Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know 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

 

 Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words.  When they had come, they said to Him, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and care about no one; for You do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth.  Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?  Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?"  But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why do you test Me?  Bring Me a denarius that I may see it."  So they brought it.  And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?"  They said to Him, "Caesar's."  And Jesus answered and said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."  And they marveled at Him.

Then some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him; and they asked Him, saying:  "Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were seven brothers.  The first took a wife; and dying, he left no offspring.  And the second took her, and he died; nor did he leave any offspring.  And the third likewise.  So the seven had her and left no offspring.  Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be?  For all seven had her as wife."  Jesus answered and said to them, "Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know 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.  But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?  He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.  You are therefore greatly mistaken."

 

- Mark 12:13–27 

 

Yesterday we read that, on the day after He cleansed the temple, Jesus and the disciples came again to Jerusalem.  And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him.  And they said to Him, "By what authority are You doing these things?  And who gave You this authority to do these things?"  But Jesus answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things:  The baptism of John -- was it from heaven or from men?  Answer Me."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'  But if we say, 'From men'" -- they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed.  So they answered and said to Jesus, "We do not know."  And Jesus answered and said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."  Then He began to speak to them in parables:  "A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower.  And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.  Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers.  And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.  Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.  And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some.  Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, 'They will respect my son.'  But those vinedressers said among themselves, "This is the heir.  Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'  So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.  Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do?  He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.  Have you not even read this Scripture:  'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.  This was the LORD's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"  And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them.  So they left Him and went away.

 

Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words.  When they had come, they said to Him, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and care about no one; for You do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth.  Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?  Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?"  But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why do you test Me?  Bring Me a denarius that I may see it."  So they brought it.  And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?"  They said to Him, "Caesar's."  And Jesus answered and said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."  And they marveled at Him.  My study Bible explains that the Herodians were Jewish political supporters of the ruling house of Herod the great, and therefore they were willing servants of Rome.  So we can understand their particular interest in this question.  My study Bible comments that the distinction between things that are Caesar's and things that are God's doesn't imply the division of a believer's life into the secular and the sacred.  Instead, we understand that God is Lord over all of life, which includes the secular.  However, we fulfill governmental requirements that do not conflict with our first responsibility to God (Romans 13:1-7; contrast Acts 4:19, 5:29).  To pay taxes and engage in other similar civil duties is not detrimental to holiness.  These Pharisees and Herodians are attempting to trap Jesus with their question.  A "yes" answer will turn the Jewish people against Him, but a "no" would bring a charge of treason by the Romans.  Instead, His answer defeats their cunning, showing that believers can render the state its due while serving God.  My study Bible affirms that as the coin bears the image of the emperor and is properly paid to him, so each person bears the image of God and therefore belongs to God.  Conflict arises only when the state demands that which is contrary to God.

 

Then some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him; and they asked Him, saying:  "Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.  Now there were seven brothers.  The first took a wife; and dying, he left no offspring.  And the second took her, and he died; nor did he leave any offspring.  And the third likewise.  So the seven had her and left no offspring.  Last of all the woman died also.  Therefore, in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be?  For all seven had her as wife."  Jesus answered and said to them, "Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know 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.  But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?  He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.  You are therefore greatly mistaken."  My study Bible tells us that the Sadducees represent landowners and other wealthy families in Jerusalem.  We can see the emphasis on heredity and family lineage in their question.  They held many high offices in Israel, it says, and thereby controlled the temple and the Sanhedrin.  They were different from the Pharisees in that they were politically prudent, and they adapted to the presence of the Romans.  The Sadducees also interpreted the law more rigidly than the Pharisees; unlike them, they rejected belief in angels and in the resurrection from the dead at the end of the age.  As a class, the Sadducees entirely disappeared after the destruction of Jerusalem.  Jesus' emphasis is on their lack of knowledge about heavenly life, and their ignorance of the Scriptures which reveal this.  The resurrection will not simply be a continuation of earthly life and marriage, but the Scriptures reveal a complete transfiguration of life -- which makes their question irrelevant.  Importantly, they fail to understand how Abraham and his sons can be alive in God, even if they are physically dead.  My study Bible adds that it is the clear teaching of Christ that the souls of the faithful who have departed this life are sustained before the face of God in anticipation of the final joy of the resurrection.

 

I'm struck today by the timelessness Jesus implies is in the words of God to Moses, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (see Exodus 3:6, 15).  It gives us a sense of what "life in abundance" means, and what it is like.  Sometimes in our worldly lives we can also experience this sort of timeless feeling of an eternal "now" in our deep, longterm relationships with people.  As a personal example, I reflect on today as my forty-second wedding anniversary.  I don't quite feel that I am forty-two years old, let alone that I have been married that long.  But the reason that is so is that in my relationship with my spouse it does not feel like a long history of many years so much as it feels like a constant present in my life, a sort of eternal rootedness within a relationship of so much time spent together, so many experiences gone through together.  I expect that many of us can feel precisely this same way when thinking of any loved one, a parent, or an old friend.  To look at photos and see the young faces that call out to us as if from some vague dream is one thing, but to recall the relationship is to seemingly bring to presence the precise feelings we had for the person at the time, still alive and still within us.  Those shared experiences remain as a sort of timeless present, an immediate quickened memory that is alive.  An old friend, at my present age, is someone about whom I remember an impression of many decades ago and which remains strangely indelible.  My mother is now deceased, and I was responsible for her care during her last years with dementia and Alzheimer's disease, but she'll always be a kind of revealed palimpsest:  that earliest writing of the years when she was young and vibrant and so articulate and creative are always there as a kind of watermark or deep background wash that will always be the heart of my picture of her.  The persona remains a kind of constant, and I suppose that this might be something like the experience of eternal life.  After all, if God is love, then our relationships that are defined in love must be the closest thing we have to the experience of the divine life Christ describes, especially when He reveals to the Sadducees that the words of God to Moses teach us about the reality of heaven.  There is no place there in that love that must demand the conventionalities of worldly life, the things that are necessary to carry on a lineage or a material inheritance, for all of these things are stored up and already present in a spiritual place, and they must exist as part of the living reality of the soul.  One can't help but believe that these are the things God cares for, the place of the heart and the living realities there.  Taken altogether with Jesus words and teachings about the importance of the heart in the Gospels, we can't help but feel that it is this place where love rules that He is talking about -- and which makes everything else extraneous.  Let us consider His promise of this life in the words He teaches in today's reading, and the few glimpses we may catch of this life in abundance that is present in love, and care, and in God's redemption and the salvation of our souls.  For where love is, so is the life of God (1 John 4:7-8).