The Last Word

The religious leaders are at it again in Luke 20:27-47. They just don’t seem able to help themselves. Oh, how badly they must have wanted to trap Jesus! This time it’s the Sadducees up at bat and they seem pretty sure they’ll hit a home run. They go into this long drawn out story about a woman whose husband dies before giving her children but the husband had six other brothers and each tries to fulfill the law by taking the woman as wife but each dies childless. And finally the woman also dies. At the conclusion of the story, the Sadducees asked Jesus, “Now in the resurrection whose wife will the woman be? For the seven married her.”

What a strange question considering the Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. But Jesus didn’t bat an eyelash. Instead, He calmly tells them that those who are “worthy” to go to heaven will “neither marry nor are given in marriage,” that they will be equal to angels and that God “is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all men are alive whether in the body or out of it and they are alive not dead unto Him in definite relationship to Him.” (Luke 20:38 Amplified)

Luke goes on to tell us that some of the scribes speak up and tell Jesus “you have spoken well and expertly so that there is no room for blame,” thus defeating the whole purpose of this question and answer session, and leaving them all afraid to question Him further.

Then it’s Jesus’ turn to ask the questions. “How is it that people can say that the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed one) is David’s Son? For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, the Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet. So David calls Him Lord; how then is He his Son?” What was Jesus telling them? Well . . . to study the scriptures and think! Then they’d understand that He was the Messiah!

What began as an effort to trap Jesus ended with an indictment against the-would-be-trappers with Jesus having the last word in this scenario. “Beware of the scribes,” He says, before going on to list their many failings. And that’s a lesson for us all. When we try to trap Jesus with things like, “You really couldn’t mean I’m supposed to forgive everyone,” or “surely I’m not to love this enemy.” When we try to bend or twist God’s word to suit ourselves or because we don’t like what it says or because it’s inconvenient, we need to go back and “study the scriptures and think!” and ask God to help us see things His way. Because like it or not, God will always have the last Word. 

Until next time,

Sylvia