In recent centuries the reliability of Scripture has been on trial as never before, and as followers of Christ, it is important we know how Jesus views Scripture. In this passage we get a very direct and candid look into the way Jesus views Scripture, the written word of God that in His day consisted of what we call the Old Testament.

Jesus is responding to a question from the Sadducees, and in verse 32 He quotes Exodus 3:6 where God speaks to Moses in the burning bush. God identifies Himself to Moses by saying, “I am the God…of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

In Matthew Jesus hangs his response to the Sadducees on the tense of the phrase “I AM.” Since God tells Moses that He is the God of these men who are already dead, then there must be life after their bodily death. Otherwise these men would no longer have a God and the phrase would have been “I was the God…”

The key thing here is that Jesus is confident that Scripture is authoritative and that things truly occurred just as Scripture records them….even down to the very tense of a specific word. If Exodus records God as saying “I am,” then that is truly what He said.

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A couple of thoughts come to mind regarding this passage. First, since Jesus tells us to give that which bears Caesar’s image, the coin, to Caesar, it raises the question, “What do we give to God?” Obviously, the answer is that which bears God’s image, but what is that?

From Genesis 1: “Let us make man in our own image… in the image of God, male and female, he created them.” We bear God’s image, and thus it is our very selves that God expects of us.

Also, I find it particularly suitable that this passage, regarding our relationship to “Caesar”, falls this year on Independence Day in my church’s lectionary. We must always remember that our liberty is a gift from God, our Creator, not from our government. Caesar’s job is to protect and guard the liberty of his subjects; he is not its source. The same thing goes for morality. Caesar is not the ultimate arbiter of right and wrong—God is. When our government sets itself up as the determiner of morality, rather than its defender, whether through legislation, or courts, it is Caesar, back to his old tricks. Let us not give to Caesar that which belongs only to God.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: What does giving to God what is God’s mean for you today?

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In this passage we are told that the kingdom of heaven is like a marriage feast, i.e., a big party. Many were invited, and all the likely candidates didn’t come. Some just made fun of the invite, others actually mistreated and abused the king’s messengers. So the king sent his messengers out to bring in whatever riff-raff they could find. This king was determined!

We may tend to think of the “kingdom of heaven”, as mentioned in this passage, as referring to some grand, cosmic, future reality, as in “I sure want to go to that feast in heaven when I die.” But Jesus, by his incarnation, death, resurrection, and sending of the Holy Spirit, came to bring the reality of the “kindgom of heaven” to the here and now.

The King is inviting us to his Son’s marriage feast each day. Today, when I get the invitation, what will I choose? Will I enter into his Presence, join his feast? Or will I scorn the invitation, and choose instead to feed sinful appetites? Or maybe I’ll just choose distractions–things that aren’t necessarily bad in themselves, but just fritter away my time and energy.

Lord, today I choose to come to the feast that you invite me to. Lord, I choose to receive from your hand, rather than the world, since I know that everything that comes from your hand is good.

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When I was a teen, my favorite job was babysitting for my piano teacher’s children. I’m not entirely sure letting me be responsible for her 3 little ones was necessarily the sanest choice, but the kids sure loved it. We had quite a few rowdy games that we played with great fervor, but none so much as “Rock-A-Bye-Baby.” Most people I know gently rock their children and then give them a little pretend-toss when they get to the line “down will come baby”, but that’s not how we played it. I would wrap one of them up snug in a blanket, rock them vigorously back and forth until they were giggling uncontrollably, and then, at the “down will come baby” climax, literally toss them 2 or 3 feet through the air onto their overstuffed couch. And they loved it. It never crossed their minds that I could very possibly lose my grip on them prematurely and drop them on the floor. And I’m sure they never thought I would ever miss the couch and send them flying into a less forgiving piece of furniture. Perhaps the craziest part of our game was the fact that they kept coming back for more. “Do it again! Do it again!”

So when Jesus says we should come to him like little children, I like to think of those 3. They trusted me completely – so much so that they literally put themselves into my hands. Do we trust Jesus that much? There will be times when my life is in so much chaos and motion that I have no control over it, but my response needs to be complete trust that He will not lose His grip on me. And in the moments when I feel as though I am hurtling through the air toward who-knows-what, He calls on me to rest in the assurance that He has, in His infinite love and wisdom, chosen the exact right place for me to land.

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: Would you let Jesus throw you on the couch? And then ask for more?

Sometimes, I think Jesus is just being rude to people. Here’s a nice man with great upbringing and a pretty solid spiritual background approaching Jesus with a very bold statement of commitment. If I had been there, this man’s statement of commitment would have put my own commitment to shame. There are some places where I really don’t want to go. This guy seems to have it all together!

That’s the problem with words of promise. They can convince us that something is true about a person when in fact it might not be. I look at Jesus and initially think he’s rude, but then I remember that Jesus came to earth on a mission of life and death that would label him as a workaholic for three straight years. He got up early in the morning to pray, and he went to bed late at night. He was constantly surrounded by crowds (and at times by some really annoying fishermen). But the mission wasn’t about celebrity. Ultimately, he was going to give up his life for the sake of others, and he was going to call his followers to do the same.

Perhaps it wasn’t rudeness but straightforward honesty that drove Jesus to challenge this man’s commitment to “go anywhere.” Perhaps Jesus knew the man wasn’t interested in a nomadic life but was rather interested in just walking with Jesus to his final destination assuming that Jesus had a home base from which he operated. Perhaps the man was simply asking, “Jesus, can I sleep over tonight?” Perhaps that’s what Jesus knew about the man, but at any rate, Jesus simply says, “I’ve got no place to sleep tonight or any night. There is no home base for what I’m doing. Are you aware of what you are signing on for?” And that’s the last we hear of this particular man.

The other man, of course, seems to be a little more honest and humble, but Jesus again responds with something that seems to be rude! This man just wants to bury his father, and Jesus says, “Forget about him! His body will turn to dust on its own eventually. Just leave it!” Or maybe that’s not what Jesus was saying at all. Perhaps Jesus knew something about this man too. Perhaps this man’s father wasn’t actually dead yet. Perhaps this man’s father wasn’t even sick. Perhaps this man was saying, “Well, Jesus, once my parents have passed, then I’ll look you up.” Perhaps Jesus was saying, “If that’s what you want to do with your life, wait for your parents to die, then you are already dead yourself. So go, let dead people bury dead people.”

Or perhaps Jesus was simply using these opportunities to teach something to those who would be reading these verses in 2008.

Jesus sacrificed a great deal to get on the road proclaiming good news and healing people, and he calls his followers to similar sacrifice. Are you waiting around for something to happen before you will give Jesus your full allegiance? Are you displaying a surface commitment to Christ while not actually addressing what it will cost you?

BIG IDEA FOR THE DAY: Take time now to reflect on your status with Christ. He calls his followers to sacrifice for the sake of the mission. “Follow me,” he says.

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