I mentioned last week that the “yeast of the Pharisees” and the “yeast of Herod/Sadducees” were so different they each get their own week. This week, let’s look at the Sadducees.[1]
After the end of the Jewish exile in Babylon, the high priests (mostly Sadducees) ruled at the pleasure of Rome, who stacked the Sanhedrin to get the results they wanted. The Sadducees got their power and privilege from cooperation/collaboration.
They controlled Judaism’s two most important institutions: the Temple in Jerusalem and the Sanhedrin, the governing body for religious and civil issues. They also enjoyed the military backing of Rome, so Temple Law enforcement was backed by Roman muscle. At one point, Herod put the Golden Eagle, a ‘holy’ standard their army carried into war, on the entrance to the Temple. The Sadducees accepted it.[2]
The Gospel writers use the yeast of the “Sadducee” and “Herod” interchangeably. This is important, because we are talking about Herod.
Herod’s family had largely converted to Judasim; he contributed to building the temple in Jerusalem; he distributed food during famine and cut taxes; the economy did well. So far, so good. But his extreme cruelty is legendary - the massacre of the children when Jesus was born, killing his own family, beheading John the Baptist, etc.
So just to be clear, the Sadducees were willing to overlook Herod’s evil because it worked out well for them.[3] Why? Because the goodies of Empire were their only hope; they weren’t waiting for a Messiah.
We do not speak of the messianic views of the Sadducees, because they had none. They had no belief in the kingdom of God as such, either in this world or that which is to come. Their doctrine left no place for a [divine]Messiah… their only fear was that some impostor messiah might arise and cause them to be deprived of the offices they held at the pleasure of their conquerors.[4]
If they wanted to change the situation of the Jewish people, it was going to happen in the halls of earthly power.[5] You see their hearts revealed clearly when Jesus was on trial.
“Here is your king {Jesus},” Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. (John 19:14-15)
As for the crowd, they had turned on Jesus when they realized he was serious when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey instead of a warhorse while weeping because they did not understand the way to peace.
The Sadducees were dissolving as a party when Roman destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D. in response to a Jewish revolt in Jerusalem. Rome took 13,000 Jewish slaves and the loot from the temple and used both to build and pay for the building of the coliseum. Note: The Romans destroyed the Temple. The Romans never liked them. The Sadducees were tools for Roman power. Their passing was not mourned.
We often talk about religious syncretism as Christianity synchronizing with contradictory beliefs from other religions. We don’t often talk about syncretism with the Empire. I believe that this is the yeast of the Pharisees. Their hope was not in God, but in man. Not from Heaven, but from earth. Not to bring about the Kingdom through evangelization, but through legislation. This has been addicting through all of church history.
1. In the 1st century, a good Sadducee was a good Roman. Followers of Jesus had no time for that. Christian values were sharply at odds with Roman values. A sincere Christian was not going to be a good Roman by Roman standards. It’s why Rome was so suspicious of them.
2. But in 154, Justin Martyr, in an attempt to stop Emperor Pius from persecuting Christians, wrote, “Whence to God alone we render worship, but in other things we gladly serve you, acknowledging you as kings and rulers of men.” As Jason Porterfield points out, “whole swaths of life were moved out from under God’s authority and placed under the authorities of this world.”Now, instead of everything belonging to God, everything but worship belonged to Caesar. As a result, “Caesars of this world became increasingly bold in telling Christians what they must do on earth.” [6]
3. When Constantine legalized Christianity in the 300s, it didn’t take long for a good Christian to look a lot like a good Roman, to the point that Augustine developed an argument for how Christians could fight for Rome’s military machine that brutalized the world and killed tens of thousands of Jewish people and Christians. Constantine brutally conquered under the banner of a cross, the Christian symbol of laying down one’s life in love.
“For the first three hundred years of the church any suggestion that the aims of the kingdom of Christ could be served by corrupt Caesars would have been viewed as ludicrous or even demonic. The early Christians knew that the ways of Jesus and the ways of Caesar are forever incompatible. One is Christ; the other is anti-Christ… Christians never thought Caesar was capable of carrying out the work of Christ. ― Brian Zahnd, Postcards from Babylon: The Church In American Exile
4. In letters between King Clovis and local bishops in the 500s, we see the church converting and being converted by an ancient warrior ruling class. Bishop Avitus urged King Clovis to let the church tag along into the regions he intended to conquer. For the first time, the church began to spread the message of the cross behind the point of a sword. To be conquered was to be Christianized.
