Acts 23:6 - Homilies By R. Tuck

The resurrection a dividing doctrine.

If the supposition be a correct one that, just at this time, there was no high priest, we can well understand how easily divisions and contentions might be aroused in the mixed council, where party feeling was always strong. The Pharisees and Sadducees were really more political than ecclesiastical parties; they had distinct lines of thought, and conflicted for the positions of supreme influence in the ecclesiastico-political life of the nation. Both parties vigorously opposed Christianity, but the Pharisees on the ground of its teachings—as they thought them—against Mosaism, and of its degrading the national hope of Messiah, by affirming that he had come in the person of the Galilaean Jesus. The Sadducees on the ground chiefly of the disciples' affirmation that Jesus had risen from the dead, which, they were quick to see, it once admitted, involved the truth of our Lord's claim to the Messiahship. St. Paul evidently estimated, quickly and skillfully, the character of the judges before whom he was brought, and easily turned them from the consideration of his case to mere party wrangling. He saw, plainly enough, that there was no chance of a fair judgment from either party. If we must recognize some guilefulness in St. Paul's conduct on this occasion, we must remember that he had to deal with party prejudice and unreasoning hatred, and he was justified in securing his deliverance by such a quick-witted device. We observe—

I. THAT THE JEWISH RESURRECTION WAS A DREAM OR A DOCTRINE , To the Sadducees a mere superstitious dream, to the Pharisees an important doctrine. Hints of it are found in the earlier Scriptures, but the Old Testament has no clear testimony on the subject. This is not really remarkable, because Mosaism did not take this point of view; it did not demand obedience upon the promise of the "life to come," but upon promise of "the life that now is." Thoughts of resurrection and eternal life do not properly come to a Jew as a Jew, only to a Jew as a personally devout, God-fearing man, with an individual spiritual life of fellowship with God. Therefore the psalmists and prophets alone give us hints of resurrection. See what helps come to the idea

II. THAT THE CHRISTIAN RESURRECTION IS A TRUTH AND A HOPE . St. Paul calls it here a hope, but it is really a truth upon which we may build our hopes. Illustrate by showing what St. Paul writes about it—about its foundations and about its vital importance to the Christian—in 1 Corinthians 15:1-58 . To him it was no mere dividing doctrine, though among foes he ventured so to use it; to him it was infinitely sure and infinitely precious—the message to him of his Redeemer's own resurrection, He labored, if "by any means he might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."

III. WHEREIN MAY WE FIND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE JEWISH AND THE , CHRISTIAN IDEAS OF RESURRECTION ? We only note one of the more important differences. Pharisees had only, as aids to their conception, cases of resurrection which were merely a temporary restoration of bodily life. All the risen ones they could know of died a natural death. Christians take their conception from the resurrection of their Lord, which was to a spiritual, incorruptible, and eternal life.—R.T.