III: Jesus and the Sadducees—the Great Commandment—the Christ the Son of David
This new defeat so discouraged the Sanhedrin that a majority of its members forthwith renounced the struggle. Some, nevertheless, made of more obstinate stuff, wished to try if they could not get better success. They belonged to that sect of Sadducees who make themselves conspicuous among the Jews by their Epicurean tenets and their contempt for the traditions. Although thus far they had disdained to meddle much with the Nazarene, leaving to the Pharisees the task of defending their observances which He condemned, yet, during these last few days, they had begun to fear lest some new uprising should come of this to trouble their peace with Rome. Even at this moment it would seem that it was not so much hatred which set them against the Christ as it was their own curiosity, along with a certain ambition to succeed where their rivals had lately been worsted. They counted upon confounding Him with one of the objections they had raised against the resurrection of the body,— one which to them seemed unanswerable.
Approaching the Saviour with every token of consideration,—
"Master," they began, "Moses said: ‘If any one die without any children, let his brother marry his wife and raise up children to his brother.’ Now there were with us seven brothers, and the first having married, died, and as he had no children, he left his wife to his brother, in like manner the second and the third, and so on to the seventh. And after all the others, the wife dies also. In the Resurrection, to which one of the seven shall she be as wife, for such she had been unto them all?"
This tale, invented to suit their purpose, seemed pregnant with weighty matter to men who could conceive of no life nor any happiness outside and beyond the senses. They ridiculed the Pharisees' decision, that the first of the seven husbands would take back his wife, and therefrom took occasion to conclude that all things die with the body.
How infinitely higher was the reply of Jesus! For an instant, He flung open Heaven's gates and let them contemplate, what their dull hearts had never dreamed,— the life of the Blessed.
"In this life," He said,1 "men take unto themselves wives, and women take unto themselves husband; but amongst are those that are judged worthy of the life to come and of being raised from the dead, it shall not to be thus. They all shall be immortal, like unto the Angels, children of God, children of the Resurrection." Born again into the incorruptible, these elect, like the Angels, shall know no need of preserving their race by generations of time or by mortal marriage, for nothing shall perish anymore, but "God shall be all in all."
These words showed the different tone which Jesus assumed with the Sadducees from that with which He treated the Pharisees. He knew that there was more self-conceit than malice in the queries of His new opponents; furthermore, taking compassion upon the blindness which led them to decry the possibility of a supernatural world, He pointed out that the two-fold cause of their error: for this, He said, was because they misunderstood the power of God, Who, out of His love for mankind, can do and has done things far above the reach of our reason; it was also because they had as yet but poorly understood the Scriptures, and had degraded them to the level of their own carnal minds. How came it that they had notread that the dead rise again, even as Moses had revealed to them long ago? Jesus intentionally omitted the Prophets, who in the eyes of the Sadducees had not the same authority as the Law, but simply appealed to their great law-giver, as witness of Jehovah and sovereign arbitrator in all cases of doctrine.
"As to whether the dead rise again, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage of The Bush, how God said to him: ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob?" If these Patriarchs had been naught but a heap of poor remains, enclosed in their lonely tombs, Jehovah would not have deigned to take this title and call Himself the god of a handful of cold dust. Therefore something of these men must have outlasted their death and thus still remains in the sight of the Eternal; "for God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Then, extending to all humanity what He had said of the first fathers of Israel:—
" All," added the Master, "are living unto God. And therefore you do greatly deceive yourselves," He concluded, addressing the Sadducees.
The people who had followed this new debate, stood speechless with wonder at such power; some Doctors of the Law loudly declared their delight, and one of them, desiring to be better informed as to the School of the Christ, approached near and put this question two Him:—
"Master, which is the first of all the commandments?"
The this indeed was one of the questions which occupied every thoughtful mind in these times, disturbed as they were by the futile discussions of the Synagogue. In their worship of the Law the masters of Israel had really rendered the moral law an issueless labyrinth, accumulating precept upon precept without end, concerning its every word. For some, the commandments of Tradition even outweighed those of Moses; for others, the one thing essential was to scrupulousy follow the Pharisaic "Customs." Accordingly, the Scribe asked to Jesus to pronounce between them.
The response of the Master did not leave them long in doubt. He pointed to the legend graven upon the phylacteries of His hearers: each of them, in fact, contained that Prayer, repeated twice a day by pious Israelites, which commenced with the Hebrew word: Shema, Hearken — "Hearken, oh Israel, the Lord thy God is the only God. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength."
"Lo! The first Commandment," said the Saviour, "and the second, which is like unto it, is this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these."
We should have to be living, like the Jews of that day, in the midst of the clouds accumulated by the Rabbis, to appreciate what a holy, beneficent lights this speech seemed to shed upon their overflowing hearts. The simplest minds among them easily saw its truth; in two words it expressed the entire Law, or rather it reduced it to one single duty: Love,— to love God, above all things, and the neighbour for God's dear sake and in His sight. The Lord did not condemn the ignorant and weak to any irksome toil; He did not even exact of them that they should search the Scriptures. For mankind this is the whole Law and the Prophets, that they love God and their fellow-man.
Enraptured with a Doctrine which confirmed all that he had been able to describe in the Holy Books, the Scribe testified openly to his delight.
"Master," he cried, "you have well said!"
And one by one he repeated the Saviour's words:—
" Truly God is One, and there is none other besides Him!. . . He must be love with all our heart, with all our intelligence, with our whole soul, and with all our strength.. . . To love our neighbour as ourself is more than all holocausts and burnt sacrifices."
These words of Osee connected in this way with those of the Christ, show what pious heedfulness the Christ had brought to the study of sacred literature. Jesus was touched at such tokens of earnestness. He praised the wisdom of his reply and encouraged him to take the final steps which yet lay between him and the perfect light.
"You are not far," He told him, "from the Heavenly Kingdom."
This conversation reached the ears of the Pharisees, for now, more than ever agitated, after the failure of their emissaries, they had gathered together and were inspecting with an anxious eye this Man Whom they durst no longer openly affront.
Jesus was well aware of their presence, and this time without waiting for them to cross-question Him, He addressed His words to them.
"What think you of the Christ?" He asked them; "whose Son is He?"
"David’s," they answered.
"How then," replied Jesus, "did David, divinely inspired, call Him his Lord?
"‘The Lord said unto my Lord:
Sit Thou on My right hand,
Until I reduce Thy foes as a footstool unto Thy feet.’
"If David calls Him his Lord, how then is He his Son?"
They could not answer this question without acknowledging the true origin of Jesus; David’s Son, according to the flesh, He was still his Lord and Master, by eternal generation; yet now passion blinded their minds, and they remained silent while that "the people heard Him gladly." After the controversies of this morning no one dared question the Christ; they had discovered at last that it would be far easier to destroy Him than to refute His teaching.
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