Bible Study led by Leila Hirtler
The Bible Study is conducted via email. Anyone wishing to join can contact Leila at lhirtler@yahoo.com
Our current Bible Study is the Gospel of Matthew
Study 2026:
Matthew 22:15–45
August 25, 2026
Without any change of time or place, still the day after Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, still in the temple, and right after Jesus’ series of three parables featuring a father and two sons, a landowner and tenants, and a king, a banquet and a missing wedding garment, talking about yielding fruit, and obedience, we are introduced to four dialogues:
1. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar? (22:15-22)
2. Is there a resurrection? (22:23-33)
3. What is the most important commandment? (22:34-40)
4. Is the Messiah the son of David? (22:41-45)
The theme of these passages is Jesus’ radical love for God; Jesus’ oneness with God is the basis of his authority; and his obedient and trusting love for God is an amazing example of the fruit God seeks.
22:15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. 16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 Then he said to them, “Whose head is this and whose title?” 21 They answered, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed, and they left him and went away.
Disciples of the Pharisees: The "disciples of the Pharisees" refers to students or devoted followers who studied under Pharisaic masters to learn the written Torah, the oral law, and strict traditions regarding ritual purity, tithing, and the Sabbath. Like other rabbinical or philosophical groups of the ancient world, prominent teachers trained disciples to preserve and pass on their specific legal and theological interpretations. (https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/111492/in-luke-533-what-does-disciples-of-the-pharisees-mean)
Herodians: The Herodians were a political faction of Jews in the time of Jesus who supported the royal family of Herod and favored cooperation with the Roman Empire. Mentioned in the New Testament, they frequently teamed up with the religious Pharisees to oppose Jesus. They believed that submitting to Roman authority and supporting puppet rulers like Herod Antipas was the best way to maintain Jewish autonomy and order. They viewed Jesus and His spiritual kingdom as a political and religious threat to the status quo, conspiring with their usual rivals, the Pharisees, to trap or destroy Him. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodians, https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=33911&randomterm=false)
15-16, The Pharisees, and their usual rivals, work together in an attempt to set a trap for Jesus. Their sticky attempt to flatter Jesus and potentially throw him off guard ironically tells the truth. He does not fear public opinion, and he does not stand in awe of people’s rank, title or class.
17, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” Is it right for our people, in respect to our people’s faith and traditions, to pay taxes to Rome? The Herods had always demonstrated their loyalty by energetically ensuring the taxes were gathered. The presence of the Herodians in the crowd indicate for some of the people the answer was a strong “Yes!” There would have also been Zealots in the crowd. The Zealots were against everything Roman, and payment of this tax was treason: Obedience to Caesar was the same as spitting in God’s face. Pharisees had no one definitive view on taxes, but are pictured here as bringing up this sensitive issue to cause problems for Jesus.
18, Jesus, fully aware of the controversy surrounding this question, and the malice intended, lives up to their description of him, and bluntly calls them hypocrites. Their whole reason for raising this problematic question was to trap and discredit him. A “yes” would have undermined his credibility with all the patriots, while a “no” would have labeled him a troublemaker, a political agitator, and someone intent on fanning the flames of rebellion against the Romans.
19, Jesus asks for a sample of the money for the tax. His purse, if he had one, was empty. His opponents quickly reach into their own purses, or pockets, and produce the offending coin, a silver Roman denarius.
20, Jesus inquires about the image and inscription on the coin. … “The silver denarii of Tiberius Caesar (A.D. 14-37) portray his profile and are inscribed with high political and religious claims. Coins not only served as legal tender but were deliberately designed as pieces of official propaganda. Tiberius’s coins bear the graven image of his face, and carry legends boasting that he is, for example, “son of the divine Augustus” or “highest priest” of the Roman Empire. These small coins were loaded with material offensive to any sensitive conscience.” (Smith, ACNT, p. 261)
Jesus declares that his questioners should give (give back) to Caesar what bears his image and legend, and give (give back) to God what bears God’s image and legend. This in no way equates God and Caesar, Jesus is merely directing us to give what we owe to each.
Owed to Caesar: taxes.
