17 May 2020 (am) – Mark 12:18-27
 | Andy Bruins preaching from Mark on Sunday 17th May 2020. |
Mark 12:18-27 Whose wife is she anyway?
This is the second of 3 questions asked by groups from the Sanhedrin to try and trap Jesus in His words.
This time it’s the Sadducees, who come with a question about the resurrection. They were a group who didn’t believe in the supernatural and who held that when you die, that’s the end – no life after death.
They come with a ridiculous story about a woman who marries 7 times – If there is a resurrection, then whose wife will she be when they all come back?
Jesus corrects their understanding of both the manner of the resurrection and the fact of it.
Marriage between men and women will not be a part of our resurrected life (instead, we will be like the angels) and as to the fact of it, you only need to look at the way God talks about the patriarchs – “I AM the God of Abraham” for, “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living”.
Summary: This life is not all there is; the resurrection is a certainty. But we should be careful not to create a picture of the new creation based only on things in this life we live now.
Q How would you describe the worldview of the Sadducees? (cf. Acts 23:8) Where might you find a similar worldview today?
Q Why does Jesus say they do not know the scriptures (v24, 26-27)? What does Jesus point out from the burning bush incident?
Q What’s fundamentally wrong with their understanding of life after the resurrection?
Q Discuss how C.S. Lewis helps us to avoid an inadequate understanding of heaven when he writes:
“All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
