A Christian is someone who really ought to have a head and a heart for Jesus. In other words, someone whose thoughts are focussed in the right way about him, and whose heart and desires are true. In these verses we see continued opposition against Jesus, and more correction from Jesus as he speaks back.
And what you’ll see is it’s only when you have a head and a heart for Jesus that you can have eternal hope, and live a godly life.
But the stakes are high: Eternal life and death are in play.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church in September 2023. You can find more in the series in our Sermon Index.
A wrong-headed question (27-40)
Read Luke 20:27.
The ruling elite in Jerusalem was made up of Sadducees and Pharisees, along with scribes and elders. The Pharisees did believe in a resurrection, but the Sadducees didn’t. Why not?
- The Old Testament doesn’t say many things about resurrection, but what it does say is pretty huge.
- Job 19 and Daniel 12 speak of resurrection.
- Isaiah 25 speaks of an end of death itself.
- But the Sadducees had a particular emphasis on the Torah, the first 5 books of the Old Testament (says less). They didn’t hold the rest in the same regard.
So they come along with their question. Their question is based on the assumption that there’s no resurrection. And it’s aimed at making the idea of resurrection seem ridiculous. Read Luke 20:28-33.
As far as they’re concerned: “Gotcha!” Jesus’ answer is in two parts. First, he explains how things will be in the future (showing that they hadn’t thought high enough about what God will do). Then he explains from Exodus (in the Torah) why there must be a resurrection (showing that they hadn’t thought deeply enough about what God has said).
So read Luke 20:34-36.
The Sadducees are only thinking about how life is now. But in the future, at the great day of resurrection when all will rise to be judged, will it be the same? No, says Jesus: “those who are counted worthy to take part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.” Like the angels. Angels don’t marry, and they don’t have children. Because they don’t die.
Every angel that exists has existed from the dawn of creation. The age of resurrection will be deathless. There will be no need of babies, or marriage ever again.
The age to come
For those who have lost husbands or wives, that can feel tough to hear just now. But your delight in eternity will be Jesus; your spouse awaits you only to share in the joy of Christ. We won’t be married to one another in heaven; we will all be Christ’s bride – better love than any you have ever known.
Notice that it’s pretty remarkable for Jesus to teach this stuff to the Sadducees: He doesn’t even back it up with Scripture; he just asserts it with the full authority of certain knowledge.
- He is the Son of God; he knows about eternity.
- When Jesus speaks of heaven and hell, he speaks of what he knows. It’s not speculation or guesswork.
- You’d be reckless to ignore his words.
Reading the Torah correctly
But next Jesus corrects their wonky use of the Torah. Read Luke 20:37-40.
God didn’t say, “I was the God of Abraham…” How can he still be the God of Abraham if Abraham is no more? Abraham is alive to God as much as he ever was. However resurrection from the dead happens, it is very much real, and current. Their questions were based on false assumptions.
Which is why it’s often helpful to ask questions back – to work out what someone’s false assumptions are. If you have questions about faith, that’s good. But be ready to be challenged, and learn from Christ.
Incidentally, it’s interesting to think about what Jesus could have said. Remember, this is just days before his crucifixion. How about, “You don’t believe in resurrection? Come and see me on Sunday…” But remember what Abraham in heaven said to the rich man in hell, back in Luke 16:31 ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’
A closed mind will be closed to truth, even miraculous truth. So they asked a wrong-headed question because their assumptions were wrong. They didn’t actually trust Moses and the prophets, or believe that God could raise people from the dead.
But now Jesus asks another question back:
Questions heading to life (41-44)
Clearly, his audience liked a good biblical conundrum, a puzzle. So Jesus asks one back.
What makes this a good question? The fact that it points to Jesus, and when you look to Jesus you find eternal life. Read Luke 21:41-44.
It’s a quote from Psalm 110, the most-quoted psalm in the NT. If you look up the psalm, you’ll see the first “Lord” there is in capitals, “LORD”, the personal name of God (something like “Yahweh”).
So David says that God invites David’s “lord” to sit at God’s right hand. It’s always been recognised as a psalm about the coming Messiah. But here’s the thing: The Messiah is clearly explained in the Old Testament as a descendant of David. Someone to rule over God’s people forever and ever. But David would never refer to a descendant as “lord” – you would only ever refer to your ancestors that way. So how can the Messiah be David’s lord and David’s descendant? This is the question Jesus is posing – from Scripture.
In fact, there’s a twin track of Messiah revelation that Jesus is picking up on:
- In Isaiah 9:6, we read this: For a child will be born for us… Mighty God… So is that a child, or God?
- Again, in Ezekiel 34, God says both I will shepherd [my people] and David… will shepherd them.
Through the Old Testament there is a twin track of Messiah revelation: He will come as a descendant of David, and at the same time God himself will come to rescue his people.
Those twin tracks converge on Jesus, the man who is God.
