Spies
Luke 20:20-40
February 7, 2016
David Feherty is a former professional golfer. He is now an announcer and storyteller. He has many tales about life on the tour.
It was back in the 70s and asoon-to-beprominent golfer(Ray Floyd)was playing at Augusta for his first Masters.Back then the players could not bring their own caddies but had to use one of the locals. Floydtold the caddy master he wanted a big fellow who could handle his bag, but who also would keepquiet, no advice needed.
The caddy whowas assigned Floydsaid,"Hello Mr. Floyd."
Floydsaid "Hello." Andfollowed that with,"That's the last I want to hearfrom you."
Everything went well until the 10th hole whenFloydpushed his drive to the right into some trees on the par 4.Together with his caddy, he made his way up the fairway and then into the woods. After surveying the scene he said out loud,"I'm going to hit a low fade – out through that opening – and I’m going to carry it to land mid-green andthen roll it over the crest down near the hole."The caddy raised his eyebrows but said nothing. Surprisingly Floyd pulled it off exactly as he had said. He turned to his caddy and said,"How about that?"
The caddy shrugged. Then he said,"That wasn't your ball."
Things never go well when we are too smart for our own good. Things never go well when we try to trap God into our devices and plans. It just does not work out. That is what happens in both of the episodes we encounter in our Scripture text today.
Read Luke 20:20-40
Let me remind you where we are in the gospel. Jesus had begun his ministry in Galilee and made a big name for himself. News of his words and deeds spread rapidly. Eventually, he turned his face toward Jerusalem. For Jesus this was an act of obedience to his call. To the growing perception of others, this was the beginning of a messianic restoration of Israel through this son of David. The long journey of teaching to get to Jerusalem seemed to raise – rather than clarify – the expectation that Jesus was going to shake the world, rid Israel of the Romans and foreign influence, and re-order the world with Israel on top.
The crowds got bigger and bigger on the journey to Jerusalem. The crowds got large enough that they drew the attention of the religious and political leaders of Israel who were much less inclined to engage in the messianic hopes ascribed to Jesus. In fact, they were disinclined. They sought to discredit Jesus time and time again. Their suspicion was two-fold: first, there had been a number of “messiah’s” in the past, and that had always turned out badly. Those leaders inevitably turned to violence to overthrow the oppressive reign of foreign nations. The crackdown was severe and miserable for the whole nation, deadly to those involved. Second, they were disinclined to believe because Jesus did not match their expectation for the anticipated messiah; he did things that did not conform to their religious tradition as it has been handed down. Believing in Jesus as the messiah would require a re-reading of Scripture and an abandonment of understandings of things as “they had always been done.”
So when Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday with the messianic cries of the crowd, the religious leaders were cornered into making a decision about him. They either had to throw their support behind the crowd and join the revolutionary movement – or – they had to destroy Jesus and put an end to the threat he posed to the nation.
They chose to try to destroy Jesus. Their first tactic was to try to trip up Jesus on his own rhetoric and teaching. Thus, they sent spies to pose as followers to ask “clarifying” questions.
Strike One.
The Pharisees and Herodians were first up. They tried to trick Jesus with the question about taxes. “Should we pay taxes to Rome?” Here is why it was a trick question: if, on the one hand, Jesus were to respond by saying, “No, do not pay taxes,” he would be following in the footsteps of another revolutionary who years before who had protested paying taxes to Rome. The Romans mercilessly put down that protest. The Romans raised protestors on crosses all over the country; all those dead men were a warning to others that paying tribute to Rome in taxes was not negotiable. On the other hand, if Jesus were to say, “Pay the tax,” he would be siding with Rome and – for all intents and purposes – would be saying that there was no power in the kingdom of heaven he was proclaiming. That is a clever trap, right?
Look at what Jesus did. Jesus responded by not answering. Instead, he asked for a coin. When they produced the coin, they were showing that they themselves handled the currency for paying taxes. Second, he asked them, “whose image is on this coin (that you had in your possession)?” They had to admit, “The emperor’s.” Jesus’ response was the equivalent of a shrug and a retort, “That wasn’t your ball.” He diffused the loaded nature of their question and showed their hypocrisy, “Give the emperor what belongs to the emperor; give to God what is God’s.” In other words, if Rome is so odious, why do you have their money? Would you not be better to get rid of it?
There is a lesson here for disciples about how to handle opponents of the faith. Have you ever been asked to defend God by someone who has no intention of believing? “How can you believe in a God who….?” Have you ever been challenged to answer an unanswerable question about God? Pay attention to what Jesus did: he did not answer. He asked a question. He asked a question that revealed the hard heart and hypocrisy of the questioner. When someone tries to shift your role from witness to defense attorney, it is entirely appropriate to ask them what kind of answer would satisfy them. If they cannot tell you, they are not really interested in knowing God; they are more interested in attacking you. If you do not know an answer, it is entirely appropriate to respond, “I do not know; would you like to investigate together?”
In other words, make sure you are hitting the right ball. We do not have to defend God, explain God, or be as smart as God. We are called to be witnesses. We share what we have seen, what we have heard, and what we have experienced.
Strike Two.
