Wednesday, 6th of June 2018

Mark 12:18-27

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 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." 

Source: https://dailygospel.org/M/AM/

Analysis

Today's passage is a very interesting passage, honestly I've never heard of this one. The passage describes an encounter between Jesus and the Sadducees, the Sadducees are similar to the Pharisees, the difference being the Sadducees do not believe in resurrection. As such, they ask Jesus about the nature of marriages after resurrection. They say to Jesus, that Moses wrote that if one's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the brother must take the wife. They then illustrate a scenario where there are seven brothers, but they all die one after another without creating a descendant. They ask, "At the resurrection whose wife will she be?" Jesus then answered by saying that they are misled as they do not understand the scriptures and the power of God. 

Jesus then delivers a very straight forward message about death and resurrection. The Sadducees had a misconception that earthly ties and contracts still applies after death. Of course, Jesus corrects this, and says that upon death and resurrection, our earthly chains are let go and we should move on to the next life. This means whatever relationship we had is broken upon death and resurrection. Jesus even went so far to make a comparison with angels, though I am fairly certain that Jesus does not believe in the existence of angels, nor is the existence of angels even important in the whole context of God. Jesus then ends the encounter by saying that God is of the living and not of death, meaning that the Sadducees are too concerned with death.

While we shouldn't concern ourselves too much about dying, we should be concerned with the true meaning of death and resurrection here. The Sadducees may be referring to the actual physical resurrection of the body, however Jesus is referring to a different type of resurrection. What evidence do we have to say this? The Sadducees were raising a genuine question when they question what happens after one is resurrected, as they see this from a physical standpoint. According to Jesus however, the Sadducees were misled, and did not understand the true meaning of death and resurrection. What Jesus means is resurrection from spiritual death. That is the wages of sin, an eternal darkness and suffering in loneliness.

When one holds on to their earthly ties and contracts, they have chained themselves and there's a high chance they will fall towards spiritual death, or hell. Only when these chains are broken, and their attachments lost, they shall regain life, and thus be "resurrected". This is why marriages and any other earthly contracts won't matter once we have broken our earthly chains. The comparison with angels maybe because angels are described as to not have any earthly chains and bounds, and they are surrounded by light. As such when people are resurrected from their hell, they become free and are surrounded by light. When Jesus said that God is of the living and not the dead, it doesn't mean that God doesn't care about dead people, it means that God wishes us to be alive, and not dead. I believe that is all I have to say, have a nice day and see you tomorrow.