The salvation purpose
But when the Sadducees asked Jesus a question, it was to make themselves look clever. But Jesus’ question is asked to lead them to eternal truth, to Jesus. This isn’t just a random bible puzzle. Jesus is pointing you to eternal life. He is God, born into David’s line as he promised. God who came to the earth to seek and save the lost.
He came for you. God knows you. He knows you’ve done wrong. He even knows the wrong you’ll yet do.
But in his great love for you he has entered the world to save you. The Bible points to that truth. It’s not a puzzle book; it’s good news. You are called to Jesus, Son of God, to come in repentance of your sin, and to ask for forgiveness.
This is where parents and Sunday School teachers have a hard task: We want our children and grandchildren to know the Bible stories, but all that revelation has the same aim: For sinners to know Christ (much, much more than knowing about him).
Knowledge is good, obviously. But it has dangers for us all:
- You can become puffed up in pride, thinking that growth in knowledge is the same as Christian maturity.
- Many people get side-tracked into questions about Noah’s Flood, or 6-day creation, and make them the main thing. Jesus must always be our focus.
- Maybe the most dangerous aspect is that we start to talk too much about God, and not enough to him.
- Know about God; know God in Christ.
Now, Jesus’ question was on the attack. And he’s not done yet.
Wrong-hearted life (45-47)
Read Luke 20:45-47.
There are still plenty of religious leaders who love the respect that their robes brings them. Let’s be honest, it must be pretty intoxicating.
- You wear your dog-collar or your fancy robes, you enter your church and everyone defers to you like you’re something special.
- And you get addicted to it. You become proud, when you ought to be the most humble person in the room.
But that’s not even the worst of it. Jesus says that there are people who love all that ‘limelight’ stuff, but whose hearts are far from loving God.
How can you tell?
- Those who truly love God won’t need the paraphernalia.
- When someone truly loves God, you’ll love as he loves.
- Specifically, you will love the poor, the weak, the unlovely, the widow.
- In that society, the widow was the very image of a vulnerable adult – no income, no help, dependent.
- Just the kind of person God loves, and expects his people to care for.
- How despicable must a religious leader be, if “They devour widows’ houses and say long prayers just for show”?
Earlier we heard the Sadducees asking a hypothetical question about 7 brothers and a widow. No care for anyone as people, just intellectual posturing to make themselves look clever (though they were wrong).
Practical religion matters
Now we’ve got others abusing actual widows to rob them of the little they do have.
Such people will never be “counted worthy to take part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead” (v35), but will “receive harsher judgment” (v47). Eternal matters are at stake.
Faith without works is dead, and if your Christian life is more about what you “take” than what you “give”, you might find you’re not the mature Christian you thought you were.
- Christ came not to be served, but to serve.
- You are not above your master. Service, and giving of yourself, ought to be characterise your whole life.
- That’s what a head and a heart for Jesus looks like. So:
Whole-hearted for Jesus (1-4)
There’s one more ‘widow’ reference that Luke has included for us to think about: Read Luke 21:1-4.
The two coins were almost worthless, but were all she had. She could have put just one in, but put both in. Jesus has condemned the religious rulers who abuse the kindness of such women, but now he commends the woman herself for what she’s done.
To do this, she must love and trust God. She’s trusting him to care for her, as his word says he does. And she’s giving everything she is and has. This is exactly what Jesus has been telling you to do for chapter after chapter. Your attachment to the things of this world will keep you from God, reducing your sense of dependence on him. Again, there’s no sin in wealth. Those who have jobs that earn well aren’t doing wrong! But it’s your heart that matters: Are you living and giving for Jesus, or self-indulgence?
Remember the rich ruler who came to Jesus, and his dismay when Jesus told him he still lacked “one thing”? This poor widow, in all her poverty and brokenness, had the “one thing” that that rich ruler had lacked: She loved God, and trusted her whole life to him. She knew that there is nothing in heaven and earth more to be treasured than a right relationship with God.
The rich were giving their loose change; she gave her everything.
Leftovers?
Do you just give God your leftovers? Pop along to church if there’s nothing else on? Is that all he’s worth to you?
Don’t ever get comfy in your Christian life. Jesus is worth all you are, and you’re called to surrender everything to him. It’s already his. Go with that.
Maybe you feel tired; exhausted; you’ve nothing else to give.
You might feel Jesus is asking too much.
- Don’t underestimate that widow’s trust, or her blessing.
- Remember that the Lord chose you; he knows you.
- Make him your treasure, and the rest will follow.
So what have we seen?
- A wrong-headed question, based on false assumptions, will keep the questioner from truth. Listen to Jesus.
- Questions about Jesus are good, because those are the questions that will lead you to him, to eternal life.
- A wrong-hearted life will often look good to others, but God will reserve you for condemnation and judgment.
- But a heart for Christ, forgiven and living in him, will live for him in every aspect of life: Give him your all.