Owed to God: praise, honor, faithfulness, obedience, thanksgiving, glory, worship, adoration, love, trust, delight, truth, devotion, awe, appreciation, humility, respect, service, do justice, love compassion, live mercy, welcome the stranger, see God in what God has made, presence, attentive listening, care of God’s creation, good stewardship of what God has entrusted to me, prayers of supplication, prayers for those who have hurt me, steadfast commitment to a life of doing the will of God, …
Also -- all of me: all 206 bones, 78 organs, 11 systems, various intelligences, gifts, abilities, needs, hopes, dreams, plans, aptitudes, strengths, weaknesses, joy, pain, confusion, relationships, history, future, genetics and everything else that makes up me, running feet, bony knees, funky hair, those extra pounds, my tears, smiles, laughter, fears, grief, creativity, taste, smell, sight, hearing, touch, boundaries, growth in grace, occupation (s), shoe size, shoes, my pets, my family, my relatives, my food preferences, my food allergies, …
Also -- life on this planet: trees, forests, groves of trees, evergreens, deciduous, fruit trees, shrubs, flowers and grass, all plants, mushrooms and fungi, birds of every kind, fish and reptiles, and amphibians, wild animals, and tame animals, insects, viruses, bacteria, fresh produce, vine ripened tomatoes, friends, neighbors, enemies we can forgive, elders and children, wise leaders, people of justice and compassion, people who care for this planet, scientists, language and cultures, food to eat, food to share, texture, color, ...
Also -- events on this planet: volcanoes, snow storms, meteor showers, sun rises, sun sets, rain, hail, sunny days, history, future, birth, death, photo synthesis, decay, seeds bursting from the soil, sharing meals, petting my cat, winter, spring, summer, fall, mud time, harvest, healing, forgiving, concerts, long hours of silent practice, lightening, hurricanes, tornadoes, zucchini, pollen, trumpets, organs, bald eagles and cranes overhead, ...
Also -- places on this planet: rivers, oceans, lakes, streams, mountains, hills, rocks, glaciers, water falls, sand, wind swept prairie, gardens, caves, caverns, valleys, places we can get ice cream, grocery stores, food pantries, hardware stores, places of worship, …
Also -- atmosphere: chemicals that make up the air we breathe, clouds, wind, rainbows, light, shadow, stars, moon, planets, cold, heat, amazing smells, …
We could spend the rest of our lives on this list and not finish, but feel free to add …
22:23 The same day some Sadducees came to him, who say 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.”
Jesus had just spoken about abandoning one’s life to God, so its completely appropriate the next conversation focuses on God’s gift of new life.
The Sadducees cite Moses (Torah) where it is stated that if a man dies childless, his brother will marry his widow and raise offspring for his brother who died (Genesis 38:8, Deuteronomy 25:5). The reason for this type of marriage was to ensure that families did not die out. This form of continuing life was the only type they accepted, and the only type they found in Torah. Now, having stated their position to Jesus, they give him a case study which they believe show how absurd the idea of resurrection is, finishing with the punch line: whose property is this woman, since they all had her?
The Sadducees were a prominent, wealthy sect of Jews active in Judea during the Second Temple period, from the second century BCE until the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE. They accepted only the written Torah (the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) as divine authority, rejecting the Oral Law and traditions championed by their rivals, the Pharisees. They taught that the soul perished with the body, denying bodily resurrection, an afterlife, rewards or punishments after death, and the existence of angels or demons. They believed humans possessed total free will, meaning God did not intervene in everyday human affairs or personal destiny. They represented the wealthy aristocratic elite and priestly class, controlling the Temple in Jerusalem and its lucrative services. They held a majority of the seats on the Sanhedrin (the Jewish governing council) and frequently provided the High Priest. To protect their wealth, status, and power, they cooperated closely with Roman occupiers and foreign rulers, making them unpopular with the common people. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadducees, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sadducee, https://www.gotquestions.org/Sadducees.html, https://www.christianity.com/wiki/people/who-were-the-sadducees-in-the-bible-what-were-their-beliefs.html, https://study.com/academy/lesson/video/early-critics-of-christ-pharisees-and-sadducees.html)
22:29 Jesus answered them, “You are wrong because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.”
Jesus is direct, blunt, and honest: you do not know God’s word, and you do not know the power of God. They have set limits where no limits are possible. They have figured out how to put God in their own well defined box and cannot imagine a God who exceeds their expectations. They have figured out how to put God’s word in a box and cannot accept anything outside what they already think they know.
22:30 For in the resurrection people neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels of God in heaven.
There is a resurrection, and it is entirely different than anything you have experienced. Eternal life is not an endless repetition of the some old existence we already live. The rich, ongoing life with God will continue beyond and apart from regeneration and procreation, the only eternal life the Sadducees could imagine. “Like angels in heaven” means that human life will be completely transformed into something new and amazing, beyond our wildest imaginings. (This could also be a poke at their belief that there are no such thing as angels.) (Cf. 1 Corinthians 15:35-50).
22:31 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.
And then Jesus points out an example for the resurrection, not from some obscure forgotten document, but from the call of Moses (Exodus 3:16), in the only scriptures the Sadducees believed were valid (Torah). When God speaks to Moses about the patriarchs, Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, God speaks in the present tense, not the past tense. God IS the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, not was. Therefore they must be alive. And Jesus does not quote Moses, but quotes God’s own self! The great I AM continues to live in relationship with Abraham, and Abraham and other ancient people of God continue to live in God’s presence.
