Saturday, July 5, 2014

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Matthew 22:23-40

The scene is the Temple in Jerusalem.  This upstart preacher from the north seats himself in the outer courtyard, where the unclean and the sinners mingle. Large crowds gather as he teaches.  (Matthew records a series of parables in this part of his Gospel.)  On the fringes of the crowd, overhearing it all are the Sadducees – the rich landowners, and the Pharisees – the lawyers tasked with interpreting the law.  They are not happy with Jesus popularity or his ideas – especially his idea of including everyone in God’s unconditional love.  His stories make them look like hard-hearted judgmental reactionaries (which they are).  Their purpose seems to be to control the Church, not open it up to all God’s People.

From time to time, they attempt to humiliate Jesus – test him with questions.  The question in Matthew 22: 23-28 is such a trap.  The Sadducees did not believe in the Resurrection – and they pose an outrageous situation regarding a woman in Heaven who married each of seven brothers in succession.

“Whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

A nasty, insulting question (like ‘when did you stop beating your wife?’) – calculated to expose the weakness in the Resurrection position.  Jesus, like all smart debaters, does not accept the premise of the question.  It’s a trap.  He not only tells them they are “in error” (a huge slap in the face to so-called leaders of the Temple) but he also doubles down by claiming they do not know their scripture either – an even bigger insult – in fact a complete repudiation of who and what they claim to be. Imagine the crowd standing in the outer court of the Temple, watching the rich and powerful being put in their place! And then, he tops his grand slam to these princes of the church by telling them they do not know the power of God.  Game, set and match!  

Stunned, they fall silent and listen as Jesus explains that at the Resurrection, earthly concepts (perhaps like gender and relationship) fall away.  We become like the angels.  Jesus continues to humiliate the Sadducees.  He scolds them for not having listened to scripture.

“‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?
He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

Then, the Pharisees try to trip him up. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Again, these lawyers prod him to pick one law over the other.  By the time of Jesus there were hundreds of laws on the books, evolved from the original Ten Commandments.  And the Pharisees saw it as their job to interpret and enforce them all.  Talk about control freaks!

Rather than ‘pick one’ (the trap), Jesus gives the summary – Love God and love your neighbour.  But in that, note the details.  We are to love God with our Heart, Soul and Mind – all aspects of the human experience.  But he lists Heart first.  He’s speaking to so-called intellectual lawyers who parse the words of law, but have no feeling for people.  He mentions Mind last.  In the middle, he mentions Soul – our spiritual connection to God.  Interesting sequence…!  We are to love and know God the way children come to love and know God.  And we are to love our neighbour AS much as we love ourselves – a much more challenging task than just being friendly or kind or even charitable to others.

The summary answers the Pharisees’ trick question.  And it gives us a wonderful guideline for our lives too.  So, Jesus builds on his Jewish tradition, and opens it up for all at the same time.  And he does this under extreme public questioning by the so-called best and brightest of his Church.

We often think of a loving, compassionate Jesus who would not hurt or humiliate anyone.  In the scenes with the leaders of his own church, he may not lose his temper, but the flaming sword of Truth flashes in every word he utters.  This summer, you can fill the movie theatres with blockbusters about guys in tights with super powers.  Give me Jesus up against his enemies any day.  Now, that’s a hero!

Peter Mansell  June 27^th, 2014