5. In the eastern Byzantine Empire, the emperors considered themselves to be the “supreme pontiff” of the Church, as well as head of state. Justinian I called this harmonia: the state and the Church should work together for God’s will on earth under the emperor’s leadership. The bishops at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 affirmed that nothing could be done in the Church contrary to the emperor’s will. This doctrine remained in effect for centuries.[7]
6. Fast forward to Charlemagne, who was crowned by Pope Leo II as the first “Holy RomanEmperor” on Christmas Day in the year 800. What a change in 800 years. The claim was that Charlemagne was chosen by God to revive the glories of the Roman Empire - and to defend and promote the cause of the church, which were starting to look like one and the same. Like Herod and Constantine, he used state power and money to help the church do its mission. Meanwhile, Charlemagne also waged a brutal thirty-year campaign against the Saxons. In 782 he ordered the beheading of more than four thousand, five hundred Saxons on a single day. Why? They weren’t Christian. This, from his set of laws titled Ordinances for the Region of Saxony. “If any one of the race of the Saxons hereafter concealed among them shall have wished to hide himself unbaptized, and shall have scorned to come to baptism and shall have wished to remain a pagan, let him be punished by death.” In 800 years, Christians had gone from being the ones killed for their faith to being the ones supporting the killing of others because of their faith.
7. In the Middle Ages, when the church sought to win warrior cultures to the faith in France, Germany, or Scandinavia, etc., Jesus morphed into the ultimate warlord and his church into the knights of Christ. Once again, the church converted many, and it found itself converted in the process. By the time Alexius I pleaded for help aganst the march of Islam, the church was ready to be the “knight of Christ.” This is when Bernard of Clairvaux (AD 1090–1153) wrote In Praise of the New Knighthood by appropriating Paul’s letter to the Ephesians - which was about spiritual warfare.
“The knight who puts the breastplate of faith on his soul in the same way as he puts a breastplate of iron on his body is truly intrepid and safe from everything…So forward in safety, knights, and with undaunted souls drive off the enemies of the cross of Christ.”
If, by the 500s, being Christian was indistinguishable from being Roman, by the 1000s being Christian was indistinguishable from being Frankish or Saxon. Europe and the church found themselves converted to each other’s ways. Martin Luther (1500s) even developed a ‘doctrine of two kingdoms’ claiming God willed the state and the church to be governed by a different set of morals. In their private lives, Christians should follow the ethic of Jesus. In their public role as citizens, Christians should follow the lead of the Empire. Now, our private lives belonged to God, but our public lives belonged to Caesar.
In Western history, Europe has long intermingled church and state in various ways (Catholic, Anglican Church of England, and Protestant[8]). On how that went over the years, look up “Inquisition.” To this day, many countries in Europe either have a state church or support one church over the other.[9] How’s that going now, you wonder?
The 2022 Talking Jesus report (a partnership between Alpha, the Evangelical Alliance, HOPE Together, Luis Palau Association and Kingsgate Community Church) describes the current state of faith in the UK[10]: 48% of the population described themselves as 'Christian' of which 6% described themselves as 'practicing Christians'.[11]
To bring us up to date:
“The church in every western power after Constantine has at some point succumbed to the Siren seduction of empire and has conflated Christianity and nationalism into a single syncretic religion. Rome, Byzantium, Russia, Spain, France, England, and Germany have all done it. Seventeen centuries ago the Roman church got tangled up in imperial purple. In the 1930s, the German evangelical church got tangled up in Nazi red and black. The Anglican church spent a long time tangled up in the Union Jack[12]. Today the American evangelical church is tangled up in red, white, and blue. That this kind of entanglement has been a common failure of the church for centuries doesn’t make it any less tragic.” ― Brian Zahnd, Postcards from Babylon: The Church In American Exile
This is, I believe, the yeast of the Sadducees, the yeast of Herod. It is the yeast of corrupt power, compromise and anti-supernaturalism that results in followers of Jesus at least living as if they believe it is through earthly power and control that we can and should bring about the Kingdom of God.
