Luke 20:19-47 - Jesus Answers Some Difficult Questions

The question in v25 asked by the scribes and high priests is about the relationship of Jews to the Roman government. In taking the coin from his questioners Jesus showed that they themselves used Caesar’s coins with Caesar’s image and so using it obliged them to repay his property to him. However, Jesus goes beyond the original question to show there is a parallel debt to God. We are God’s “coinage” because we bear His image. Jesus’ answer was very effective, and we should take time to apply both halves of this question to our own lives.

The Sadducees were the next to question Jesus, in the form of an absurd story – how could a wife have seven husbands in the resurrection? When we start to think about the resurrection and life after death, it is hard to imagine what it will be like. What will people look like? What kind of bodies will we have? How will we relate to one another? Sometimes people use these kinds of questions to suggest that the idea of the resurrection is fanciful or even absurd. Jesus takes the Sadducees on, quoting from the Old Testament. He is also absolutely clear that He believed not only in His own resurrection but also in a much wider ‘resurrection from the dead’ v35. If you really believe in the resurrection it changes your attitude to everything in life. You have a completely different perspective on this life. There is real hope in the face of the tragedy of death. This life is only the beginning.