Matthew 22:23-46

A group of Sadducees came with a complicated question dealing with marriage after the resurrection. Jesus answered them that there is no marriage in the resurrection. Now, the Sadducees didn't even believe in the resurrection. Their question had been posed as to be unanswerable and thus show the error in Jesus' teachings. Even though the truth of the resurrection was not their direct question, Jesus chose to address it anyway by pointing them to the words spoken to Moses from the burning bush. God told Moses that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and since God is not the God of the dead, that means Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must have been alive (via resurrection).

A very common tactic used by those who don't believe is to raise supposedly unanswerable questions which they believe will bring down an entire system of beliefs. It is important not to get bogged down in minutiae though, as the plain truth can be missed behind the cloud of confusion. Beware of people who come with lofty questions as they usually do not want the answer to be taught, but rather hope to silence you with the inability to answer. When a question seems to have no answer, it is often perfectly acceptable to say "I don't know" rather than trying to fake an answer to satisfy someone else.


The Pharisees heard about the run-in with the Sadducees and decided to challenge Jesus. They came to Him and asked what the greatest commandment is. Jesus said it is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. He added that the second greatest, which goes right along with it, is love your neighbor as yourself.

The reason we follow any of God's laws is that we love Him. Those who don't love Him don't keep His laws and don't care about them. Loving our neighbor is also important since so much of God's law deals with how we deal with others. God loves each one of us, and if we love Him as well, we will love His creations. All the rest of God's law is merely the details of how we show love to God and others.


Jesus asked the Pharisees whose Son is the Christ. The Pharisees said David. Jesus then asked if the Christ is David's son, why does David call Him Lord? They were expecting an earthly king to set up an earthly kingdom. Jesus showed them that the Messiah is the Son of God. Jesus had been identified as the Son of David or Messiah on more than one occasion and those claims had been met with accusations of heresy. This question made it clear that if He was accepted as Messiah, He had to be accepted as the Son of God also.