27 There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28 and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man1 must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”
34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage,35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons2 of the resurrection.37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
Whose Son Is the Christ?
41 But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son?42 For David himself says in the Book of Psalms,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, 43 until I make your enemies your footstool.”’
44 David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”
Beware of the Scribes
45 And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts,47 who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
The Widow’s Offering
21:1 Jesus3 looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, 2 and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.43 And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.4 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
Footnotes
[1]20:28Greek his brother [2]20:36Greek huioi; see Preface [3]21:1Greek He [4]21:2Greek two lepta; a lepton was a Jewish bronze or copper coin worth about 1/128 of a denarius (which was a day’s wage for a laborer)
27 There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28 and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man1 must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”
34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage,35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons2 of the resurrection.37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
Whose Son Is the Christ?
41 But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son?42 For David himself says in the Book of Psalms,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, 43 until I make your enemies your footstool.”’
44 David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”
Beware of the Scribes
45 And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts,47 who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
The Widow’s Offering
21:1 Jesus3 looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, 2 and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.43 And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.4 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
Footnotes
[1]20:28Greek his brother [2]20:36Greek huioi; see Preface [3]21:1Greek He [4]21:2Greek two lepta; a lepton was a Jewish bronze or copper coin worth about 1/128 of a denarius (which was a day’s wage for a laborer)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:
K. This is Luke 2027 through 21 verse 4. There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection. And they asked him a question saying, teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were 7 brothers.
Speaker 1:
The first took a wife and died without children, and the second and the third took her, and likewise, all 7 left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the 7 had her as wife. And Jesus said to them, the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.
Speaker 1:
But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither married nor given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him. Then some of the scribes answered, teacher, you have spoken well. For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
Speaker 1:
But he said to them, how can they say that the that the Christ 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 your footstool. David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son? And in the hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples, beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayers, they will receive the greater condemnation. Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box and he saw a poor widow put in 2 small copper coins And he said, truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.
Speaker 1:
For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on. The word of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:
Thanks be to God. Pray with me. Lord God, we ask that you would come and that you would work. That Your Spirit, He would move in our midst. Lord, what we just sang, we mean.
Jeffrey Heine:
Were the whole realm of nature, mind, that would be an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all. And I pray that through the proclamation of your word, Your Spirit would grip our hearts so much that we would offer, joyfully offer, our life, our soul, and our all to our Lord Jesus. So now, God, I ask that my words would fall to the ground and blow away, and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us.
Jeffrey Heine:
I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Jesus has been confronting people these last few weeks, and now he's going to confront the Sadducees. Now, when he took on the Pharisees and some of the religious leaders earlier, he already pretty much signed his death certificate. And now he's pretty much signing it, sealing it, delivering it because he's taking on the Sadducees who were the ones who ran the temple.
Jeffrey Heine:
Most of the priests were Sadducees. They held enormous power. There was a group of 70 men who pretty much ruled over all of Jewish life, and the vast majority of them were Sadducees. They had a lot different beliefs than the Pharisees. The Pharisees were actually greatly respected by the people, but nobody really liked the Sadducees.
Jeffrey Heine:
The Sadducees did not believe in miracles, they did not believe in the supernatural, they certainly did not believe in the resurrection. And so although they believed in God, and they believed in the law of Moses, they they had a this life now mentality. This life is really all that matters. And so as a result, they did all they could to gain power. They sided with Rome because they wanted to keep power.
Jeffrey Heine:
They were very wealthy. We still have Sadducees today. People who believe in God in some kind of vague way. They they believe in God, but he makes no difference in their their day to day life. They're not an atheist because they have some form of an educated belief in God, but when it comes down to everyday how they live their life, it doesn't really matter that they believe God exists.
Jeffrey Heine:
This is probably the most common view out there. Now I have to say my next sentence with caution because I know some of you are gonna take this and just run with this. But I was reading Cosmo Magazine, And, and I went there intentionally to to read this because I heard that Cosmo in 2003 hired a spiritual advisor or a spiritual editor for their magazine. And so I just kind of wanted to to see what was the spiritual content of Cosmo Magazine. They actually hired a person, who has no real religious background, but she used to run a psychic store.
