from other lands that here during this time of Passover, they're coming into the temple to sacrifice.

And maybe if they come from a far off place into Jerusalem for the sacrifice, then they've got foreign currency. So there would be an exchange of money that would happen here. Now with the money changers in the temple, they're going to overcharge you for the money exchange because they want a little bit extra.

It's not a direct exchange. It's not just straight $1 equals $1 or something like that. It's more like you got to pay $1 .50 of this currency in order to receive $1 of the other currency. So they're making themselves rich off of this, but nonetheless, anyway, all that aside, I didn't really explain that when we did the Jesus cleansing the temple, but they would have had Roman currency with them.

It would have been exchanged there in the temple. So here they bring Jesus a Roman coin. And he said to them, whose likeness and inscription is this? And they said to him, Caesar's. And so Jesus said to them, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God, the things that are God's.

Now notice here, Jesus did not say pay taxes. He didn't say, don't pay your taxes. He said, render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, which of course has the effect of pay your taxes because they belong to Caesar.

They don't belong to you anyway. This coin belongs to Caesar, it's his likeness. So therefore pay your taxes to Caesar. But then the next part is really the more astonishing statement when you think about it.

For Jesus to say, render to God the things that are God's. See the unspoken question here would have been whose inscription and likeness are on you? And we know that we are made in the likeness of God according to what is said in Genesis 1 .27.

Also in Genesis chapter nine and in first Corinthians chapter, is it 11? There's other places in scripture where it says that we have been made in the image of God. So if God's image and likeness are on you, if his inscription is on you, what are you to do?

You are to render yourself unto the Lord. Romans 12 .1, in view of God's mercies, present your bodies as living sacrifices unto the Lord, holy and acceptable to him. This is your spiritual act of worship.

Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Render to God what belongs to God. That's the first challenge that comes from the Pharisees and the Herodians. The second one comes from the Sadducees. Now we've covered this one before.

This was also in Matthew when we were looking at the Sadducees challenge there. I think I probably said this joke there, but I'm gonna say it again. It says some Sadducees who say that there is no resurrection came to Jesus and began questioning him because they don't believe in the resurrection.

They were sad, you see. I first heard that joke from Erwin Lutzer, who used to be the pastor of Moody Church, and he had the Moody Church Hour on Sunday morning. When I was a young sprout and I was traveling around in Southwest Kansas, the Texas and Oklahoma panhandle, on Sunday mornings I'd be traveling to a different church and I would preach in a different church on Sunday.

Well, the Moody Church Hour would be on the air. So just about every single Sunday as I am going to another church to preach, I would listen to Erwin Lutzer just about every Sunday, or at least 30 Sundays of the year that I would be on the road.

And then even then,.

If I was attending my own church in my hometown, I'd still probably catch part of the Moody Church Hour on the way to church in the morning. So I heard that joke from Erwin Lutzer. There's probably many others who have repeated it, but that's where I got it from.

Yeah, they didn't believe in the resurrection, so they were sad, you see. Verse 19, teacher Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves behind a wife and leaves no child, his brother should marry the wife and raise up a seed for his brother.

Now this of course is the law of leveret marriage, which we read about in Deuteronomy 25. Now leveret marriage is the word for this just because it has L-E-V-I and then T-E at the end doesn't mean Levite.

It doesn't mean that this is a Levitical law or that it was something that was particular to the Levitical priesthood. That's not where the term leveret comes from. It's from the Latin word lever, meaning husband's brother.

So the leveret marriage law in Deuteronomy 25 was with regard to a brother who dies and he doesn't have seed left to his name. So what he possesses is not passed on to his oldest biological child, biological son, most likely.

And so therefore, if he doesn't have an heir, if he doesn't have a son, then the obligation is for his next younger brother to marry the widow and then their first child will be the child to the dead brother.

So whatever had belonged to the dead brother now passes on to that first child and his name is able to continue in Israel. And then that younger brother who has married the widow, they can continue to have offspring and then the next child born would be considered his oldest.

So that's the law of leveret marriage there as we have in Deuteronomy 25. So the Sadducees are kind of trying to create this puzzle for Jesus using that particular law. And what they're attempting to disprove is the resurrection of the dead.

You take out the resurrection of the dead and you're taking out the promise of Jesus' entire earthly ministry, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, that all who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Jesus has been preaching that about the kingdom, that we will live forever in his kingdom, that though the body dies, it will live again forever in the imperishable kingdom of God. The Sadducees are attempting to discredit that here.

They'll take away Jesus' entire ministry message if they can accomplish that and thus rendering him impotent as a teacher and they will continue to keep their prestige. So they mention what is written in Deuteronomy 25 and then in verse 20, there were seven brothers.

So after mentioning the law, the lever at marriage law, here they give the scenario. There were seven brothers, seven brides for seven brothers. No, not quite that. It's not the musical. This is just the picture that the Sadducees are trying to create here.

