Mark 12:18-27
Let’s remember to pray for Jim and Marty.
“Notice what you notice.” And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. (vv. 26-27) When God appeared to Moses in the “burning bush” incident, the Israelites had been in Egypt more than 400 years. All the patriarchs were clearly long since dead. So I can see where the Sadducees were coming from. To me a reasonable interpretation of Exodus 3:6 would be God saying to Moses that He is the God who appeared to Abraham when Abraham was alive, but Abraham is now dead. And He is the God who appeared to Isaac when Isaac was alive, but is now dead. And the same with Jacob. But Jesus clarifies those words that God spoke, declaring that God is the God of the living – that is, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were alive with Him when He spoke to Moses.
I can see the logic of the Sadducees’ position, but Jesus is telling them that they are wrong and that the Pharisees are correct – there is an afterlife. That is, Jesus is revealing truth for what is otherwise a confusing and arguable passage. Does that make sense?
Slava Bohu!