See that pretty lady next to the old guy? That’s Lois, my wife of 53 years. Besides being my best friend, mother to our three children, and grandmother to our eight grandchildren, she was my partner in pastoral ministry for 44 years. I can’t imagine life without her as my wife. That’s why this is my least favorite Scripture text.
“When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven” (Jesus in Mark 12:25). That takes some shine off the new creation for me. If it weren’t for ” . . . they will be like angels” I’d interpret Jesus to mean no weddings. Alas! I can’t twist the text!
Okay, I feel a little better with that off my chest. (Transparency, right?) So let’s get to the full text . . .
Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising– have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” (Mark 12:18-27).
It’s Tuesday after Jesus’ triumphal entry Sunday into Jerusalem. Wave after wave of Jewish authorities verbally attack him in the temple courtyard hoping he’ll incriminate himself. They want him silenced; they want him dead.
Now it’s the Sadducees. Little is known about this short-lived Jewish sect, but this much is—they didn’t believe in the end-time resurrection of the dead.
Nor do 54% of Americans (+10% undecided) according to a 2006 poll cited by Dr. Albert Mohler in one of his blogs. Yet, according to a “USA Today” poll in 2009, 74% of Americans believe in heaven. Americans are confused because they think heaven is Christians’ final destination when the new creation is.
The Sadducees pose an extreme situation (7 husbands?); yet this remarriage practice was biblical. If a husband died leaving no heirs, one of the surviving brothers was to marry his widow to provide an heir so the brother’s name and inheritance would be kept in the family (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). Therefore, even though the motive is dishonest, the question isn’t: “At the resurrection, whose wife shall she be?”
Jesus (not so “meek and mild”) replies: “How wrong you are! And do you know why? It is because you don’t know the Scriptures or God’s power” (TEV). Jesus says the Sadducees are wrong for three reasons.
First, they don’t know the Scriptures. I’m afraid the same may be true of people today (including Christians). And when we don’t know the Scriptures we’re wrong or ignorant about some of life’s most important realities (like knowing whether or not there will be an end-time bodily resurrection). Listen, it doesn’t take a post-graduate degree to know the Scriptures! All we need is to prayerfully, regularly and thoughtfully read them. Think how deep our knowing of God if every year of our life—or even every two years—we read through the Bible!
Second, they don’t know God’s power. Admittedly, bodily resurrection of everyone who’s ever lived (some to eternal judgment, some to eternal life) seems a bit “out there”. I can’t imagine the scene! But that’s because I have limited knowledge of God’s unlimited power. God’s power in my life is quiet and barely discernible. I believe in it because I see its evidence in creation and in changed lives. Yet it doesn’t explode like a computer-generated movie scene, so many choose ignorance of it. I choose to believe it, because I repeatedly read of it in Scripture and I figure that, since God created my body, surely he can resurrect it.
Third, they don’t know God. Remember how God introduced himself to Moses at the burning bush. “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (12:26). Jesus draws the implication: “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong” (12:27).
Significantly, God didn’t say, “I was the God of Abraham . . . ” but “I am the God of Abraham . . . “. And Jesus said, “He is the God . . . of the living.” In every generation, God is “I am.” Therefore, his people are never dead, but always living. And in his time dead bodies will be raised, as Paul later wrote, ” . . . imperishable, in glory. in power, a spiritual body . . . ” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).
“To him who by means of his power working in us
is able to do so much more than we can ever ask or think of
(even making Lois’ and my relationship something better than husband and wife);
to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
for all time, forever and ever (Ephesians 3:20-21, TEV)!
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