“Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked, him saving, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed; and the third likewise. And the seven had her, and left no seed; last of all the woman died also. In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.” (Ver. 18-23.)
Here again it was merely a difficulty. The Sadducees were the infidel party; and all the apparent strength of infidelity lies in putting difficulties, in raising up imaginary cases which do not apply, in reasoning from the things of men to the things of God. The whole basis is false assumption. The Lord says to them, “Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the Scriptures neither the power of God.” They betrayed as usual, their ignorance of the Scriptures, spite of much pretentiousness: else they would not have put such a case. As for difficulties, what are they to the power of God, supposing there were difficulties to man? But what is beyond the power, and conception of man, is very possible to God: all things are possible even to him that believeth. But the truth is that it was total ignorance to suppose that in the resurrection state such a contingency could arise. The question, besides, took for granted the resurrection, which was exactly what they denied.
Skepticism is habitually crooked—not less false than superstition. Whose would this woman be who had the seven husbands successively? The answer is, she would belong to none then. There is no such thing as a resumption of earthly ties in the resurrection. People do not rise from the dead as husbands and wives, parents and children, masters or servants. Next, the Lord meets the question, not on the ground of their difficulty or mistake, but on its own merits according to the word of God. “When they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels which are in heaven. And as touching the dead, that they rise, have ye not read in the book of Moses, how, in the bush, God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.”
This portion He takes not because it is the clearest scripture in the Old Testament, but because it is in the books of Moses, which these Sadducees chiefly valued. God never gave the land of Israel in actual possession to Abraham or Isaac or Jacob when they were alive in their natural bodies; yet He did promise them the land, not merely to their children but to themselves. Therefore they must rise in order to have that land so promised to them. God gave them the land in promise; but they never possessed it: they must therefore possess it another day. And as this possession cannot be in their dead state, they must live again in order actually to have the promised land. The resurrection therefore is proved from God's declaring Himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. It is impossible that the promise He made them should not be fulfilled.
Then come the scribes. One of them “having heard them reasoning together and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” The scribe was obliged to acknowledge the Lord's wisdom.
He comprises the pith of the law of God in these two extracts—the love of God which is unlimited, the love of one's neighbor not with all the soul and strength, but “as thyself.” The first is loving God more than oneself to the exclusion of every other object as a competitor: the second is loving one's neighbor as oneself. In effect he that loves God and his neighbor has fulfilled the law, as the Apostle says. Grace goes farther than that—even to the total renunciation of self. The grace of God which assimilates the Christian's spirit, according to the power of his faith, to the revelation which He has made of Christ, leads a person even to death for his brother's sake; “we ought to lay our lives down for the brethren” still more for Pod and the truth. “And the scribes said unto him, well master, thou hast said the truth; for there is one God and there is none other but He; and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt-offerings, and sacrifices.”
He owns in his conscience that thus to love God and one's neighbor is far better than all upon which the Jews put such stress and value—the outward forms and ceremonies of the law. But there he ended: he saw not Christ; grace therefore was unknown to this man. So that all the Lord could say to him was, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” Still he was outside; for grace alone brings into the kingdom of God through the knowledge of Christ. And whether a person is near or far off from the kingdom of God, it is equally destruction if he does not enter it. This scribe owned what was in the law; but he did not know what was in Christ. The grace of God that brings salvation he knew nothing of Duty to God and to his neighbor he owned. He set to his seal that the law was just and good (and so it is); not that God is true as revealed in Christ. After this no man durst ask Him anything more. They were answered and silenced in everything.
The Lord now puts His question. It was a brief one and totally different from the points raised by men. Man's questions were founded either upon present things, or upon improbabilities to his mind, or upon the casuistry of rival duties. Christ's question is founded directly on the Scriptures, and more than that, on the mystery of His own person, that only link of souls with God. Christ's question had nothing of curiosity in it, nor was it merely one for conscience, but for searching into God's ways and implicit submission to the revelation of Himself. “How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David?” It was true the Lord did not deny that the scribes saw the truth; but He raised a question which, if answered truly, holding fast the Scriptures, would have led them to the truth about His own Person. In a word, it was this: How is Christ David's Lord as well as David's Son? The scribes saw truly enough that He was David's Son; but David writing by the Holy Ghost said that He was his Lord. How are these two things to be put together, the lower truth with which the scribes were occupied, and the higher one on which the Holy Ghost specially insists? How was Christ David's Son and David's Lord? The link and foundation of it was this, that while He was man, and as man David's son, He was much more. In order to be David's Lord, He must be a divine person, but more than that, He is exalted into that place. The Lordship of Christ rests not alone on His being a divine person; but because He was rejected as Son of David. God has exalted Him to be both Lord and Christ. This opens the whole question of Israel's treatment of Christ, as well as of Jehovah's attitude toward Him. In Psalm 110 we read, “Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Here it is not God sending His well-beloved Son down to the vineyard of Israel; but, when He was cast out, raising Him to His own right hand in heaven. Thus it involves their owning that Israel must have rejected their Messiah, and that, when rejected, God sets Him at His own right hand in heaven. This, evidently, is the key to the present position of Israel, and leaves room for the calling of the Church; in a word, it is the mystery of the person of Christ and the counsels of God, that follows upon His rejection.
But He does more than this. “He said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the market places, and the chief seats in the synagogues and the uppermost rooms at feasts.” It is not only that the doctrine of the scribes is utterly imperfect, but even in their ways there was much that was morally low and bad. They loved the honor of men, religious honor peculiarly, and therefore the chief seats in the synagogues, besides the uppermost rooms at feasts. Everything that would contribute to their ease and honor in this world was eagerly sought. More than this, they devour widows' houses; that is, they take advantage even of the sorrows of people that would expose them to be more entirely under their influence. Along with this there was great religious ostentation, for a pretense making long prayers. “These shall receive greater damnation.”
But now the Lord singles out those with whom He had sympathy on the earth. “Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury; and many that were rich cast in much, and there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites which make a farthing; and he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury.” The reason He gives: “for all they did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” God does not go by the amount given; He judges not by what is contributed, but by what is kept behind for self. In this case it was nothing—all was given. Those who gave of their abundance reserved the greater part for themselves; but the test of liberality is not what is given, but what is left. The much that is kept for self-enjoyment is the proof of how little is given. But when there is nothing left, but all is cast into the treasury of God, there is the true working of divine love and faith. There is what God values, because it is the expression not only of generous giving, but of entire confidence in Himself. This poor woman was a widow, and it might have seemed that she of all others was entitled to keep what little she had; but no, little as it was, all is for God. The dealing with such a small sum might have been a trouble to those who would have to count it, but it was noticed of God, valued by Him, and recorded for us, that we may confide in God, and may give whatever is according to His mind.