Crumbs 130

 

Crumbs 130 Whose Wife?

Scripture Mark 12:18-27 WEB18 Some Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, came to him. They asked him, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote to us, ‘If a man’s brother dies, and leaves a wife behind him, and leaves no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 20 There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and dying left no offspring. 21 The second took her, and died, leaving no children behind him. The third likewise; 22 and the seven took her and left no children. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be of them? For the seven had her as a wife.” 24 Jesus answered them, “Isn’t this because you are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God? 25 For when they will rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 But about the dead, that they are raised; haven’t you read in the book of Moses, about the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?Exodus 3:6 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are therefore badly mistaken.”

Crumbs

Verse 24 is pivotal. Our thinking should be led by Scripture toan all powerful God. I suspect that any Pharisees present would have agreed with Jesus reply. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection but the Pharisees did. Here the Saddudess are are using this discussion with our Lord against a belief in the resurrection.

Our Lord’s teaching here is fundamental. Death has no place in the realm of our God, In that realm the only marriage is the relationship between Christ and His church. Marriage, precious though it is , is limited to the human earthly span.

And now we must consider the mistakes of the Sadducees for they may be ours too. There are different ways of the of knowing Scripture. One might be able quote chunks of the Bible but it leave us unaffected or we could know it so deeply that it affects the kind of people we are. The slow digestion of prayer and meditation is needed for this deeper understanding. The clues to an all powerful, eternal God were missed. ( see Palm 119).

In this scenario the problems of this much married woman would be simply be answered by the power of the Almighty God. The revelation of the eternal God must lead us to the knowledge of eternal life. To know Him..

Questions

1. How should the reality of the resurrection affect our attitude to human institutions?

2. How should a belief in an all powerful God affect our daily living?.

3. In what ways should we use Scripture as a tool to our understanding of our life?