8. Amazed with Jesus Teaching the Sadducees
8. Amazed with Jesus Teaching the Sadducees.
“Life without wonder – radical amazement – is not worth living. It is the beginning of our happiness. Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement… get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible. Never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel).
I Stand Amazed | Celtic Worship ft. Steph Macleod
Jesus Christ engaged in a ministry of amazement, astonishment, wonder. Everywhere He traveled, He left people astounded and in awe. He caused a big stir wherever he went, and people left in His wake were amazed at who He was and what He was able to do, whether from His unusually wise teaching, His authoritative exorcisms, His unprecedented healings, His clever and insightful conversations, His dramatic miracles. It seemed everyone marveled at Jesus, despite His best efforts sometimes to be off the radar. There are three Greek synonyms that mean complete astonishment or radical amazement: ekplesso, thaumazo, and existemi. The differences between these three words, though, are fascinating. Are those of us who follow Jesus now, are we also amazed and astonished with Jesus?
“And the people were astonished (“ekplesso”) beyond measure, saying, ‘Everything He does is beautiful (“kalos”), and is done with excellence!” (Mark 7:37).
(1.) ASTONISHED: “ekplesso”; a strong Greek word for astonished; amazed; dumfounded; awestruck; overwhelmed at something extraordinary; struck out of one’s senses; takes your breath away, even to the point of panic. There were at least fifteen gospel events in which the Greek superlative “ekplesso” was used to communicate a radical amazement, astonishment, wonder at Jesus. Jesus was met with overwhelming astonishment after His Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 7:28); by His hometown friends as they rejected Him (Matt. 13:54); after His teaching on the inadequacy of wealth (Matt. 19:25); after His conversation with the Sadducees about heaven and the resurrection (Matt. 22:33); at His synagogue exorcism (Mark 1:22, 27); after His healing of the deaf and mute man (Mark 7:37); after He whipped the moneychangers in the Temple (Mark 11:18); at His brilliant level of understanding with the rabbis at just 12 years of age (Luke 2:48); after casting out a demon with just a word (Luke 4:32, 36); at the exorcism of a demon-possessed boy (Luke 9:43).
“And behold, a man from the crowd shouted out, ‘Master, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child! A spirit seizes him and suddenly he screams out and it convulses him so that he foams at the mouth! It mauls him and will scarcely leave him!’ Jesus answered, ‘Bring your son here to me.’ And even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him down to the ground and completely convulsed him. But Jesus severely rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the child, and then restored the boy to his father. And all were completely astounded (“ekplesso”) at the evidence of God’s mighty power, His majesty and His magnificence. While they were all marveling (“thaumazo”) at everything Jesus was doing…” (Luke 9:38-43).
(2.) MARVELED: “thaumazo”; another strong Greek word that means… marveled at, astonished by; amazed at; filled with wonder to the point of being bewildered; being awestruck in admiration. There were forty-four passages in the gospels in which people were greatly amazed by Jesus, astonished to the point of awed by Him. Included in the group of people who were completely amazed, “thaumazo’d” by Christ: the shepherds, Mary and Joesph, the disciples, the Pharisees, various crowds during His ministry, and even Pilate himself was astonished by Jesus and marveled at Him. People were amazed by everything from the angelic baby announcement, to various prophecies in Jesus’ young life, to the calming of the storm and the withering of the fig tree; from His miraculous exorcisms and healings to His teachings that always were on point and what were needed at the time.
“Then a blind and mute man under the power of a demon was brought to Jesus and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the crowds of people were overwhelmed with astonishment, stunned with amazement and practically out of their minds with wonder (“existemi”), and said, ‘This cannot be the Son of David, the Messiah, can it?” (Matt. 12:22-23).
(3.) FLABBERGASTED: “existemi”; an extreme word that means to be out of one’s mind with amazement; crazy with wonderment; a stunned astonishment so strong that one is beside oneself; to be overwhelmed so as to be bowled over; literally, to remove from a standing position. This word is used seventeen times in the gospels, including when Jesus healed and forgave the paralyzed man dropped through the ceiling of Peter’s house; when Jesus raised a young girl from the dead; when Jesus calmed the storm and casually climbed into the boat with His disciples; on the road to Emmaus when the disciples heard about the empty tomb from the women. Existemi is also used when the family of Jesus thought He was crazy, going out of His mind.
I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous)
“That same day some Sadducees came to Jesus. They claim that there is no resurrection of the dead, and they tried to trap Jesus with a technical question about marriage in heaven… But Jesus replied to them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor God’s power. For in the resurrected state neither men nor women are given in marriage, but they are as the angels in heaven. But as to the resurrection of the dead, have you never read what was said to you by God, ‘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 of the living!” And when the throng heard His teaching, they were completely astonished and filled with glad amazement (“ekplesso’) with His wisdom.” (Matthew 22:23-33).