Jeffrey Heine:
And, that is their spiritual editor because they realized that, this is from the main editor. They said, you know, lip stick and fashion was not enough. People wanted something a little bit more. And so I read a few of the spiritual articles, online and, they recommended things like having spiritual meditations are really good for you. And, much like, they would recommend getting a good massage or recommend, you know, good eye shadow or blush or something like that.
Jeffrey Heine:
It was just one of those things that could make you feel better about yourself. Spirituality was something you could just add on to a already good life as a way of maybe filling in the gaps. Maybe some voids that you felt. Maybe if you wanted to try something different, but it, but it really didn't make any difference in your life. That's what I got from these articles.
Jeffrey Heine:
It, it fits into the life you have. It doesn't change your life in any way. And so people who read a magazine like Cosmo for their spirituality, which I don't know how many that are out there, they would make good Sadducees because that's what the Sadducees did. They believed in God in some kind of a vague way, but that God didn't make any difference in their life. It was just something that they could add to their already existent lives to make them maybe a little bit more happier, maybe to justify the things they are already doing, but it didn't change them.
Jeffrey Heine:
For them, it was very much this world now mentality. And and just like somebody in Cosmo who, you know, who goes to there for their, spiritual affirmation, that fashion trends are going to change their life more than the Holy Spirit or somebody maybe in the business world, market trends are going to change their life more than the Holy Spirit. Those are Sadducees. Well it's these Sadducees with power, they confront Jesus and they try to mock Jesus through an absurd question. I don't know about you, but I've I've met people like this, You know, hey, Joel, can, God make a rock bigger than he can pick up?
Jeffrey Heine:
Oh, gotcha. You know, there's just there's people like that out there, and that's that's what they're doing. They they give Jesus this stumper, and they're just mocking him in the way they ask it. You know, so you believe in the resurrection? Okay, well a woman's married to a husband.
Jeffrey Heine:
The husband dies, so she remarries his brother. The brother dies, so she remarries the other brother. He dies. Goes through 7 times. So tell us, Jesus, in the resurrection, whose whose husband is she gonna have?
Jeffrey Heine:
Whose husband will whose wife is she gonna be? And you can almost picture them snickering as they are saying this. And and Luke gives a very toned down response from Jesus. The other gospels, Jesus responds first by saying, hey, you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. And then he gives Luke's answer here.
Jeffrey Heine:
But Jesus, he he says, you know, you you misunderstand the resurrection. Your assumption assumptions about the resurrection are wrong. You you say marriage is no longer necessary in the resurrection. Life is gonna be different in the resurrection. Marriage is no longer needed because, well, for 1, you no longer need to have children to carry on your name because you're gonna live forever.
Jeffrey Heine:
You don't need to have children. You don't need to have that kind of family. And second, the intimacy that we have in marriage. The intimacy that we have there is nothing more than a shadow. It is just a symbol pointing to the reality that we will have in heaven or in the resurrection.
Jeffrey Heine:
The richest pleasures that that marriage provides, the very best pleasures are nothing more than a shadow of what awaits us. Be be sure, because you might take this the wrong way. Since I say that it's just a shadow of what awaits us, don't take that to mean that, marriage doesn't really matter. Or if that if you're in an unhappy marriage, that doesn't really matter either because it's just a shadow. And don't take that.
Jeffrey Heine:
Marriage is extremely important, and our in our marriages need to be full of life giving, joyful sacrifice. They need to be full of pleasure because it is a shadow. It is a pointer to what awaits us. And if our marriages aren't that we need to work hard to make them so. And not just for one another, not just for our spouse, but for the world who is looking, because this is a symbol that points to the resurrection.
Jeffrey Heine:
It points to our life after this life, and it needs to be full of pleasure and full of love and full of commitment. You know what the most common response I heard when I got engaged? And some of you who who have recently got engaged, I bet you got the same response. I'd say, hey, I got engaged. I'm so sorry.
