In the previous message we saw the devil’s stratagems in tempting the Lord at the beginning of His ministry. In this message we want to see the temptations suffered by the Lord during His ministry and at the end of His ministry. Although the Lord passed through some other temptations, the principles are all covered by these three categories of temptations. I hope that we would pay our full attention to the fellowship in this message and even study it with some others.
Matthew 22:15-46 shows the temptations through which the Lord passed during His ministry.
The tempter’s intention was to ensnare Him in His words (v. 15).
The Pharisees were the fundamentalists of Judaism. The Herodians were the political party under King Herod for Roman imperialism, usurped by the Pharisees in tempting the first God-man. They tempted Him by asking whether it was lawful to give tribute to Caesar, the emperor of Rome, trying to catch Him as one who was against imperialistic Rome (vv. 16-17). The Pharisees were for the Jews, whereas the Herodians were for the Romans. Such a question concerning whether or not to give tribute to Caesar was hard to answer. If the Lord said yes, he would offend the Jews. If He said no, that would offend Rome. That was really an ensnaring question. But the Lord’s capacity was so high, His wisdom was so deep, and His answer was very subduing.
He asked them to show Him the coin for the tribute. This means that He did not have any coin from Caesar and asked them to give Him one. Their having a Roman coin in their pocket meant that they had lost the case already. The Lord Jesus did not show the Roman coin but asked them to show one to Him. Since they possessed one of the Roman coins, they were caught. When they showed Him, He asked them whose image and inscription were on the coin; they answered, “Caesar’s.” He answered them, “Render then the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar and the things that are God’s to God.” He defeated them in their plot (vv. 18-22).
The Sadducees were the modernists at their time in the Jewish religion, not believing in the resurrection. Today among Christians there are modernists. They do not believe in the Bible or in the birth of Christ by a virgin. They do not believe that Christ died on the cross for our sins but that He died on the cross merely as a martyr. They do not believe in the resurrection or in miracles. The modernists explain away all the miracles in the Bible. Those ancient Sadducees were the ancient modernists.
They tempted the first God-man by telling Him that among them there were seven brothers who married one woman consecutively. Then they asked Him whose wife this woman would be in the resurrection. He said that they erred and did not know the Scriptures nor the power of God, for in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. He taught them that God as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
God is the God of the living, but Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead. How could God be their God? Since God is called the God of these three dead persons, this indicates they will be resurrected. Without the interpretation of the Lord Jesus, we could not see the light that this divine title indicates resurrection. This is why the Lord told the Sadducees that they did not know the Scripture. They knew it in its words but not in its intrinsic significance. By this He muzzled their mouths (vv. 23-34).
A lawyer of the Pharisees, knowing that the first God-man muzzled the mouths of the Sadducees, tested Him by asking Him which is the great commandment in the law (vv. 34-36). He answered, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” By this He conquered them also (vv. 37-40).