Now It’s Ridiculous



Mark 12:18–27
18 And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, 19 “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 widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. 21 And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22 And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.” 24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”

In their continued attempts to create a problem for Jesus, the Sadducees ask yet another question of Him. This time they step into the realm of the ridiculous posing a hypothetical question to Jesus that stretches the imagination. Jesus doesn’t fall for the crazy and instead turns the question into an opportunity show them where they have strayed into wrong thinking.

It is interesting that the Sadducees would be the ones to ask this question, as they didn’t believe in any afterlife whatsoever. Jesus flat out tells them that they are “quite wrong”. In an intriguing way, He points to the fact that God is right now the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those men are alive, with God, in the present. That alone is proof of an afterlife. So their question holds no merit regardless of the fact that they have constructed a fantastic scenario.

The resurrection of Jesus will take place only a few days after this conversation takes place, proving once and for all that God is the Master of all life. Jesus’ resurrection assures that His victory over death is there for all believers as well and we too will rise on the Last Day to be forever in His presence. We are also given a glimpse into the fact that life on the other side of that resurrection will be different from this one in so many ways – ways that we cannot begin to comprehend until God reveals them when we join Him in eternity.

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