Denying the resurrection denies God’s power over life and death, and sin. Denying the resurrection denies God’s everlasting embrace, calling God a liar, and stating that death is stronger than God. If God does not have power over death, if something as inconsequential as death can stop God, is God really God? The Sadducees believed only men could raise up children, but Jesus proclaims that God can not only raise up generation after generation of human history, but God can raise up the dead at the end of human history and human striving.
33, The crowd heard it, and unlike the Sadducees and other religious authorities who heard him, were astonished at his teachings, not because he had a more clever argument, but because these words strengthened them, and gave them hope.
For a brief moment, these words of Jesus tear aside the veil hiding him from our eyes, and reveals the source of his authority, and why he is willing to risk everything, and give up everything. He has spoken confidently about his own death by crucifixion. Now we know where he gets the strength that fills him with joy while he walks the hard road to the cross. Unlike his opponents, he knows scripture, and knows the boundless power of God, so that he can strongly and confidently walk his astonishing path to complete self giving, not paralyzed by fear of death, or being destroyed.
22:34 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.”
Jesus has barely silenced the Sadducees when a lawyer comes to ask another question: What is the greatest commandment; what commandment sums up the rest; if the whole of the law could be summarized in one commandment, which commandment would it be? Jesus’ reply has two answers. ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ You don’t just love God with every atom of your brain, and every sinew of your body, and you love God with your whole will, your whole self, and your whole heart, soul, and mind (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). And immediately he follows with a second commandment, which is much like the first, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ These two laws are as inseparable as two sides of the same coin, as indivisible as soul and body, and depend entirely on the law and prophets, (7:12; 11:13), the will of God in its complete wholeness.
It is important to note that Jesus speaks these words in Jerusalem, during his final days before his crucifixion, where he will literally yield up heart, and soul and mind, in loving obedience to God, and there he will complete his loving service to his neighbor. These words not only stand as instruction for the people of God. They do that. But even more, this is Jesus commentary on the path he was walking on toward Golgotha.
22:41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: 42 “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet” ’?
45 “If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” 46 No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
After a long series of discussions, Jesus goes on the offensive and takes over the direction of the conversations. This series of questions began with the chief priests and elders questioning Jesus’ authority: What is its nature? What is it’s source? Jesus presents an oddly parallel question: Where does the Messiah come from? How do we know him when we see him?
The standard answer is, “The son of David.” By that they mean, a descendant of David, but not only boasting David’s bloodline, he will be like David, he will do the work David did, he will restore David’s kingdom in the way David would have done it. The Messiah will be like David in every respect, but greater: he will be a man of valor, slaying thousands and ten thousands, restoring political and military pride, as well as the religious fortunes of the people.
43, Jesus challenges this concept. If this is true, why did David say (Psalm 110:1) ‘The Lord (God) said to my Lord (Christ of Messiah), “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’? This passage is used more than any other passage from the Tanakh or Old Testament (26:64; Acts 2:34; 1 Cor. 15:25; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3, 13). Here, Jesus is picturing David as an inspired prophet looking down through time to greet the future Messiah/ Christ. In that moment, David does not refer to the coming Christ as son, but as Lord. Jesus is arguing that David with his inspired choice of words acknowledges the otherness of the Messiah, the otherness of his kingship, the otherness of his weaponry, the otherness of his methods and warfare.
“Jesus is declaring that his contemporaries should not be shocked or surprised that the actual Christ sent from God far surpasses (cf. 5:20) prevailing opinions and expectations. Attention to scripture, in this case Psalm 110, should have prepared them. Jesus is more than temple, more than a prophet, more than Solomon or Jonah (12:6, 41-42). In a sense he is Son of David (1:1) but here again, he is also more.” (Smith, ACNT, p. 267)
The leaders of Israel missed the “more” and the otherness. In Matthew’s day, the leaders easily made the same mistakes. Religious leaders in both places were judging the actions of Jesus by earthly standards for power and authority (20:20-28; 23:8-10). But Jesus calls for a new perspective which sees the way of suffering and service as the way to victory (16:23).
In fact the cross defines how much “more” this Jesus the Christ is than merely a larger or more potent version of old King David with exaggerated powers ruling over a bloated kingdom with expanded boundaries. This Christ in his terrible vulnerability is able to be misunderstood and betrayed, seized and tried, maltreated and crucified (26:25; 27:37). Yet strange and unlimited authority is bestowed on him (25:18). He is the son of David, but transcends everything Davidic (Smith, p. 268).
46, Jesus set before them a mind boggling vision of the surpassing powers of the coming kingdom, which left them speechless.
Are we looking? Are we seeing? Are we open to change? Are we open to having our preconceptions, and favorite theories forever changed?