Mark 12:18-27
The Sadducees: What About the Resurrection?
18 Then some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him; and they asked Him, saying:
19 “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.
20 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife; and dying, he left no offspring.
21 And the second took her, and he died; nor did he leave any offspring. And the third likewise.
22 So the seven had her and left no offspring. Last of all the woman died also.
23 Therefore, in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as wife.”
24 Jesus answered and said to them, “Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God?
25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
26 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’?
27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken.”
Context
- Why would the Sadducees ask such a question? (Matthew 22:22-33, Luke 20:27-40, Acts 23:4-8)
Reflection
- What was the ‘levirate’ marriage? (Genesis 38:6-12, Deuteronomy 25:5-10, Ruth 4:5, 13-17)
- Why does Jesus go back to Moses & the ‘God of the living? (Genesis 3:6, 15, Daniel 12:2, Hebrews 11:19)
- How will life in heaven be different from life on this earth? (John 5:24-28, I Cor 15:50-55, 1 John 3:2)
Testimony Time
- Why does the resurrection change everything? (John 11:25, 26, 1 Peter 1:3, Psalm 16:9-11, Romans 8:11)
- How is His resurrection power working in me? (Romans 8:21-23, 1 Thessalonians 2:13-18, Colossians 3:1-4, 1 Corinthians 15:16-20, 57)