Sacred Scripture
Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and put this question to him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants. So the second brother married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third likewise. And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also died. At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her.” Jesus said to them, “Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven. As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled.”(Mark 12:18-27)
Reflection
The Sadducees came to Jesus with a test question to make the resurrection look ridiculous. The Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, did not believe in immortality, nor in angels or evil spirits. Their religion was literally grounded in an earthly image of heaven
The Sadducees had one big problem — they could not conceive of heaven beyond what they could see with their naked eyes! Aren’t we often like them? We don’t recognize spiritual realities because we try to make heaven into an earthly image.
It is easy to try and figure life out on our own. We can think and think and think and try to analyze why this happened or that. We can try to analyze others actions or even our own. Frequently, when it comes to spiritual matters, we tend to frame them in terms of today’s world or strictly within the parameters of our human experience. .And often times in the end, we are just as confused and “misled” as when we began.
If you find yourself in such a confusing situation about anything you are trying to understand about life, perhaps it’s good to sit and listen to those words of Jesus spoken as if they were spoken to you . . . “You are greatly misled.”
These words should not be taken as a harsh criticism or rebuke. Rather, they should be taken as a blessed insight from Jesus to help us step back and realize that we are often misled about the things of life and even more so about life after death. It’s very easy to let emotion and errors cloud our thinking and reasoning and lead to more confusion.
When we find ourselves feeling “misled” or when we realize we do not really understand God or His power at work, we should stop and take a step back so that we can pray and seek what God has to say. Interestingly, praying is not the same as thinking. Sure, we need to use our mind to ponder the things of God, but “thinking, thinking, and more thinking” is not always the way to the correct understanding. Thinking is not prayer. We often do not understand that.
A regular goal we must have is to step back in humility and acknowledge to God and ourselves that we do not understand His ways and will. We must strive to silence our active thoughts and set aside all preconceived notions of what is right and wrong
In our humility, we need to sit and listen and wait on the Lord to take the lead. If we can let go of our constant attempts to “figure it out” we may find that God will figure it out for us and shed the light that we need.
Prayer of The Day
“Lord, I do want to know the truth. At times I can allow myself to be misled. Help me to humble myself before You so that You can take the lead. Jesus, I trust in You.”
Daily Note
While the argument Jesus had with the Sadducees might strike us as odd, it cut to the heart of faith. What kind of deity do we worship, the God of the dead or the living? In other words, do we live our faith as if there is a tomorrow, a life with God forever?
