There is an old saying to the effect that a good rabbi always answers a question with another question.  One rabbi was asked by a member of his congregation, “Why do you always answer a question with another question?” The rabbi replied, “Do I?”

Jesus was called “Rabbi” by His followers.  The word means, literally, “teacher.” In modern Judaism the rabbinate is an ordained office.  In ancient times, however, “rabbi” was simply a title of respect, addressed to laymen learned in the Mosaic law.  Although Jesus’ ministry in Judea lasted less than a week, some of His most significant teachings took place during His daily visits to the Temple.  Tuesday and Wednesday of Passion Week were crowded with verbal interchanges between Jesus and His adversaries, questions asked Him which gave the occasion for some of His most familiar and powerful teachings.  And, like a good rabbi, He usually answered a question with another question. 

The first question concerned His authority.  (Mark 11:27-33) The religious leaders of the day were shocked by Jesus’ precipitate action in throwing the money-changers out of the Temple.  So they asked, “By what authority did you do that?” If He claimed to have done it on His own authority, He could have been accused of madness.  If He claimed the authority of God, He could be accused of blasphemy.  They thought they had Him.  Jesus said that He would answer their question if they would first answer His.  His question was, “In your opinion, was the work of John the Baptist human or divine?” They thought they had Him, but actually, He had them.  If they said that John’s work was of divine origin, then why had they not listened to him?  And John pointed to Jesus!  If they said that John’s work was not divine, then they risked their own popularity with the masses, for the common people liked John.  So they said weakly they did not know.  And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” (Mark 11:33)

Our age has witnessed a crisis of authority.  So many things in which we put our trust seem to have let us down.  Back in 1971, sociologist Peter Berger said, “Today, especially in America, we are surrounded by hysteria—the hysteria of those who have lost their old certitudes and the hysteria of those who, often with blind fanaticism, have committed themselves to new ones.” (“A Call for Authority in the Christian Community,” THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY, October 27, 1971, p.  1262) Though written nearly two decades ago, his words seem no less applicable to the 1990s.  People have either lost faith in their former religious certainties, or they have adopted a blind faith in other certainties which seem to some of us to rest on shaky foundations.  As an old country preacher once said, “It ain’t all the things that people don’t know that troubles me; it’s all the things they know for sure that ain’t so!”

I think of authority as three kinds: External, Internal, and Intrinsic.  External is outside authority; Internal is our own inner guidance system.  Sometimes we call it “conscience.” In spite of the popular proverb, conscience is not the best guide.  The historian Lecky said of the Spanish inquisition, “Philip II and Isabella...inflicted more suffering in obedience to their conscience than Nero did in obedience to his lusts!” Horrible things in history have been done in the name of conscience.  So we need a better authority than that.  Jesus claimed to be that authority.  But His authority, I believe, is “intrinsic,” that is, in the nature of things.  An early apocryphal saying attributed to Christ goes something like this: “Lift the rock and thou shalt find me, cleave the wood and I am there.” Christ’s way of life is built into the universe.  We can try other ways, but they will all lead to blind alleys.  We may say of the teachings of Jesus, “But they won’t work!” Two replies are possible.  One is that we don’t know because nobody has ever tried.  Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western civilization.  He said that he thought it was an excellent idea, and somebody ought to try it.  The same is true with the teachings of Jesus.  A second reply is that no other way has worked!  Gradually, the world is waking up to realize that directions for living were given two thousand years ago, and we ignore them to our own peril.  It was said of Jesus, when He finished His teaching that “He spoke with authority...” (Matthew 7:29)

