Reading: Matthew 22.15-46
In 1952 Agatha Christie’s play “The Mouse-Trap” began its long season in London. Have you seen it? Is it still running? In all its years of production, no one in the audience has broken the pledge to keep its plot and outcome secret.
Do you ever set a mouse trap? Why? You want to get rid of a mouse. Someone has even invented a disposable trap to make it easier to get rid of the dead beast without having to touch it.
Once we decided to trap a mouse so we could keep it and observe it for a while – we wanted to catch a mouse live. Our mouse house had an aluminium grille wall and a glass roof. We fed and studied it in captivity for a couple of weeks – until it managed to chew its way out!
So we can set a trap to eliminate a creature altogether, or to get it where we want it, to have it under our control.
Today’s reading begins “The Pharisees went off and made a plan to trap Jesus with questions” (22.15).
What was their purpose? What were they hoping to achieve? They wanted Jesus out of the way. To this end they were trying to get Jesus to say or do something that would get him where they wanted him, that would put him under their control.
What was their motive? Reflect on the recent events. Jesus had entered Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday – riding on a donkey in deliberate fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy. It wasn’t the expected Messianic announcement, but the common people understood well enough and welcomed Jesus as “David’s Son” (21.9). That this should have happened without the investigation and approval of the Jewish leaders was bad enough. But Jesus went further. He went straight into the Temple “and drove out all those who were buying and selling there”, saying that the Father’s house of prayer had been made “a hideout of thieves” (21.12-13). All this trade was going on with the leaders’ approval – and they no doubt received their commission.
They discussed the matter overnight and confronted Jesus the next day – “What right have you to do these things? Who gave you this right?” (21.23) Jesus threw a question back to them, “Was John’s authority to baptise from God or from men?” Jesus caught them at their own game and they wouldn’t answer.
Then Jesus told them three parables. First, the two sons who were asked to work in the vineyard. The one who said he wouldn’t go changed his mind and went. That’s like the tax collectors and prostitutes who repented under John’s preaching – but you didn’t!
Second, the tenants in the vineyard who refused to give the owner his share of the harvest and finally killed the owner’s son in a bid to seize the vineyard for themselves. The chief priests and Pharisees knew the parables were about them – they wanted to arrest him, but couldn’t for fear of the crowds.
Third, Jesus told about the wedding feast. The invitation was ignored or rejected by those first invited, so that others from the streets were gathered into the feast. This was against the Jewish leaders too.
There were some curious alliances in this attempt to “get” Jesus. First we see Pharisees and members of Herod’s party (Herodians) come to trap him.
They begin with flattery – you always tell the truth, even if it might be unpopular. Then the trap question, “Is it against our Law to pay taxes to the Roman emperor, or not?” A curious alliance, because these supporters of Herod would have supported the tax, whereas the Pharisees hated it.
There was a genuine question here – behind a very evil motive! The genuine question arose because the Emperor claimed divinity and demanded worship. The Jewish Law specifically forbade worshiping other gods. The Jewish religion was considered a religio licita – a legally recognised religion. They were exempted from the necessity of worshiping the Emperor, but were, of course, still expected to pay tax.
The motive behind the question was to trap Jesus whichever way he answered. If he agrees with the tax he will begin to lose popularity. If he disagrees with it, it will be a matter for the Roman authorities.
The answer of Jesus was brilliant in its simplicity. Their currency bore the face and name of the Emperor – “Well, then, pay the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and pay God what belongs to God.”
The answer is still pertinent to us. We have responsibilities to the secular state, as well as to the Kingdom of God.
The next question is posed by the Sadducees. This group within Judaism didn’t believe in any resurrection – as against the Pharisees who did. Their anecdote may well have been one they would pose to their rivals.
But Jesus is very clear in his answer. The Sadducees are in error not to believe in a resurrection. They have failed to grasp the meaning of the Scriptures or to understand the power of God.
The Old Testament Scriptures, Jesus says, clearly implies resurrection again and again. For example, God’s statement, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” carries with it the implication that these people, long since physically dead, will be raised to life since he is “God of the living, not of the dead.”
They do not understand the power of God. The Greeks thought the body was a hindrance to true life and looked to the time when the immortal soul would be free from its shackles. They strongly rejected ideas of resurrection – as is evident from Paul’s reception in Athens (Acts 17.32). The Jews believed in the value and importance of the body and looked for the body to be raised – exactly the same body. Christians also thought of the body being raised, but transformed so as to be a suitable vehicle for the life of the age to come.
In another place, Jesus called himself “the resurrection and the life” – “whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies” (Jn.11.25). On another occasion he said, “It is the will of him who sent me that I should not lose any of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them all to life on the last day” (Jn.6.39). Jesus is talking about the divine power which will raise the dead to life.
Now it is the Pharisees again. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” This was certainly a great question among them. One writer notes, “The scribes declared that there were 248 affirmative precepts, as many as the members of the human body; and 365 negative precepts, as many as the days in the year, the total being 613, the number of letters in the Decalogue. Of these they called some light and some heavy. Some thought that the law about the fringes on the garments was the greatest; some that the omission of washings was as bad as homicide; some that the third commandment was the greatest. It was in view of this kind of distinction that the scribe asked the question…” (M.R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament).
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like it: Love your neighbour as you love yourselv. The whole Law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Now Jesus poses them a question. “What do you say about the Messiah? Whose descendant is he?”
They answer, “He is David’s descendant.”
“Why, then, did the Spirit inspire David to call him ‘Lord’? David said, ‘The Lord said to my Lord: Sit here on my right until I put your enemies under your feet.’ If, then, David called him ‘Lord,’ how can the Messiah be David’s descendant?”
And they cannot answer him. To suggest that he is both David’s son and David’s Lord is to assert that he is both human and divine. They have never faced such a question or problem before – the reality of just who this Jesus is.
After the resurrection, when Thomas said to the risen Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”, it wasn’t the conclusion to an academic debate, but a confession of faith and a pledge of allegiance. That’s why Thomas didn’t take it lightly at all.
Have you come to that conviction about Jesus and that total commitment of your life to him?
© Peter J.
Blackburn, Buderim Uniting Church, 1 September 1996
Except
where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Good
News Bible, © American Bible Society,
1992.
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