Mark 12:18-27

One would imagine that the religious leaders would at length have grown weary of trying to ensnare Jesus - so deftly did he parry their thrusts. Yet they doggedly held on for, in a very real sense, their very existence was at stake. If they were to retain their leadership, they simply could not countenance defeat at the hands of Jesus. It was not long, therefore, before another group - the Sadducees - confronted Jesus. (This is the only time that Mark mentions them in his Gospel.)

The Sadducees were few in number but they were well-represented in the Sanhedrin. For the most part, they were wealthy and well-educated men. They accepted only the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) as the Scriptures. They did not believe in angels nor in spirits nor in the resurrection of the body from the grave. IN fact, the Jewish historian Josephus tells us that, to the Sadducees, the spirit died with the body.

In keeping with their traditional belief, these Sadducees asked Jesus a question that was calculated to make the resurrection of the body appear ridiculous and absurd. The law of Moses decreed (Deuteronomy 25:5) that if a widow was left childless, her husband's brother should take her to him to wife so that the first-born child of this second union might carry on the deceased brother's family line.

The illustration the Sadducees used was quite far-fetched. It is likely that they had confused the Pharisees more than once with that very illustration, but they did not confuse Jesus. He declared, first, that they did not know the Scriptures (Mark 12:24). Their own Scriptures, if properly understood, should have removed all doubts from their minds as to the reality of the resurrection of the body. Then, Jesus continued, they did not understand the power of God. God's power could accomplish the resurrection notwithstanding all real and imaginary difficulties.

Again, they did not understand the nature of the future life. Earthly conditions do not any longer exist in the future life. The entire matter of marriage, and child-birth, is applicable to the earthly life only, and not to the life to come.

Finally, Jesus declared that the Sadducees did not understand the nature of the character of God. He is the God of the living, not the God of the dead. A proper understanding of the character of God makes belief in the fact of life beyond the grave inevitable (Mark 12:27).