Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.
In Mark 12, the Sadducees, a sect of Judaism that didn’t believe in the resurrection, told Jesus this story.
A married man died without leaving children. Following the law of Moses, his brother married the widow, but he died too. Five more brothers married her and died. Finally the exhausted woman died.
“Who will be her husband in the resurrection?” the Sadducees asked, suggesting that Jesus’ whole idea of the resurrection was plainly ridiculous.
Jesus replied, “When people are resurrected, there won’t be marriage. They will be like the angels” (Mark 12:25).
Two questions:
1. Where did Jesus get this information? Not from the Old Testament, which says almost nothing about resurrection. And he didn’t have artificial intelligence to hallucinate an answer for him.
2. Was Jesus saying that when we are resurrected, we lose our identity as men and women? Will our resurrection transition us to another gender, or to no gender at all?
After teaching the Sadducees about resurrection marriage, Jesus commented on their resurrection-denial theory.
He said, “Do you remember the burning bush, hundreds of years after Abraham died? When God said to Moses, ‘I am the God of Abraham’”. To Moses, Abraham was long dead, but to God, Abraham was still alive.
Jesus concluded, “You’re wrong not to believe in the resurrection, because everyone who ever lived is alive to God.”
Thinking about Jesus’ interpretation, it seems to me “I am the God of Abraham” can mean different things. Like, “I am the God who spoke to Abraham when he was alive. And now that he’s dead, I’m speaking to you, Moses.”
Or God’s statement could mean, as Jesus interpreted it, “Lots of people appear dead to you, but everybody is alive to me.”
Jesus put a lot of weight on the words “I am the God of Abraham”. He interpreted the present tense to mean Abraham was still alive to God. Many scripture interpreters try to imitate Jesus by squeezing deep meaning from every noun, verb, and preposition in scripture. Few are as succinct or as convincing as Jesus.
Let’s pray.
O father, whatever gender means in the resurrection, whatever Jesus understood in the grammar of scripture, we believe you are the God of the dead and the living. That you are the God of resurrection.
Take these dying lives we live, have compassion on us as we debate scripture and grieve for the dead and wait for our end to come. Guide us on our fleeting journey. Draw us into resurrection life with you.
Amen.
I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.
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