Yet over and over in history, when the Kingdom of God got too closely intertwined with Empire, it compromised the church. The church was never made to be authoritarian in a culture in order to bring about transformation. It was always made for persuasive, loving, truthful service as it preached the gospel, living as an embodiment of the Kingdom of God to bring about transformation. #salt #light
Once again, I looked for some help online in what modern-day Sadducees would look like. There is not nearly as much about Sadducees as there is about Pharisees. I wonder if it’s because it steps on our political toes, and that’s meddlin’! But if Jesus warned about it, I have to preach it. This list is built from an article called “7 Signs The Leaven Of Herod Has Taken Root In Your Life.”[13]
[Quick note: I believe Christians have a responsibility to be actively involved in our culture, doing justice and loving mercy. This list is not about disengagement from our society or even disengagement from politics. It’s about keeping our faith untainted by the values and priorities of the Empire as we go about spreading the Kingdom.]
We forget that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood (people), but against principalities and power, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
Our gaze is earthly rather than heavenly. We say we believe God is able; we say we believe in God’s sovereignty and providence in the world; we say that we have hope, joy and peace that surpasses our circumstances, but we don’t live as if we believe that. We don’t find ourselves turning to the power of God in the journey of life.
Our passion for political change eclipses our devotion for expanding the Kingdom of Christ. We don’t focus on praying and ‘bearing good fruit’ as much as we focus on getting out the vote. We don’t rest in the power of God; we rest in the power of the legislature. We are more passionate about changing laws and promoting public policy than we are about taking the message of Jesus to the people impacted by that policy. We live in deep fear that the next election will crush us or in irrational optimism that it will save us. We trade our hope in the persuasion of the spirit for the might of the state.[14]
We think the symbols of the Empire and the temple go together. This goes back to the Roman symbols the Sadducees put in the temple or the cross Constantine fought under. Francis Schaeffer warned us about this decades ago:[15]
The whole "Constantine mentality" from the fourth century up to our day was a mistake. Constantine, as the Roman Emperor, in 313 ended the persecution of Christians. Unfortunately, the support he gave to the church led by 381 to the enforcing of Christianity, by Theodosius I, as the official state religion. Making Christianity the official state religion opened the way for confusion up till our own day. There have been times of very good government when this interrelationship of church and state has been present. But through the centuries it has caused great confusion between loyalty to the state and loyalty to Christ, between patriotism and being a Christian. We must not confuse the Kingdom of God with our country. To say it another way: "We should not wrap our Christianity in our national flag.- Francis A. Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto
We believe a political leader is the key to restoring our nation. The Gospel is the key to restoring our nation. The identity and mission of the body of Christ does not depend upon who gets elected as president or Senator or governor. Voting for capable leaders is a way to practice biblical stewardship of our country, but the elevation of a leader to the role of a savior is borderline idolatry.
I remember more than one painting of Obama in which he was framed to look like Jesus; I saw a billboard for Trump that said, “Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulders.” This is blasphemous. And when adoration reaches that point, we will be blind to the realities of what people are really like. Kevin Burgess writes in Dangerous Jesus,
“We will begin to excuse the inexcusable in our public leaders because public witness is not a priority. It’s not as important to be winsome or persuasive as it is to be powerful. It doesn’t matter how Christians look to the outside world when our guy is winning. There is not sin that success cannot atone for.”
If we act as though anyone other than Jesus is the hope of our nation or our church, then the leaven of Herod has taken root in us. Brian Zahnd, in talking about “faith leaders fawning over proximity to political power,” writes:
God may have occasionally worked his will through pagan kings in the world before Christ, but we’re now living in Anno Domini—the year of our Lord. If you’re looking for God to work his will through a pagan king (who will always coincidently belong to your political party!), I’m thinking you haven’t spent much time seriously reading and digesting the New Testament epistles. God is no longer raising up pagan kings to enact his purposes; God has raised Jesus from the dead, and the fullness of God’s purposes are accomplished through him!” ― Brian Zahnd, Postcards from Babylon: The Church In American Exile
And, I would add, through His church.
You believe a political party represents the Kingdom of God. Many Christians on both the Left and the Right act as if their particular political party represents God’s Kingdom. Meanwhile, at times Jesus made both the Pharisees and the Sadducees angry. He didn’t feel the need to fit neatly in a box. I’m quoting from KB again:
“If your wagon is hitched to Jesus, you will inevitably find yourself agreeing, intersecting, and aligning with all kinds of movements and political camps as you travel through the world. But rest assured, at some point, Jesus is going to complicate things and possibly get you kicked out.”
We talk about the world not being our home; neither is any party of the Empire. If we are not speaking prophetically to our own tribe, we’re missing something. If we start to think that a party represents the Kingdom of God, political rallies may begin to feel just as exciting and important as a church assembly or church retreat. In fact, passionate engagement in the political structure of the Empire can start to feel a lot like evangelism. Converting others to a political party can begin to feel like conversion to Christ, when it’s nothing of the kind.