Then came the question from the Sadducees. With the question about “whose wife will she be in the resurrection,” the Sadducees were not looking for answer either. They were trying to “divide and conquer.” If they could split the crowd along known red state/blue state lines – along “resurrection” versus “no resurrection” lines – they could begin to winnow down Jesus’ support. It was the equivalent of political positioning with the crowd. It was a more subtle challenge – a kind of inside Jerusalem baseball issue; something that the Romans did not care about – but had the potential to be devastating to Jesus. I was trying to think something current that would be similar; the best I could relate it to would be the kerfuffle last December between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton about the breach and access to the Democratic National Committee’s voter registration files. It mattered a whole lot to those who were involved in the campaigns, but to the general public (or, in Jesus’ case, the Romans), the overall reaction was a collective, “Meh.” It had the potential to be explosive but ended up being nothing. The same thing happened here to Jesus. The question was a rather bald attempt to make him choose sides to alienate some of his supporters.
The Sadducees’ error was that they were not particularly interested in the truth. The thought their question was sufficient to accomplish their purpose. They would have been aware of Jesus’ previous discussions with the Pharisees about the significance of marriage; how the Pharisees’ hard hearts were more focused on the rules for breaking the covenant relationship rather than keeping it. The Sadducees thought they were being clever picking marriage as the subject by which they were going to challenge the resurrection. They thought they could trap Jesus with his own words about the importance of marriage, thereby making talk of the resurrection look absurd. Either Jesus would have to deny the resurrection and they would be justified, or Jesus would have to try to explain away how one woman could legitimately be married to seven men simultaneously – any such explanation of how marriage worked that way in heaven would look silly.
Or, so they thought.
It always is a mistake to try to put God in a box – political or otherwise.
“That wasn’t your ball.” You can almost see their self-satisfied smiles fall. In other words Jesus said, “You do not know what you are talking about. You are beyond inaccurate; you are just plain wrong.”
Jesus did not waffle or hedge on the conviction that the resurrection is real. Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.”
Note the good news that is part of Jesus’ answer. If you have been going along with us in the Pastors’ Bible Study of The Story, Jesus’ response is yet another validation of the differences between the Lower Story and Upper Story.
Remember, the Upper Story is God’s overarching narrative of creation, redemption, and reconciliation. The Lower Story is the day-to-day lives of individuals – including us – and all the things we experience. The Sadducee’s error was trying to extrapolate Lower Story conditions – broken and incomplete – into the perfect realization of Upper Story completeness. Jesus told them, “You are wrong.” What we see here and now is not how things will be in the kingdom of heaven. Our general circumstances here and now are not conclusive of what will be.
That is good news. There is reason for hope that the kingdom of heaven will be recognizable, but different, than all we know here and now. It is why we can persevere for a time here and now. It is why we can hold on in the midst of trials and rejection. It is why we can endure injustice and oppression for Jesus’ name’s sake – we know that things will be different in the kingdom of God. Remember: Jesus was the eternal God incarnate – he entered the Lower Story. There is no imposition of the Lower Story on God’s Upper Story.
To whom was Jesus referring when he said, “those who are worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead”? Was it the Pharisees who rejected Jesus and were proud of their own righteousness when compared with others? Was it the Sadducees who rejected Jesus because they thought they knew better what made for righteousness? Was it the Herodians who rejected Jesus because they figured they had the power to destroy him, preserving their power as a declaration of righteousness?
No. So, who, then? They are those who accept and receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Jesus would say to the disciples later in this same week, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Peter would later testify, This Jesus is ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). Friends, this is the good news of the gospel: there is hope. There is hope – not in ourselves or in our own righteousness or in our own knowledge or in our own power – but in Jesus Christ who gives us the victory that makes us worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead.”
Then Jesus took his response to the Sadducees a step further. He cited a passage with which they all would be familiar, the conversation between Moses and God in the burning bush. “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” He said, “I am” not “I was.” What does that mean? Well, Jesus drove the point home, “Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”
Game. Set. Match.
The contrast between Jesus and the Sadducees was stark. Being right doctrinally cannot happen without a heart warm to the living God. Head knowledge without heart knowledge is meaningless. Studying Scripture without experiencing the power of God is empty legalism. Scripture is not a dead document; it is the revelation of the living God (who is God of the living) for our benefit and growth. Studying Scripture is fruitful when we have eyes to see what is happening in us, through us, and around us.
I want to linger here for a moment because we often fail to live our daily lives with the conviction of serving a living God. I am going to put this in the first person because I know it is something I struggle with; perhaps you do, too. I read the Bible. I say my prayers. I come to church on Sunday. I do committees and potlucks. And there are days when I get home and wonder what it is that I have done; is there any meaning or significance in it? All our programs and ministries and missions; is there any meaning or significance in any of it?
The answer to those questions, by the way, is “yes.”
But my point is this: it is really important to know God and know about God. It is really important to be intentional about taking time to remember who we are in relationship with God. When I take time to remember God’s faithfulness – to me, to us – when I take time to see what God is doing and how my prayers have been answered and continue to be answered, my heart is changed. I am renewed in hope. Combine that with Scripture’s promises of the kingdom of God, and my life has a purpose and a direction and significance. Living into that eternal life means taking steps every day, learning to be obedient every day, growing to know and love the living God more each day.