Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Like the Pharisees and Herodians (Mark 12:13-17), the Sadducees try to construct a trap question for Jesus: “Master, Moses wrote unto us, ‘If a man’s brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.’ Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise. And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also. In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? For the seven had her to wife” (verses 19-23). Remember, the Sadducees did not believe in resurrection (verse 18); thus, their question was dishonest. Their premise was built upon the principle of levirate marriage (see Deuteronomy 25:5-10), which ensured that family land, crucial to survival in an agricultural society, remained with the family. These religious leaders took this solicitous law and flippantly created a nonsensical scenario intended to discredit Jesus. They even included the prevailing attitude of other religious leaders that resurrection life was one of carnal excesses (much like the crudities of Islam). In all of this, the Sadducees were revealing their crass and unspiritual approach to religion. Hebrews 12:28 commands, “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” Let us reject the irreverence of the world, and let us keep that attitude out of our churches.