Jeffrey Heine:
And then they'd smile. You know, just kidding. You know, that was that was well, actually wasn't even funny the first time. But but I kept hearing that over and over and over. Hey, I'm engaged.
Jeffrey Heine:
And, you know, the girls squeal. Look at the ring, tell me the story, all that. The guys are like, man, I'm sorry. I'll be praying for you, man. And I think the reason that that there's even that kind of dark humor there, that it's because, seriously, there's not many Christian marriages out there that reflect what it's supposed to reflect.
Jeffrey Heine:
That joy, that pleasure, that union that awaits us in heaven. And so husbands commit yourself to your wife's joy and to her sanctification. Wives, commit yourself to your husband's joy and his sanctification. So you could become the sign you're supposed to be. So Jesus responds to these Sadducees that all of these good things about marriage, they're gonna they're just pointers because in heaven we're not like that.
Jeffrey Heine:
We're all part of this new family. We're sons of God. This is the shadow that will be the substance. And then Jesus goes to the scriptures. Now the Sadducees were experts on the first five books of the Bible, the Torah.
Jeffrey Heine:
That was their authority, and one of the reasons they didn't believe in the resurrection is because they didn't think the Torah taught about the resurrection. So Jesus goes to the Torah. He goes to Exodus 3. Read with me in verse 37. But the dead are raised.
Jeffrey Heine:
Even Moses showed in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he's not God of the dead, but of the living for all live to him. God is not the God of dead people. He's not the God of dead people. That's what Jesus is saying.
Jeffrey Heine:
If that were the case, then God can never keep his promises that he made. God is the God of Abraham. He is the God of Isaac. They are still alive, And the Sadducees are absolutely stunned. They don't know how to respond because he uses their very authoritative scriptures they held to, and he opens it up to them.
Jeffrey Heine:
And they they had no idea who they were talking to. I mean, the the Sadducees, their are their arguments were full of speculation. And here comes Jesus, and he talks like one who knows. No, no, no. You're wrong.
Jeffrey Heine:
Having a resurrection are nothing like that. It's like this. He just speaks with such authority, and he opens up the scriptures with such authority. And actually, a week earlier in John's gospel, Jesus, he actually says the reason he could do this is because he tells, he tells Martha and Mary says, I am the resurrection and the life. I am the resurrection and the life.
Jeffrey Heine:
He who believes in me though he dies yet shall he live. The Sadducees are actually talking to the one who is the resurrection. He's the authority on this. They had no idea who they were talking to. Now Jesus goes on the offensive.
Jeffrey Heine:
All up to this time, Jesus has been on the defensive. They've asked questions. He has responded. Now he goes on the offensive. Look at verse 41.
Jeffrey Heine:
But he said to them, how can they say that Christ is David's son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand and I make your enemies your footstool. David thus calls him Lord. So how how is he his son? Now this is actually a really important text, because it is the only argument Jesus will ever give in scripture as to who he is.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's his only, I guess you could say apologetic. His defense. It's like, you want to know who I am? Here it is. And he quotes Psalm 110.
Jeffrey Heine:
And this, this Psalm, the New Testament, is, is this Psalm is quoted more than any of the other Psalms, more than any of the other of the Old Testament, in defense of who Jesus is. Psalm 110. Let's read it again. How can they say that Christ 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 your footstool.
Jeffrey Heine:
David thus calls him Lord. So how is he his son? So is that pretty clear to everybody? You know, if you were going to present, present the arguments, the apologetic for who you are, take this, Sadducees. I mean, you're gonna give that?
Jeffrey Heine:
A couple things you need to know about this in order for this to make sense. One is that everybody, all the Jews, were in agreement that the Messiah would be a son of David. A matter of fact, that was the most common messianic title there was, Son of David. 2nd, in their society, their patriarchal society, a son would call their father Lord, but a father would never ever call their son Lord or or one of his descendants Lord. Never.
Jeffrey Heine:
The father, the older, always deserve the respect and the honor. So that makes sense. Now Jesus' question when He says, how can David call his own son Lord? How's it possible? And the answer is, well, he can't if the Messiah is just a man.
