The God of the Living, Not the Dead

Mark 12:18-27

  18 Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. They posed this question: 19 “Teacher, Moses gave us a law that if a man dies, leaving a wife without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name. 20 Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died . . . So the second brother . . .Then the third brother . . .all seven of them, . . . Last of all, the woman also 23 So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.”
  24 Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. 25 For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven. 26  “But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—haven’t you ever read about this in the writings of Moses, in the story of the burning bush? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said to Moses, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 27 So he is the God of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error.”

Since these folks already did not believe in a resurrection it was clear their question was insincere and meant to cause harm. We have people alive today who approach Christ and Christians in the same way-- intent to harm and distract. They are driven by God's enemy, the Devil. They are not in control of themselves, but the Enemy is. You, however, are not under the enemy's control if you have yielded your life to God through faith in Christ as Savior and Lord.

Jesus knew their intention and he yet loved them, so he taught them truth nevertheless. He explained their erroneous belief and then led them into a more important question. In effect he was saying  that God is Lord over the Living and those faithful servants that history had reported as having died, were, nevertheless, living int he presence of God. His lesson had a moral to it. What will YOU do with the Living God who raises the righteous dead to be with Him?  His answer impressed at least one of them for he followed up with the famous question about his soul and Jesus told him that he was not 'far from the Kingdom of God (Mark 12:34). So, in their attempt to trap Jesus, now at least this one of them was trapped because Jesus had just told him how close he was but that he was not yet in the Kingdom. He may have been telling the man that his life was about to end, as well, we don't know for sure. Point was that they did not believe in The Christ so they were not yet included in God's Kingdom.

Do you believe in The Christ? How will today's actions let anyone know who may be observing you?

Your servant in the Lord's Love

Dan

drdanelliott@gmail.com