Life After Death
LIFE AFTER DEATH
MARK 12:18-27
Do we really believe in the resurrection?
After the discomfiture of the Pharisees and Herodians it was the turn of the Sadducees to question Jesus. They were the materialists of their day, alike in their denial of the resurrection, angels and spirits (Acts 23:8), and in their worship of wealth and worldly position. In later years they were overshadowed by the Pharisees, whose greater religious zeal made them the leaders of Judaism at a time when the people had no national future; but in the time of Jesus the Sadducees occupied a powerful place in the Sanhedrin, and it was from their ranks that the high priests came.
Their question arose from a palpably absurd story based on the Old Testament principle of levirate marriage (Genesis 38:8; Deuteronomy 25:5f.; the name has nothing to do with “Levite” but comes from Latin levir, a brother-in-law). Such complicated problems are found in Jewish discussions of the time. The purpose of this story was to ridicule the doctrine of the resurrection by a reductia ad absurdum; the modem parallel is when people ask what happens at the resurrection to a man who has been eaten by cannibals. In his reply Jesus enunciated two principles (12:24).
First, the Sadducean question ignored the power of God to create a new order of life in the heavenly world in which the earthly relationship of marriage would be transcended. The saying of Jesus has appeared hard to many, but the suggestion of C.F.D. Moule is helpful, that “the exclusive loyalty of husband and wife in this life may prove to be a way forward into a wider and more inclusive fellowship in that other life.”
The other part of Jesus’ reply was framed especially to answer the Sadducees, for they based their denial of the resurrection on its alleged absence from the books of Moses, which alone were authoritative for them. But there God, speaking to Moses, affirmed “I—the God of Abraham” (Exodus 3:6). There is no verb present in the Hebrew text, as is normal in such a statement. Jesus implies that a present tense “am” must be supplied (as in the Septuagint). If God thus spoke of himself to Moses, then he was implying that these men were still alive because he was still their God. He who was their God in their lifetime would not abandon them in death; they still live to him. Thus the hope of immortality and resurrection depends upon the character of God.