Seven, of course, is the number of completion. I don't know if they're picking that number for that reason or if it was a common, holy Hebrew number, so that's why they chose it or that's just what they decided to go with was the number seven.

Nonetheless, anyway, there were seven brothers and the first married a wife and died, leaving no seed. And the second one married her, died, leaving no seed. Third, likewise, and so all seven left no seed.

Last of all, the woman dies also. Now, this is an incredibly unlikely scenario that seven brothers would marry the same woman. If even that happened, that would be unlikely, let alone that seven brothers would marry the same woman and not one of them would have a child.

The only possibility for that would be if the woman is barren. There's no way for her to have a child, but it just seems very unlikely that seven brothers end up marrying the same woman. This may have happened.

It could be a once or twice in a lifetime sort of a thing. Very, very rare, but maybe it does happen somewhere, once every hundred years or something like that in the nation of Israel. Maybe the Sadducees are recalling something that really happened, or maybe they're just making this up.

Nonetheless, the question is posed. In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For all seven had married her. If there's a resurrection of the dead, she's gotta be somebody's wife.

Is she gonna be the wife of all seven? How weird is that gonna be, Jesus? Everybody's gonna be weirded out by that. And you'll probably even have some men that will not wanna follow the law because they don't want in the afterlife to have to share a wife with somebody else.

This might be quite a turnoff to a lot of people to be hearing this, if the resurrection is indeed the way that the Sadducees are arguing about it. But we know that's not how this goes. For Jesus says to them, is this not the reason you are mistaken that you do not understand the scriptures nor the power of God?

Oh, what a punch. You don't know the scriptures. You don't even understand the power of God. For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

Now, angels are not married and giving in marriage. And I also wanna add to this, something that I had mentioned in another what video about the Nephilim, angels don't procreate. It seems highly unlikely that an angel even has this ability and contains DNA enough to be able to mate with human women and then come up with superhuman children.

That's a typical translation of Genesis chapter six, where we read about the Nephilim who were on the earth in those days, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man and they bore children to them.

It's unlikely that an angel takes a human form and has seed with which he can therefore impregnate a woman. And this is a function of marriage to be fruitful and multiply. It's what God tells Adam and Eve to do.

A man and a woman get married and sure there's intimacy and romance that exists between the husband and wife, at least you would expect there to be. And then the fruitfulness of that romance is gonna be children.

They're going to have offspring. God has joined them together, the man and the woman that they would be fruitful and multiply. Not every marriage results in that, but that is why God created marriage so that there would be children that are born unto the Lord.

God didn't create marriage just for a man to have a companion, although there certainly is that, but even that the human race would be able to continue. So again, since that is a purpose of marriage to procreate and the angels are not given in marriage, then what reason are they given an ability to be able to procreate?

They don't have it. And so as Jesus says here, they will be like angels in heaven. It is to say there's not gonna be any marriage or procreation in heaven. So then verse 26, but regarding the fact that the dead are raised, have you not read in the book of Moses in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him saying, I am 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. You are greatly mistaken. Now, Mark doesn't add it here, but of course we read in Matthew that the people are greatly astonished at this answer that Jesus has given.

There are some that will say that there is no reference to the resurrection of the dead or the afterlife in the old Testament, but it's simply not true. Jesus is saying, going back to even the law, even the exchange that Moses has with God at the burning bush for God to say, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

He doesn't say I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but I am. They are still alive and they were with the Lord in glory. And so from the law itself, we can understand that God does indeed promise life.

After death.

And that life is guaranteed to us in Jesus Christ, our savior, who himself rises from the dead, conquering the grave so that all who believe in him, our sins are forgiven, and we have everlasting life with God forever in glory.

So we have these two challenges here, one from the Pharisees and Herodians, the other from the Sadducees. But what we take from this is an understanding that we are to render to God what belongs to God.

And that means you. You have been bought with a price as said in 1 Corinthians 6. So honor God with your body. Pursue holiness until that day when you will be with God forever in glory. The next lesson, as Jesus responds to the Sadducees, we continue rendering ourselves unto God until we will be with him forever in his eternal kingdom.

Amen.

Prayer and Closing Exhortation

Heavenly father, we thank you for what we have read here. Good reminders that we are to live in holiness and we are to look forward to that day when we will be with our risen king forever, celebrating him around his glorious throne in his imperishable, perfect kingdom.

Haste the day, Lord, that we may be with you forever, that we may shed off this mortal coil and be out of this world and all the chaos around it, the sin that afflicts us sometimes, the temptations, we'll be away from it.

We'll be with God forever. We'll receive our incorruptible bodies. And so we will live forever with God. Draw our eyes to you and our thoughts heavenward this day. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.

Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt .com and click on the give tab in the top right corner of the page.

Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.