All right, all right, join the Journey family, friends, and guests. You're listening to Join the Journey podcast with your host, Emma, daughter. Thanks for joining. Today, we are reading Matthew 22 through 23, and I'm in the podcast studio with today's Devo writer, Ross Ferrence. How's it going? It's going so well, Ross. It's good to have you back. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm glad to be back. Super quickly for those who don't know you. How are you involved here at Watermark? Yes. So my wife and I currently lead a foundation group, which is for newly married couples between zero and three years. We just saw the fruit and being in a foundation group ourselves and just really wanted to be to build into other people who are early in marriage. Just we see the value so much in young couples and setting them up for a great foundation. No pun intended. Love it. If you are a newly married couple or you're getting married soon, we will put the information about how to join a foundation group in the episode description. Or if you've been married for how long do you have to be married,

like five years? Oh, to be a leader? Yeah. Yeah. If you've been married for five or more years or longer, we'd love for you to serve. Come on, come lead. We'll put that information in the description as well. But we've got quite a few things to discuss today. Yes. Don't we? It's a good section of scripture here. It really is. So let's start with Matthew 22.

Yes.

And in this chapter, Jesus has asked, really we could boil it down to it, a bunch of tricky questions. Yes. Why, Ross, as you studied, did you find that these moments matter or are significant? And then what can we learn from Jesus's response to the questions? Yeah. I think the first thing I want to do is kind of like look at the cast of characters of who is even coming to him and asking these questions. I think that's important. So there's three kind of groups of people that come to Jesus at this point, really with the intent of trying to trip him up and trying to get him caught in his words and try to get him to say something that he doesn't really mean. Yeah, trap him. So the first group is the Herodian. So they're really kind of a political suppressive room.

They're Jews, but they really try to get him to say something that he doesn't really mean, yeah, trap him. So the first group is the Herodian.

So they're really kind of a political supporters of Rome. They're Jews, but they really are, at the time, they're kind of viewed a sell-outs almost because they were more so supporting Rome, not really worried about their faith. And so they come asking a question about Caesar and asking about taxes and what we should do with, you know, should the people at the time be paying taxes? And the way Jesus replies, essentially is, you know, pay to Caesar, what is Caesar, and pay to God, what is gods? And in that question may seem like it's very direct, but when we think about, okay, what is gods? And we look at Scripture. We look at Psalm 24-1, and it says, the earth is the lords and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. So essentially Jesus is saying,

yeah, give to Caesar what is Caesar's, but ultimately everything, even what is Caesar's, is ultimately God. So when I see that, I see Jesus saying, you're giving to God regardless. It's all going to God. It's all going to him. The next group that comes to ask them questions was the Sadducees. So what we know. The sad you see is. You know, they're sad you see because they don't believe.

They're sad you see. That's good. I mean, they are sad because they don't believe in the resurrection or eternity after that. It's really just the five first books and that is it. They are the priestly elites. They are the ones who kind of control the temple. And so they come asking a question about eternity. They're coming and asking about, okay, so if a wife

has a husband and he dies and all these brothers marry her afterwards and they all pass away as well, who's going to be married to her in heaven, trying to trip him up? He goes back to, again, scripture, and he quotes them Exodus 36, where he says, don't you know where God says, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And I think it's important there is that at that point, Exodus 3-6, those three individuals

are no longer alive here on earth. And so if God were to say, I was the God of Abraham, I was

the God of Isaac, I was the God of Jacob, that would confirm that there was no afterlife, but he's

saying I am. So that's telling the Sadstis basically right there,

don't you know that God is saying that I am the God of these people who are no longer here?

Don't you know that I'm still their God because they are with me? So again, kind of taking scripture and bringing it back to one of their core beliefs that there is no eternity, there is no afterlife, and putting it in front of them and saying, Well, really, if you look at scripture, there is.

There is. Exactly.

You're wrong.

Exactly.

So lastly, we have the Pharisees who at the time were very influential.

They were the teachers, the people really actually did look to them to what truth was. Yes, Jewish teachers at the time, who really held onto the law. And that was their biggest thing was holding onto the law and upholding the law within the community as well. And so they come with a question about the law asking what is the greatest commandment. Because that's what is important to them, just like the Saddui's was important to them was the afterlife. The Herodians, important to them is Rome. They're all asking questions that are important to them. So they ask the question, what is the greatest commandment? And Jesus, in the way he does, answer it by saying, is to glorify God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. And he says that encompasses all the commandments. So it's not what they're looking for. They're looking for a singular answer, but basically he gives them back the root in what the law is there for. It's there to love God. It's there to love other people. So I think the importance with all these questions, these people, these groups are coming to Jesus asking questions to try to trip him up, all based on their own agendas. And yet he turns around using scripture and basically says, well, what you're asking is not really the point. The point is, how are we glorifying God? The point is what God says. The point is what God is in control of. I think this is a good reminder for us because I think the more we in our own walk get pulled from our time with God, if we have seasons, and I can say for myself, too, when I have seasons where I'm not spending that daily time with God, it's easier for me to start being pulled in these other directions. Totally same. The things that are, you know, more, you know, asking questions aren't really important ultimately that aren't really what's rooted in what is the gospel. Sure. Even busyness. Yes, absolutely. Like, just what's the top priority on my to-do list? That can pull me away. Yeah, I think for me, it's same kind of thing with busyness. and it's even things that maybe aren't necessarily bad things, like, oh, I have things going with my family or with work or things that are in front of your responsibilities but if I'm letting

those things become the ultimate thing that's when I'm slowly drifting and taking those steps away

from God as opposed to steps towards God so it's just rooting myself in scripture because again

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