On Line Bible Study - For the week September 28 - October 4, 2009

Lesson 407

Mark 12: ¹⁸Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. ¹⁹"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. ²⁰Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. ²¹The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. ²²In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. ²³At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"

²⁴Jesus replied, "Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? ²⁵When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. ²⁶Now 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'? ²⁷He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!"

The question is whether there is a resurrection, and the Sadducees were sure there was not. Jesus has done battle with Pharisees, Scribes, teachers of the law, elders, chief priests. Now the Sadducees weigh in with their complaint against him.

The word "sadducee" could refer to a priest from the times of David and Solomon - Zadok. It could also come from the Hebrew word for "righteous one". Perhaps this group derived their name from both. And the lodestone of their faith was Torah - the Law of Moses. The Biblical reference point for their argument is from Deuteronomy 25:5-6 - a brother has a responsibility to take his deceased brother's wife as his own if they had had no children.

In Jesus' rebuttal, he cites two realities - the Scriptures (and notice that he quotes from the Torah - the Bible of the Sadducees), and the power of God. But we also have a very interesting theological moment in this text. "Resurrection" pre-exists the experience of Christ. When Jesus cites Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as being in fellowship with God - not as corpses, but as living beings - he is speaking of "resurrection" as angelic - as constant communion with God. Scholars note that the texts Jesus references from Exodus (in chapter 3:6, 3:15-16, and 4:5) are not specific to resurrection. In fact, from our vantage point these might seem to provide a weak argument. But from the standpoint of the Judaism of Jesus' day, the notion of being alive after death - the idea that body and soul do not disintegrate - was somewhat revolutionary.

While Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are mentioned, it is the power of God that makes resurrection possible. God is a God of the living, and to experience life with God following death is God's gift. Jesus refutes the idea that the afterlife is exactly like this life. (So does Paul in I Corinthians 15:35ff.) We do not marry in that life any more than do the angels.

What were the Sadducees hoping to prove with their question to Jesus? They hoped to prove that he did not adhere to the Scriptures - that he believed something that was not Biblical. Once again, Jesus moves in the direction of what is meant to threaten him. He takes what is being used against him and turns it around on his acusers. Without defining "resurrection" in any specific way, he reminds the Sadducees that the God of their scriptures is a God who relates to living beings.

A final note - Jesus makes it clear in this text on two ocassions that the Sadducees are wrong. Are you not in error ...? Jesus states in verse 24. And in verse 27 he flat out tells them: You are badly mistaken!

For me, this is another reminder of how one can quote scripture and still be wrong. It's not the "letter", but the spirit of the law that gives us life.