Rev. Rob Jones
June 30, 2026

Matthew 22:23–40

The same day some Sadducees came to him, saying there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question: 24 “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother. 26 The second did the same, so also the third, down to the seventh. 27 Last of all, the woman herself died. 28 In the resurrection, then, whose wife of the seven will she be? For all of them had married her.”

29 Jesus answered them, “You are wrong because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection people neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels of God in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead but of the living.” 33 And when the crowds heard it, they were astounded at his teaching.

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

In Matthew 22, Jesus stands in the temple courts during the final week before the cross. His enemies come with questions sharpened like knives. The Sadducees come first, not seeking truth but setting a trap. They deny the resurrection, so they invent a story about seven brothers and one widow, asking whose wife she will be in the resurrection. Their question is not pastoral; it is a parable of unbelief. They take the law of Moses, twist it into a riddle, and expect Jesus to be embarrassed by their cleverness.

But Jesus answers, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (v.29). That is the composition of every false theology: a small Bible and a small God. The Sadducees could quote Moses, but they had not bowed before the God who speaks in the text. They believed death had the final word because they did not know the power of covenant grace.

Jesus takes them to Exodus 3:6: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” He does not say, “I was their God.” He says, “I am.” The covenant name of God outlives the grave. Abraham’s bones may be buried, Isaac may be dust, Jacob may sleep with his fathers, but the living God has not annulled His promise. As John Calvin observes, Christ proves the resurrection from God’s covenant relation to the patriarchs: God’s covenant faithfulness cannot be reduced to a memory of dead men; He is “the God of the living.” (Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists)

Historically, the Sadducees were associated with the priestly aristocracy and are described in Acts 23:8 as denying resurrection, angels, and spirits. Josephus likewise distinguishes them from the Pharisees in their doctrine of the afterlife. (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews & The Wars of the Jews). Their religion was respectable, educated, institutional, but it was also spiritually dead. They had a temple but no living hope. They had ceremonies but no resurrection. And Jesus exposes the tragedy: orthodox vocabulary without living faith is still unbelief.

Then the Pharisees arrive. They have heard that Jesus silenced the Sadducees, and one lawyer asks, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus answers with Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

This is not sentimental religion. This is covenantal obedience. The moral law, summarized in love to God and neighbor, remains the perfect rule of righteousness. The Westminster Confession teaches that the moral law “does forever bind all,” and that Christ in the gospel does not dissolve this obligation but strengthens it. (Westminster Confession of Faith 19.5). A believer is not under God’s law as a means of earning acceptance with Him. We are made right with God by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. (Westminster Confession of Faith 11.1; 19.6; Gal. 5:6)

Picture a great wheel. At the center is the hub; from it every spoke finds its place. Remove the hub, and the wheel collapses. Love for God is the hub of the first table of the law; love for neighbor is the hub of the second. Every commandment is a spoke. You shall have no other gods because you must love God wholly. You shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, or bear false witness because you must love your neighbor truly. Jesus does not shrink the law; He reveals its living center.

Augustine famously wrote, “Love, and do what you will,” not because love excuses sin, but because rightly ordered love fulfills righteousness. (Augustine, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Tractate 7.8) By nature, our hearts curve inward. When left to our own devices, we love self above God, comfort above holiness, resentment above mercy, control above trust. For that reason, the law does not flatter us first; it exposes us. It shows that we have not loved God with all our heart, soul, and mind, nor our neighbor as ourselves.

But Christ teaches us that the One who teaches the law is also the One who fulfills it. Jesus loved the Father with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength. Jesus loved His neighbor as Himself, even when His neighbor was His enemy. At the cross, Jesus did not merely explain love; He displayed it. He bore the curse of lawbreakers. He satisfied divine justice. He rose bodily from the grave, the first fruits of those who sleep. (1 Corinthians 15:20) The resurrection answer to the Sadducees and the love commandment answer to the Pharisees meet in one Person: Jesus Christ.

N. T. Wright argues that early Christian resurrection faith belonged within Jewish hope but was sharpened by the claim that Jesus had been bodily raised from the dead. (N. T. Wright, 2003). Christ’s resurrection is not only historical vindication; it is covenantal victory. Scripture tells us that because Christ lives, all united to Him by faith shall live. Because Christ fulfilled the law, the Spirit now writes the law upon the hearts of God’s people. (Rom. 8:1–4; Jer. 31:33)

So let the Sadducee in us repent of a small God. Let the Pharisee in us repent of a proud heart. Let the grieving saints take comfort: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Let the weary disciple take direction: love God wholly, love your neighbor truly. And john would say, let every sinner come to Christ, who is the resurrection and the life. And as Paul will remind us, He is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. (John 11:25; Rom. 10:4)