Jeffrey Heine:
He can only call him Lord if he's more than a man. If he's the Son of God. That's the only way. Now I will admit, I will be the first to admit that, this argument here is really geared for that culture. It really is geared for that culture.
Jeffrey Heine:
It probably doesn't hold enormous weight if you were to, you know, maybe with your atheistic friend over lunch, whip out Psalm 110 and go through this. It's probably not going to hold that much weight, but we can learn from this. Because at the very heart, Jesus's argument is this, examine me. Look at me and try to make sense of me. Try to explain me in human terms.
Jeffrey Heine:
Can you do it? Look at me. Can can you explain the way I live? The things I do? Can you can you explain that in human terms?
Jeffrey Heine:
And you can't. P people who read the new testament for the first time, we've read it so much, we just kind of lose this. But for the first time, Jesus is such a puzzle to them because at sometimes, and we've looked at this before, he's so conservative. I mean he is ultra conservative. You know, if your hand right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
Jeffrey Heine:
Throw it away. Your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. Throw it away. Better for you to lose a body part than to have it and go to hell. It's pretty conservative.
Jeffrey Heine:
And then you have Jesus saying, hey, he who is without sin, cast the first stone. It's about as liberal as he could come. And so you have Jesus the conservative, you have Jesus the liberal. And you just think, well, how do you make sense of that? And this is why Christians should live their lives in a way that, that don't make sense.
Jeffrey Heine:
And where you can have Christians, they are the ones who are building hospitals. They're the ones building AIDS clinics in Africa. And at the same time, they're the ones who fight pornography. They're the ones who stand for traditional family values. You're like, I don't get it.
Jeffrey Heine:
You're way on this spectrum, and yet you're way on this spectrum. That's right. Try to explain that. We don't fit into any political camp. We don't fit into any ideal ideology.
Jeffrey Heine:
Jesus is saying, look at me. And so so whether you're a skeptic, or whether you're one who's just struggling with your faith, go to the Gospels and read Jesus. You're gonna find a man who is so meek and yet he is so powerful. At times he is so gracious, and at times he just has wrath and judgment. And it's something that no man would ever make up, because he doesn't fall in the camp of any man.
Jeffrey Heine:
And so he says, look at me. Try to explain me. Can you explain me as I'm a man? No. You will walk away saying, this is the son of God.
Jeffrey Heine:
That's his argument. After Jesus says this, there's 2 other little stories here that at first seemed somewhat detached, but they're not. This is, this is the heart of the issue here, especially when we get to the widow. He first tells about, in the hearing of all people, which means the Sadducees are there and the scribes are there. Beware of the scribes.
Jeffrey Heine:
They're right there. Everybody's listening. Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces. They love the best seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at feast, who devour widows houses, and for a pretense make long prayers, they will receive the greater condemnation. Slightly awkward for the people over there.
Jeffrey Heine:
Jesus is writing his death certificate, or death warrant right there. There's no way he's gonna leave Jerusalem alive. And then, seemingly unattached, Jesus looks up and he sees this poor widow. But let me tell you this story, I believe is actually the focus or the climax of the last few chapters. Is this the, these four verses here.
Jeffrey Heine:
Jesus is pointing this, and this is not how it's been preached so many times. It's just a little story about giving. Jesus is dead in 2 days. Okay. He's not saying, Give to a temple that's going to be destroyed.
Jeffrey Heine:
I mean, he's just winning. He just shut the temple down, and here's a lady giving to the temple. It's not about giving to the temple. He's gonna raise the temple to the ground in 40 years. It's not what this is about.
Jeffrey Heine:
You could take lessons from giving, you know, if, if I was a certain type of preacher, I could say, you know what, look at this, God watches what you give. I saw you walk by that offering box there, saw how much you put in. He watches. Or I could say, it's not how much you give, it's how much you keep. Are you, are you keeping a whole lot?