And when that happens, “the fields ripe for harvest” looks a lot like conservatives if you are liberal and liberals if you are conservative. And if that is the lenses through which you view the problem, the solution will be to get them on the same side of the political aisle as you.
You get discipled more by political platforms than biblical principles.
· Who disciples you the most on how we should view immigrants? Your Bible or partisan political figures?
· Who disciples you the most on the value of marriage and family and all things swirling around sex?
· Who disciples you the most on how we should treat those who live in poverty or sickness, or the widow and orphan?
· We read about how Jesus dissolves culturally biased differences (“neither Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female”) such that we see each other as equally valuable image bearers of God. Does your party treat all people – all people – as image bearers of equal dignity. No? Do not be discipled by them.
· Jesus calls for individuals to be characterized by humility, repentance, forgiveness, and justice combined with mercy, grace, generosity, love, and the honoring of all people. Does your party and their candidates do that, or do they fight their political fights with the weapons of the world? They fight like the world? Then do not be discipled by them.[16]
· Does our political system value the values of the Sermon on the Mount? No? Then do not be disciple by it.
· James said God opposed the proud but gives grace to the humble. Does our political system do that, or does it glorify the proud and run over the humble?
· Does our system value humility and repentance, or arrogance and justification?
· Does our system believe the ends justifies the means (winning at any cost) or does it believe how we get there is just as important as where we are going?
· Does it reward mercy or vengeance?
· Does it value the Golden Rule?
· Does it encourage us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us?
· Does it admire those who insist that sacrificial, costly love is the life more abundant?
Don’t be discipled by the Empire. As we seek to engage in the world but not of it – as we engage in a political system while trying not to be of it - may God give us the strength to refuse to be sucked into the Way of Caesar and stay true to the Way of Christ.
And may the salt and light that God intends to come with the presence of His people truly offer righteous preservation in a decaying world, and shine hope-filled gospel light into even the darkest of places.
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[1] A key book that covers today’s topic is John Dickson’s Bullies and Saints, from which many of my historical examples have been pulled.
[2] Though some of the common folk did not. https://www.jpost.com/judaism/the-golden-eagle-in-jerusalem-history-repeats-itself-618440
[3] Meanwhile, they became rich by cheating people who came to the temple to offer sacrifices, a thing Jesus did not care for at all (Matthew 21:12-13).
[4] “Ancient Jewish Views Of The Messiah,” by Edward Wicher https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/474263
[5] The explanation is from N.T. Wright, as paraphrased at https://www.johnpiippo.com/2010/11/why-did-sadducees-deny-idea-of.html
[6] As quoted in Fight Like Jesus, by Jason Porterfield
[7] https://brewminate.com/the-relationship-between-church-and-state-since-the-ancient-world/
[8] John Calvin (1500s), the ‘Pope of Geneva’, used his combined church/civil authority to burn a heretic to death – slowly, over green wood. It took half and hour. Christians who were once burned at the stake for their faith now burned others for their faith.
[9] The Puritans, escaping Anglican persecution in Europe, brought the muddled mix of church and state authority with them. In Puritan colonies, public taxes supported the church. Voting rights were limited to church members in many places. In Connecticut, people were fined for not attending church services. Puritans believed that the state was empowered to use corporal punishment, banishment, and execution to combat heresy.
Between 1658–1692, Quakers were executed and Baptists imprisoned for their faith.
[10] England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
[11] https://talkingjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Talking-Jesus-Report-A4-AUG-23-WEB.pdf
[12] The flag of England being the official flag of the Church of England.
[13] By Joseph Mattera, with some expansions of my own.
[14] Kevin Burgess, Dangerous Jesus
[15] This requires several myths. The “myth of righteousness” sets values of the Empire on par with the values of the Kingdom (in which both are seen as part of the euangelion, the good news of God’s plan for the world). The “myth of greatness” as defined by the standards of Babylon and Rome: financial, political, and/or military strength as the markers of success. The “myth of innocence” sees the power, prosperity, and peace of the Empire as achieved by and sustained by thoroughly righteous means and people. The “myth of worthiness” demands an appreciation of and allegiance to the state as a profoundly moral responsibility for Christians.
[16] https://www.christianpost.com/voices/7-signs-the-leaven-of-herod-has-taken-root-in-your-life.html