Eternal Perspective
The Sadducees didn't believe in eternal life and the resurrection - that's why they were so "sad you see"...They
were materialistic - living in the moment and ridiculing the reality
that we are eternal souls. Jesus uses the Scriptures, that they weren't
reading properly, to refute them.
| 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) |
The question of the Sadducees was designed to make Jesus look foolish and to promote their materialistic worldview. They pose their question as a theological conundrum, drawing on the Old Testament tradition of Levirate marriage where a man had to marry his brother's widow to preserve the family line. They use an extreme example of seven brothers and one wife.
Jesus makes two points:
- In heaven we won't be marrying. (More than that, you're using a finite argument in an infinite reality.)
- You don't know your Scriptures well enough.
There are a couple of takeaway points here:
- We should be sure to know the Scriptures well.
- If we opt for materialism and settle for only this life we are badly mistaken! We are eternal beings and so we should heed the famous advice of the missionary and martyr, Jim Elliot, who said "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
- There are
lots of "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" passages that Jesus
could have quoted. But He quotes Moses at the burning bush. I think this
is because later in that same passage God tells Moses: "I have seen, I have heard and I am concerned and so I have Come Down."
I think Jesus is hinting about His Mission.
He has seen, heard and is concerned and has Come Down.