Jeffrey Heine:
I'm not saying that those don't apply to this. You could pull those out, but that's not the focus. It's not it. Let's, let's unpack this. Let me read this story.
Jeffrey Heine:
Jesus looked up and he saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box. And he saw a poor widow put in 2 small copper coins. And he said, truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on. So Jesus, he he stops preaching, and he begins observing people who are giving to the temple and and where he's looking at, there's actually, there's 13 offering boxes, and they look like trumpets for some reason. And people, they would put their coins in one of these different 13 offering boxes.
Jeffrey Heine:
And it was a great place to people watch. I mean, if I was there, that's where I would people watch. I mean, you know, you're just everybody's curious. I wonder how much he gave and you could hear it in that culture as it went down and clang, clang, clang, you know, and, and rich people would come and they would just empty things in there. So, so Jesus has people watching.
Jeffrey Heine:
He doesn't condemn the rich. He doesn't do that. You know, a lot of people just kind of read that in there. He's not saying, look at those rich. He's no.
Jeffrey Heine:
He he doesn't say anything about them. That's not the point. I'm sure many of the rich gave out of a joyful heart. Gave out of worship. He's not condemning them, but he is pointing to this woman.
Jeffrey Heine:
And this woman, she's a poor widow. And the, the word that's used there is, is a word that's, it's the poorest of the poor here. She puts in 2 of the smallest coins in circulations, 2 leptas. We really don't know how much that is. Some, some commentary say that's 1 64th of a day's wage, some say it's 1 4 100th.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's the smallest coin in circulation, and so she puts in 2 pennies. And Jesus says that she gave more than everyone because out of her poverty, she put in all that she had to live on. Now, I have never read a translation that has gotten this right, fully right. The ESV is not wrong. They're not wrong.
Jeffrey Heine:
They're just not fully right in this. Because it literally says, she put in her bios. She put in her life. She put in her life. What she's doing at this point is she is entrusting her life into the care of God.
Jeffrey Heine:
She has nothing else and she's doing the exact opposite of what the Sadducees are doing at this point. You know, the Sadducees, they had a belief in God, but it made no difference to the way they lived on earth. Here she believes in God and it makes every difference. She places her entire life into the lord's hands. I mean if God doesn't take care of her, she dies.
Jeffrey Heine:
She gives a complete control to the Lord. And that's what rubs us the wrong way. It's not the money, it's the it's the control. You know, most of us, we can intellectually believe in Jesus. That's not a hard thing to do, Alright.
Jeffrey Heine:
And, and so we're, we're occasionally watching TV and Natalie has the remote control and I say, Natalie, give me the remote control. And she looks because she knows what's going to happen. If she gives me this, she loses control. I dictate what she watches. The thing has a lot of power.
Jeffrey Heine:
Is she gonna give up control? We all want control. That's the issue here. Giving is a prime example of ways we try to control our lives. Let's, let's be honest.
Jeffrey Heine:
Let's be very honest. When we give our money to church, to the poor, to charity, That's all we are doing is giving money. I don't know if anybody here has actually given their life, their bios. Now I'll look at me on this. Okay?
Jeffrey Heine:
I want to put you all on the seat. Well look at me here. I give out of surplus. I I've never given to the point where, you know, I, I can no longer afford gas or food, or clothes, or even a vacation I've been looking forward to. It's not been my bios.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's, it's simply been, money. Doesn't even really affect the way I live. Truly. I didn't really give up that much control. But this woman, she gives up all control.
Jeffrey Heine:
Everything. So she's the opposite of these scribes with their fancy clothes and their honors and their dinner parties. She has none of that. Her identity is in Jesus or in God here alone. You know, last week we saw how we're to render unto God the things that are God's, and that's exactly what she's doing here.
Jeffrey Heine:
She's saying, my life, I bear your image, God. I was created in your image. Therefore I am yours. And so I give you my life. I give it to you.
Jeffrey Heine:
And let me tell you what that, what this woman is doing. She is demonstrating to us Paul's words in Romans 8, For I'm sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. That is what she is demonstrating. The message is loud and clear. It's Jesus saying, hey, Sadducees, if you let go of all that junk and you you cling to me, even death cannot separate you from me.
