Trick Questions
Opening Prayer
Sovereign and Mighty God, all reverence and obedience is due You. I gladly offer mine to You now.
Read LUKE 20:20-40
[20] Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. [21] So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. [22] Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” [23] He saw through their duplicity and said to them, [24] “Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?” [25] “Caesar’s,” they replied. He said to them, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” [26] They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent. [27] Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. [28] “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. [29] Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. [30] The second [31] and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. [32] Finally, the woman died too. [33] Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” [34] Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. [35] But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, [36] and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. [37] But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ [38] He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” [39] Some of the teachers of the law responded, “Well said, teacher!” [40] And no one dared to ask him any more questions. Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.
Reflect
What lessons do you take from each of these stories?Jesus has humiliated the chief priests, and they are absolutely determined to silence him. They send spies to flatter Jesus and try to catch him in a trap (20). Should people accept the authority of the prevailing pagan empire and show loyalty to Caesar, or remain true to God? Answering either way would get Jesus into trouble. He sees straight through this duplicity, but still he answers: both. Worldly authority doesn’t release us from our obligation to God, and to give him what he asks from us: our worship and hearts.
The Sadducees were a conservative, aristocratic, priestly group who believed firmly in the Law of Moses but not in the supernatural. Their question is intended to show the foolishness of the Pharisees’ belief in the resurrection (28-32). Jesus refuses to be used in their feud and snubs them, saying that only God’s children are worthy to take part in the resurrection, which shows up the Sadducees’ lack of understanding of Scripture teaching. Sometimes we try to trip the Lord up with a difficult question. What about suffering? What about evolution? But too often it is a way of avoiding his gaze, his question to us.
Apply
What difficult question would you like to ask God? Write it down and then pray and wait patiently for his answer.
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, I pray to have the wisdom to know what I owe to You and the government, and the courage to give it.
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