According to Mark’s Gospel, the next question concerned one of the hottest issues of Jesus’ day.  (Mark 12:13-17) This question was put to Jesus by the Pharisees and the Herodians.  The Pharisees were official religious teachers, the Herodians were an obscure party, perhaps part of the Sadducees, who supported the reign of the unpopular puppet King Herod.  Normally they would have nothing to do with each another, but in this case they were united.  They wanted to get rid of Jesus.  And so they came with a question about paying taxes to Caesar.  The Jews rankled under the Roman tax, not only because there was money involved, but also because it symbolized their servitude to a foreign power.  Thus their question to Jesus was subtle and shrewd: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” If Jesus supported the tax, then He would alienate His fellow Jews.  If He opposed it, He could be charged with treason and revolutionary intentions against the state.  Again, Jesus’ reply deftly dodged the issue.  “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God, the things that are God’s.” Since the tax coin belonged to Caesar anyway, there was certainly no harm in giving it back to him.  But whether one pays the tax or not, one’s primary allegiance is to God.  The people were amazed at His answer, not merely because He conveniently avoided the trap set for him, but because he enunciated a creative principle which has held up for twenty centuries.  Unfortunately, as the Interpreter’s Bible points out, these words of Jesus have been used “as a divine injunction to support any government, however unjust, vicious, and oppressive.” (The Interpreter’s Bible, New York and Nashville: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1951, Vol.  7, p.  841) Many people view these words—indeed, much of the Bible—according to the principle of interpretation laid down by Mark Twain: “Get the facts first; then you can distort them as you wish.” Jesus was not here giving His sanction to any and all governments for all time.  Indeed, His reply itself may have been an ingenious trick answer.  “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God, the things that are God’s.” What things are God’s?  His listeners knew their Bibles.  What things are God’s?  Everything!  According to Psalm 24, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein!” Everything is God’s! 

The Sadducees were the next special-interest group to enter the fray.  They, too, were a rather small party, but they were aristocratic and wealthy.  They included most of the priests.  They were naturally collaborationist with Rome, for they wished to preserve the perks of their office.  They differed from the Pharisees in certain matters, especially their belief (or non-belief) in life after death.  And they could claim a long tradition.  In the earliest pages of the Bible, there is no developed belief in life after death.  At death, they believed, the departed go to “Sheol,” a shadowy place, where there is no real “existence.” Psalm 6:5 says: “...in death there is no remembrance of thee; in Sheol who can give thee praise?” Psalm 88:5 says: “...the slain...lie in the grave, like those whom thou dost remember no more, for they are cut off from thy hand.” Ecclesiastes says: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge of wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.” (Eccl.  9:10) It was King Hezekiah’s pessimistic belief that “Sheol cannot thank thee, death cannot praise thee: those who go down to the pit cannot hope for thy faithfulness.” (Isaiah 38:18) Job believed that a “man lies down and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he?  As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up, so man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake, or be roused out of his sleep.” (Job 14:10-11) Not very comforting words. 

Yet there are a few places in the Old Testament where glimpses of the divine truth come through.  Psalm 139 says: “Even if I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there.” That must have shocked the first persons to hear it, for Sheol was the one place (they believed) where God was not!  But the Psalmist said that even in Sheol God is there!  Therefore, there is hope!  But the Sadducees simply could not believe it.  The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection of any kind.  That’s why they were sad, you see!  (I find it fascinating to realize that millions of God’s children lived, loved, served Him, and died, without any thought of reward or punishment.  A whole lot of Christians, it seems to me, look upon their faith as merely a form of “fire insurance.” But that’s another sermon.)

But back to the Sadducees.  They evidently believed that Jesus agreed with the Pharisees that there would be a resurrection.  They were right.  Jesus did.  In fact, I would argue that Jesus, in spite of all of His arguments with the Pharisees, was closest to them of any of the religious party of His day.  Indeed, in Matthew 23:2 Jesus specifically said that the Pharisees had the truth!  His problem was not what the Pharisees preached, but the fact that they so often did not practice what they preached.  The Sadducees could not accept the notion of resurrection, so they set up a ridiculous hypothetical situation, based on Levirate law (Deut.  25:5-6) which required the brother of a dead man who has left no child to marry the widow.  They described a woman who married seven brothers in succession (sounds like Hollywood) and then died.  “In your so-called resurrection, whose wife will she be?” they asked.  Now they had Jesus trapped.  But Jesus conveniently avoided the trap by telling them that they were ignorant of two things: the Scriptures and the power of God.  Jesus believed in resurrection, not because people are immortal (that was the teaching of Greek philosophy), but because God is love.  This, I believe, is the strongest argument in favor of life after death: not the nature of mankind, but the nature of God.  As Roger Shinn says in his delightful little book, LIFE, DEATH, AND DESTINY: “The only basis for belief in it is trust in God.  If that does not convince us, neither will any enticing preview of coming attractions.” (Phila.: Westminster Press, 1957, pp.  83-84)