Jeffrey Heine:
The resurrection is real. Death can't separate. And he's looking at these scribes and he's saying, Hey, if you lose all of your money and you lose all of your power and all your fancy clothes and the respect and the dinner parties and you lose all that and you dinner parties and you lose all that and you cling to me, cannot be separated from the love of God. You cannot. There is no bad marriage that can separate you from the love of God.
Jeffrey Heine:
There is no failed job. There is no wayward son or daughter. There's nothing, if we cling to Jesus with all that we have, that can ever separate us. Death itself cannot separate us. She gets this.
Jeffrey Heine:
She realizes neither death nor life. Nothing can separate me. She entrusts the Lord with her life. Only only this belief could lead her to trust like that, which which makes me ask the question, what am I holding on to? I guess another way to ask that is, what do I need to let go of?
Jeffrey Heine:
What is it that I need to let go of that I might might hold on to Christ? And even death is not going to loosen that grip. I mean, I just think of that woman. I think what freedom she had. I don't think she did this.
Jeffrey Heine:
You know, we kind of picture her just I don't know. My first mental picture is just, you know, not a smile. I bet she did this joyfully. What freedom to trust completely in the sovereignty and the grace of Jesus. What freedom we would have.
Jeffrey Heine:
Now I'd like to end there. The good pastor probably would. I'm not. Because it's all neat and tidy, and that's how you really should end that. We can have an altar call right now.
Jeffrey Heine:
But the text won't let me. There there's there's just a little bit more to unpack. And I'd like to direct this towards the whole church. You know, at the end of chapter 20, Jesus, he describes the scribes as rich, respectable people who devour widows' houses. Now, we're not exactly sure how these people devoured widows' houses.
Jeffrey Heine:
We have some other writings outside of the Bible that allude to things. How they would they would abuse the hospitality of widows. Sometimes they would rob the widows of their inheritance through their legal expertise. We have records of that. Maybe that's what Jesus is talking about, but basically they got rich by devouring widows houses.
Jeffrey Heine:
And then, don't miss a connection, right after he says that, he points to a widow who's destitute, puts in her last 2¢ that she owns and what she is doing because they run the temple. She's putting her 2¢ in their care. It is no wonder that after Jesus says sees this, afterwards he just says, I'm gonna destroy the temple. I'm bringing it to the ground. We're putting an end to this.
Jeffrey Heine:
I think Jesus, when he looks at that woman, he is full of adoration and love. And at the same time, he is wholly ticked off at what he sees. He's saying, you should be taking care of this woman, not her emptying all that she has for you to abuse. That's not what worship is. That's not what the temple supposed to be about.
Jeffrey Heine:
He's showing us what true faith and worship is. You know, James 127 says, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the father is to visit orphans and widows and their affliction. And so let this be a reminder to us as a church, as the temple of God, the spirit of God in our midst. Let it be a reminder to us to take care of the poor. A reminder that god has so identified himself with the poor that he left behind the respect and the honor he had.
Jeffrey Heine:
He left behind the riches that he had, and he came and he became poor. He emptied himself of those things, so that we might become rich. Let us remember that and our role as a church in this community. Let us not cling to honor and wealth. As a matter of fact, let us not cling to anything other than Jesus and his gospel.
Jeffrey Heine:
Pray with me. Oh Father, my words are just words, unless you breathe life into them. God, this truth is heavy, and yet it's a delight because I see freedom there, and I see joy there if I give up control. So god, right now, I pray that your spirit, he would fall on us. He would open up our hearts in this moment.
Jeffrey Heine:
And Lord, now you, you, you would show us what we need to give up control of. That we would release that. We would lay whatever part of our life we're holding onto and we'd lay it down before you and say, Lord, you have complete control. You have ownership of my life. I now render to God the things that are God's.
Jeffrey Heine:
I now put my bios, my life, into your hands. May we do that. Lord, may we remind ourselves that when we do that, we grip a hand that will never ever let us go. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.