Mark 12:18-27
And Sadducees came to
him, who say that there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question,
saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and
leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the wife, and raise
up children for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first
took a wife, and when he died left no children; and the second took her, and
died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; and the seven left no
children. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection whose wife
will she be? For the seven had her as wife." Jesus said to them,
"Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor
the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are
given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead
being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the
bush, how God said to him, `I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living; you are quite
wrong."
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How reliable is the
belief that all will be raised from the dead? The Sadducees, who were a group
of religious leaders from the upper classes in Jesus' time, did not believe in
the resurrection. They could not conceive of heaven beyond what they could see
with their naked eyes! Aren’t we often like them? We don’t recognize spiritual
realities because we try to make heaven into an earthly image. The Sadducees
came to Jesus with a test question to make the resurrection look ridiculous.
The Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, did not believe in immortality, nor in angels
or evil spirits. Their religion was literally grounded in an earthly image of
heaven.
Jesus retorts by
dealing with the fact of the resurrection. The scriptures give proof of it. In
Exodus, God calls himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. Jesus He defeats their arguments by showing that God is a living
God of a living people. God was the friend of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when
they lived. That friendship could not cease with death. As a Psalm states:"I
am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your
counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory." The Holy Spirit
reveals to us the eternal truths of God’s unending love and the life he desires
to share with us for all eternity. Paul the Apostle, quoting from the prophet
Isaiah states: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man
conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him,” God has revealed to
us through the Spirit. The promise of paradise – heavenly bliss and
unending life with an all-loving God – is beyond human reckoning. We have only
begun to taste the first-fruits! Do you believe the scriptures and do you know
the power of the Holy Spirit?
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“May the Lord Jesus put
his hands on our eyes also, for then we too shall begin to look not at what is
seen but at what is not seen. May he open the eyes that are concerned not
with the present but with what is yet to come, may he unseal the heart’s
vision, that we may gaze on God in the Spirit, through the same Lord, Jesus
Christ, whose glory and power will endure throughout the unending succession of
ages.”
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