Face-Off. Jesus had just finished a confrontation with the Pharisees about whether to pay to taxes to Caesar, after which the Pharisees marveled at Jesus’ adroit handling of what was supposed to be a trick question. Soon after that, another group of religious authorities decide it’s their turn to try to trap Jesus into saying something controversial or questionable.
The Sadducees were an unpopular group of aristocrats and ruling priests who headed up the Temple finance system. The common Jew on the street did not like the Sadducees because they were wealthy, disconnected from the common folk, and they considered themselves above it all. The high priest Caiaphas was a Sadducee, for example. The Sadducees were also known as Roman sympathizers so that they could retain their financial control of Temple operations. They believed that only the first five books of the Torah were divinely inspired, and ignored the rest of Hebrew Scriptures. They were hardline skeptics, and so rejected anything that was considered miraculous or supernatural. Since the notion of the resurrection of the dead gradually unfolded in the later writings in Scripture, the Sadducees refused to admit that the resurrection was even a possibility.
Resurrection in the Hebrew Bible. It is true that Jewish believers throughout the Hebrew Bible were for the most part not all that interested in the afterlife. They didn’t talk much about heaven or hell as a place to go after death. Their sense was that God’s judgments were intended for life here on earth. People who were cursed in their life if they didn’t obey God were experiencing for the most part their hell on earth. They were judged here and now, and were suitably punished if that’s what God wanted to do. And the same for God’s blessings. People living on earth could be blessed during this life for obeying God. They didn’t need to think about the blessed life after they die, since they more or less have their heaven on earth. There were a few hints, though, that some old saints in the Hebrew Bible were thinking about an afterlife with God. Job made a beautiful statement of faith in Job 19:35, “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God!” Or look at Daniel 12:2-3, “Many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace. Those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever.” Or how about Isaiah 26:19, “But your dead will live, Lord; their bodies will rise—let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy—your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.” Or Hosea 13:14, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave! I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Grave, where is your destruction?” And we can’t forget to mention these passages from the Psalms: “As for me, I shall see Your face in righteousness; I will be [fully] satisfied when I awake [to find myself] seeing Your likeness.” (17:15); “But God will redeem me from the power of Sheol (the place of the dead); for He will receive me.” (49:15); “You, who have shown me many troubles and calamities, will revive me once more. From the depths of the earth, you will raise me up one more time.” (71:20). Most of what Jesus had to say about the resurrection seemed to have their foundation in those passages in the Hebrew Bible.
Jesus, Yahweh and Moses. In His rather heated conversation with the Sadducees, though, Jesus referred to a portion of Scripture that they would have known well and supposedly believed in fully. After frankly telling them that they don’t know the Torah as well as they think they did, and that they underestimated God’s power to create a heaven after a general resurrection from the dead, Jesus quoted from one of the most important scenes in all of Scripture… the burning bush passage with Moses and Yahweh in Exodus 3:6.
God of the Present Tense. Yahweh introduced Himself to Moses through the burning bush by claiming to be the God of the Jewish Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God didn’t say He was their God in the past tense, but that He is their God in the present tense. So obviously, says Jesus, the Lord is saying to Moses that these long-dead Patriarchs are still alive and being sustained by God until the resurrection of the dead. God would not have claimed to be the God of the living if these men were dead and buried forever. So according to Jesus, Yahweh claimed with Moses that these Jewish Patriarchs were all alive in God waiting for the final resurrection, and that there is an eternal nature to God’s covenantal relationship with Israel. Jesus triumphantly states here to the unbelieving Sadducees that the Lord is the God of the living, not of the dead. God is the Author of life, life eternal, which makes the resurrection a spiritual fact.
Jesus and the Afterlife. Jesus spoke often of the resurrection of the dead, especially in moments like John 5: 24-29, “I tell you the truth, those who listen and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. Indeed the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.” So Jesus wasn’t shy about discussing resurrection, whether of all people, or specific people, or even himself. “I AM the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever trusts in Me, though he may die, yet he shall live.”(John 11:25). Too, He told His disciples on a number of occasions that He Himself was going to be resurrected: Matthew 16:21; Matthew 20:19; Matthew 26:32; Mark 9:90; Mark 10:32; and Luke 18:31. So the topic of a general resurrection or a particular resurrection was nothing new if you hung around Jesus. Maybe it was a passing thought in the earlier books of the Hebrew Bible, but not with Christ.
“And when the large audience surrounding them during this conversation heard what Jesus had to say to the Sadducees, they were completely astonished and filled with glad amazement at His wisdom.” (Matt. 22:33).