Day 53: March 20

SCRIPTURE
Matthew 22: 23-46

SCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT
OBSERVATIONS
The Triumphal Entry has taken place. Jesus has been in the Temple in Jerusalem teaching and healing people. The Sadducees and the Pharisees are doing their best to test Jesus with their questions. The first question is a hypothetical situation with a woman consecutively married to seven brothers who all die, leaving her childless. Who is her husband? I’m guessing they’re ready to shoot him down with some sort of proof that resurrection doesn’t even exist.

Jesus brushes off the Sadducees’ story by announcing that they don’t understand the scriptures or God’s power. God has the power to raise the dead. He is the God of the living, the giver of life. In some way, some sense, Jesus considers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to be still living even though they have died. The scripture speaks of them in present tense, not the past. In addition, resurrected people won’t be married to each other. Relationships between people will be different in the coming Kingdom.

The crowds are “astonished at his teaching.” No one has ever heard anything like this before. Jesus has the authority and power to stun the Sadducees into silence.

Next, the religious and legal experts team up to test Jesus. They’re sure they can beat this so-called prophet from Galilee with the ultimate question: What’s the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus’ answer makes it look easy. Love God. Love people. All the Law is summed up in these two commands.

Jesus turns the tables and asks his own question. Who is the father of the Messiah? Why does David call his future son “Lord/Master” as though he is greater than Israel’s greatest king? How can a man’s son be equal to God himself? It’s a shocking question. Jesus is saying the Messiah is the son of God himself. Yet no one dares answer or argue. The proof is right in David’s words.

The carpenter prophet has silenced the lawyers and scholars. There is a profound sense now that they recognize Jesus as different from anyone they’ve ever met. And they have been publicly humiliated by this strange and powerful man who is effectively claiming divinity. The tension is growing.

APPLICATION
I can’t help but think of Job, the man who suffers and loses so much, and his bold proclamation of faith in God and the coming resurrection:All will not be lost to our last, fierce enemy, Death. God himself gathers up his people, redeems them, and gives them life after death, in real bodies with real eyes to see our magnificent and holy God. I’m pretty sure none of us will be thinking about who we were married to at that point.

Jesus has all the words of life and power and authority. Am I listening to him? Do I believe him? Do I really know who he is? Do I keep testing him and questioning him with my fears and doubts? Do I know the scriptures? Do I know God’s power?

PRAYER
Master, I join in prayer along with your servant, Simon Peter, who said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Help me to trust that you are the God of the living and that I will stand before you, on earth, in the flesh, and see you face to face on that glorious and wonderful Day when your Kingdom is fully revealed. Help me to know and understand your words. Help me to know and experience your power to give me life even now in our troubled world. Make me new in my heart and mind. Quiet my fears and questions and worries about the future.