We do not like to be told that we are wrong. We especially do not like to be told that we must change our attitudes and the way we live in order to please God. The more religious and righteous we think we are, the less willing we are to accept such a message. It is far easier to discredit or destroy the person who says such things than it is to accept that we need to change.
Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of His day for their hypocrisy. They had turned the Temple in Jerusalem, which God intended as a place of worship and prayer for all peoples, into a place of business. When Jesus cleansed the Temple by driving out the businessmen, the religious leaders questioned His authority to do so. When Jesus warned them that they were bringing disaster upon their own heads by not honoring God as they should, instead of repenting the leaders sought for ways to arrest and silence Him. In chapter 12, verses 13 through 17 of the Gospel which bears his name, Mark tells us one of the ways the leaders attempted to do this. “They sent some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to him, that they might trap him with words. When they had come, they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you are honest, and don’t defer to anyone; for you aren’t partial to anyone, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give?” But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test me? Bring me a denarius, that I may see it.” They brought it. He said to them, “Whose is this image and inscription?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Jesus answered them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” They marveled greatly at him.”
Notice that the religious leaders did not ask Jesus this question because they genuinely wanted to know what God would have them do. No, they asked the question hoping to trap Jesus in what He said. In reality, the question exposed the leaders’ own hypocrisy because, on the one hand they acknowledged that Jesus was a man of integrity and taught the way of God yet, on the other hand, had no intention of accepting what He said. They wanted a pretext to arrest Jesus. They thought that no matter how Jesus answered, He would land Himself in trouble. If He said “Yes, you should pay taxes to Caesar,” it would anger the Jews because they resented the Romans who ruled over them. If He said “No, you don’t have to pay taxes,” it would get Him in trouble with the Roman authorities. If Jesus refused to answer, His critics could claim that He didn’t have the moral courage to confront the tough issues of the day.
By asking whose image and inscription was on the coins used to pay taxes, Jesus totally neutralized the trap set for Him. If the coin belonged to Caesar, then how could anyone say that Caesar should not be given it? The Romans could not object to Jesus’ answer because He clearly told people to pay their taxes. The Jews could not object because if you are going to use something which belongs to another (Caesar’s coins), it is only right to pay him for the privilege.
However, Jesus’ answer did something else besides disarm the trap set for Him. It also caught those who had set it in the very trap they intended for Jesus. The coin belonged to Caesar because it had Caesar’s image and inscription on it. But the coin was not the only thing present which bore an image. Scripture tells us that God created man in His own image (Genesis 1:26-27). In other words, God placed some of His own characteristics in us. Since we bear God’s image, we belong to God. We owe Him our allegiance and loyalty. In addition, Scripture tells us that Jesus, “…is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being,” (Hebrews 1:3 NIV) By trying to trap Jesus and refusing to follow Him, these men were rebelling against the One who owned them. No wonder they were amazed at Jesus’ answer. What about you? Do you serve the One whose image you bear?
Unfortunately, Jesus’ answer did not dissuade others from trying to test Him. In verses 18 through 27 Mark writes, “Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. “Some Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, came to him. They asked him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote to us, ‘If a man’s brother dies, and leaves a wife behind him, and leaves no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.’ There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and dying left no offspring. The second took her, and died, leaving no children behind him. The third likewise; and the seven took her and left no children. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be of them? For the seven had her as a wife.” Jesus answered them, “Isn’t this because you are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God? For when they will rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But about the dead, that they are raised; haven’t you read in the book of Moses, about the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are therefore badly mistaken.””
The Sadducees were a powerful and influential group among the religious rulers. At least one of their number had served as the High Priest in the Temple. It is extremely ironic that these religious leaders were ignorant of the power of the God they claimed to worship and ignorant of the Scriptures which they claimed to revere.
The Sadducees apparently could not imagine any future arrangement than this present life. But we know from Scripture that this present life is not as it was at the beginning. Death came into the world as a result of sin. If God is powerful enough to create life, is He not powerful enough to grant life again? And nowhere do the Scriptures say that our future relationships will be the same as they are in this present life. As the Apostle John would write some time later, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2 NIV)
We do not have the capacity to understand what we will be like after the resurrection. However, from Jesus’ answer we can say that marriage, as we know it now, will not exist. In that respect we will be like the angels. By referring to the angels, Jesus also demolished another doctrine of the Sadducees for they claimed, contrary to what the Scriptures say, that angels do not exist (Acts 23:8). Jesus clinched the matter by quoting from the portion of the Scriptures the Sadducees held most sacred. That the dead will live again there can be no doubt, for God is the God of the living.