Whose Son is the Christ?

Luke 20:20-47

Key Verse 20:44

The (political and religious) leaders of Jesus' day tried unsuccessfully to find faults (or defects) with Jesus, for they refuted Jesus’ claim that He is the Christ (Messiah) whom God sent to save the world. Using Psalm 110 Jesus prompted his audience to think about the possibility that Jesus is indeed the Savior sent by God. 

1. Read verses 20-22. What question did the spies ask Jesus? Why did they ask the question?

** vs. 21-22

[The Pharisees and the Herodians sent the spies. Mark 12:13 These two groups of people usually fought each other.  But this time they were united to confront Jesus.] 

** They wanted to discuss taxes and Roman authority, hoping to provoke Jesus into offending either the Jews (by saying, "Pay the poll tax!") or the Romans ("Do not pay the poll tax!"). 

2. Think about Jesus' response (23-26). What does "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's" mean? What should we do if obedience to God conflicts with obedience to men (governmental authority)?  

** Give to Caesar what is Caesar's: it means we need to respect the governmental authority for it was instituted by God (Prov. 8:15; Daniel 2:21, 27-38; Romans 13; 1Pe 2:11-17). We need to be good citizens that God would be glorified and unbelievers would be attracted to Jesus. (1Pe 2:9-12; 3:8-17) 

** Give to God what is God's: just as Caesar's image was inscribed in the Denarius, so also God's image is stamped on us, so God has the right to command his children to be in service of God's kingdom. 

** We must put God first but must do it in a manner that is honorable and loving. Acts 4:19-20; 5:29; Jeremiah 29:4-7; Daniel 1

3. Read verses 27-33. The Sadducees’ question was based on the Jewish law of "levirate marriage" (Genesis 38; Deuteronomy 25:5-10). Why did they ask this question? (27; Acts 23:8)

** They wanted to prove that there is no resurrection (and thereby confront Jesus, because Jesus came to die and rise again from the dead.)

4. Read verses 34-36. Who are "God's children" [or "the children of resurrection"]? Why will they neither marry nor be given in marriage? What does the passage reveal about the question they asked?

** Those who have faith in God (who sent the Son) like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. John 1:12; Genesis 15:6; Luke 14:14

** They will have been made perfect in every meaning of the word perfect. People in this age remain imperfect. For example Adam is short of a rib out of which his wife (Eve) came. But in Jesus we are going to be made perfect physically and spiritually, so there is no need for marriage. Procreation is not needed either for in that age all who need to be saved will have been saved.

[Note 1: Jesus affirmed the existence of angels.]

[Note 2: To be like angels does not mean to be disembodied spirits; all Jesus means is that God’s children in that age will be perfect and will live without having to have sex. Angels are sexless, but we are made to be either male or female. In that age, our identity as a man or woman will continue, but there is no need for sexual intercourse, for the need to produce children will have ceased to exist. And God will give to each of his children a resurrected 'body', which would function as the resurrected body of Jesus did. 1Co 15:35-50 The risen Jesus could eat food, go through solid walls, change his appearance, and vanish suddenly.] 

 

** The assumptions on which their question was based were all wrong. For example, they assumed that after death people will continue to marry and be given to marriage. They also assumed that the resurrected life after death will be as incomplete as the life before death.

According to Matthew 22:29 they erred because they did not know the Scriptures or the power of God.  

5. Read verses 37-38. What is "the account of the bush"? [Exodus 3:1-6] What [in the account of the bush] shows that the dead rise? 

** Exodus 3:1-6

** The patriarchs of faith physically died long before the time of Moses' encounter with the Lord in Exodus 3. Still the Lord identified himself with them. God is the God of the living. So the patriarchs of faith are among the living. They are out of the body, waiting to receive a resurrected body for each of them, and that together with all who believe in Jesus. Heb 11:40; James 2:26 (where the expression "body without the spirit" assumes the possibility of “the spirit without the body") 

6. Read verse 41-44. Why do they say that Jesus is the Son of David? (2 Samuel 7:13,14; Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5) If the Christ is David's Lord, how can the Christ be David's Son? What does the passage teach us about the Christ? 

** See references above.

** He cannot, for at the time when David said what he said in Psalm 110 (which is one of the messianic psalms), David saw in prophetic insight, the Lord (referring to the Messiah), who was already in existence. About 1000 years after the prophecy by David Jesus came in fulfillment of the prophecy. So Jesus cannot be David's son.

** It teaches us that Jesus is both the son of man and the son of God. Romans 1:3 (Jesus is the son of David physically, for he was born of the virgin Mary the descendant of David) and Romans 1:4 (Jesus is the Son of God by virtue of him being born of the Spirit of God. Matthew 1:20)

He alone is uniquely qualified to reconcile all believers to God, for as the son of David (as promised by God) he can represent us who are in the flesh, and as the Son of God Jesus can represent God, so in Him he can bring both together to form one in unity. Heb 2:14

7. Why is it important for one to know whose son the Christ is? (1 John 2:21-25; 4:16; 5:1)

** Our salvation and eternal destiny are dependant on what we think about the Christ. 

The end

      The word "levirate" comes from the Latin 'levir', which means "a husband's brother."