The last question was perhaps the most important.  It was advanced by one of the scribes, and was much less antagonistic in tone.  “Which commandment is the first of all?” (Mark 12:28) There was a tendency in Jesus’ day to proliferate commandments.  Moses gave ten on Mt.  Sinai, but the religious authorities, after much argument and discussion, managed to boil them down to 613.  And there were hundreds of subsets of commandments within those 613!  It is no wonder that the common people were confused.  Even the scribes couldn’t keep up with them.  And so a scribe asked which was the greatest and most important commandment of all.  There is no reason to think he was anything but sincere.  Jesus replied by combining two great commandments from the Torah: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Deut.  6:4) and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lev.  19:18)

Now, Jesus’ commandment to love has always been a puzzlement to Christians.  We think of love as an emotion, and wonder just how it can be commanded.  Can we just clench our teeth, and make ourselves love someone...even if we don’t like them much?  Probably not.  But Christian love is not an emotion.  It is a position.  This is made clear by Jesus’ words that we are to “love our neighbors as we love ourselves.” How do we feel about ourselves?  If we are mentally healthy, we usually look favorably upon ourselves.  We desire our own highest good.  Christian love is not like.  Christian love is more akin to “benevolence,” which comes from the Latin “bene volens,” meaning good will: willing the good for the other, whether or not you happen to like him or her.  Psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan once said that “Love is that condition that exists when you are as interested in fulfilling the needs of another as you are in having your own fulfilled.” That’s what Jesus was talking about. 

But it isn’t easy.  I would argue that it is not a natural virtue at all, but a supernatural one.  It only becomes possible when we realize that God loves us in precisely that way.  A perfect example is God, who loves us even when we are unlovely and unlovable.  It is as though God were saying to us: “I love you...now, pass it on!”

In Leslie Weatherhead’s book THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE, the author speaks of the compelling authority of Jesus.  He says that so often in life we have to take the word of an expert.  “We have all noticed that in many matters it is the word of the expert which convinces us.  If ever you had a dear one very ill, and consulted a specialist, I hope you did not argue with the specialist.  You didn’t say, ‘Have you thought of this?  Do you think it might be that?’ You were out of your depth about these medical matters, and you took his word.  Similarly, I would not argue with an astronomer as to how far one star is from another.  I am out of my depth.  I take his word.  If he doesn’t know, no one does.” (THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1968, p.  45-46) The point is that in some matters, it is best to consult an expert.  When my car goes on the fritz, I consult a reliable mechanic.  When my computer is down, I don’t get out a screwdriver and start tinkering with its innards.  I consult an expert.  So with life.  We had better consult an expert.  But is there such a one?  Christians believe that back there in Galilee nearly 2000 years ago there appeared One who lived the most perfect life ever to appear on this planet.  We may not always follow Him but we believe He is to be followed.  Put aside for the moment all of the theology which has been built up around Jesus.  Some of it is good, some of it is harmless, some of it is downright awful!  The question is: will we obey Him?  I have a rabbi friend who says that God doesn’t even care whether or not we believe in Him, just so we obey Him.  I might not go quite that far, but it is an interesting idea.  Jesus did say that He was not so much impressed with people who call Him “Lord, Lord,” as with those who actually try to do what he said.  (Luke 6:46) In Shakespeare’s KING LEAR, (Act 1, Scene 4) the banished Duke of Kent returns in disguise to take service with King Lear.  The king asks him, “Who wouldst thou serve?” “You,” says Kent.  Lear asks, “Dost thou know me, fellow?” Kent answers, “No, but thou hast in thy countenance which I would fain call master.” “What’s that?” queries the king.  “Authority,” said Kent.  That’s it.  Jesus had it.  And that’s why we call Him Master and Lord.  “For He taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.”