SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 22:15-33
The Pharisees continue to try to trip Jesus up with words. They ask him if it is right to pay taxes to Caesar. Of course, Jesus knows they are trying to trip him up. Instead, he asks for a denarius. On the denarius is a portrait of Caesar, so Jesus said give to Caesar what is his and give to God what is His.
Next, the Sadducees try to trip up Jesus. They ask him that at the resurrection, whose wife will a woman be who married all of the brothers because it was their duty to marry her. The Sadducees believe there is no resurrection. Jesus said at the resurrection there is no marriage. They will be like angels in heaven and be living.
BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 23, Day 2: Matthew 22:15-33
3) The Pharisees continue to try to trip Jesus up with words. They ask him if it is right to pay taxes to Caesar. They think that if Jesus answers to pay the taxes, he will alienate many Jews. If he advocates to not pay taxes, he could go to jail for breaking Roman law.
4a) Jesus knows they are trying to trip him up, so he won’t satisfy them.
b) We must submit ourselves to governing authorities, so we must pay taxes since they are our elected officials chosen by God. To God, we owe our lives, but more than that, our service and our love.
5a) The Sadducees ask Jesus that at the resurrection, whose wife will a woman be who married all of the brothers because it was their duty to marry her.
b) They don’t know the Scriptures or the Power of God. At the resurrection, we will all be living and marriage won’t exist.
6) It reveals how Jesus knows our hearts and intentions and talks about the deeper issues. He knows the Pharisees and the Sadducees are trying to trip him up, so he responds appropriately. I was not really surprised or amazed. Jesus is all-knowing, so his actions make sense to me.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 23, Day 2: Matthew 22:15-33
You can tell the Pharisees and the Sadducees don’t understand who Jesus is; if they did, they would know he wouldn’t fall into their trap. Jesus gives them many opportunities to repent. They do not.
End Notes BSF Study Questions Matthew Lesson 23, Day 2: Matthew 22:15-33
You know it’s serious when the Pharisees are working together with the Herodians (most likely pagan Romans).
Note they compliment Jesus first, hoping to take his guard down.
They think that if Jesus answers to pay the taxes, Jesus could be accused of denying God’s sovereignty. If he advocates to not pay taxes, he would be an enemy of Rome.
There were many taxes in Judea imposed by Rome. This scene is referring to the poll tax, which is a denarius a year that everyone has to pay.
Jesus shows he is in control. God is superior over all, but government handles local and national affairs.
Fear God. Honor the king. (1 Peter 2:17)
Christians have the image of God stamped on them. We belong to God, so we are to give ourselves to Him. We belong to Him. Jesus makes it clear that there is a separation between church and state here.
The Sadducees
The Sadducees were a small group of wealthy, aristocratic elite who only believed in the first five books of Moses and even then they picked and choose what to believe in. They were more politial than religious, and with the demise of the temple in 70 AD, they disappeared as a political party. They are only mentioned by name in the New Testament about a dozen times, but when chief priests are mentioned, this referred to them, too.
The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection, as the ridiculousness of this question shows. While the premise is true that if a married man died childless, it fell to his brother to marry the widow Deuteronomy 25:5-10, which is known as levirate marriage. Levir is a Latin word meaning “brother-in-law.”
These highly learned men did not know the Scriptures or the Power of God. God can raise people from the dead, and as Paul says, you can have Biblical knowledge, but not understand the Bible. (2 Timothy 1:13).
Jesus tells them that life in resurrection is now what we know life on earth. Jesus says angels are in heaven, meaning they are real, which the Sadducees do not believe.
In the Bible, angles are always male. (Genesis 18:2, 16; Genesis 19:1-11)
Jesus uses the patriarches of the Old Testament since that is the only part of the Bible that the Sadducees believed in. Jesus quotes God as saying, “I am,” not “I was.” This shows they are still living and God is the God of the living.