Mark 12:18-27 Not quite dead yet

First, I like how the Sadducee's confront Jesus, not trying to trap him like the religious leaders of the day, but genuinely asking him a question.   I think these questions are the ones Jesus enjoyed answering.   There are two things that I find encouraging, and a few people may find discouraging. ...

In verse 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."   As a single guy, this means that singleness only really matters in this life.   For those who think that they will 'be with' their spouse for eternity, well, yes as believers, but not in the role of man and wife.   There is no point, as the marriage union is to help us in this life, where God's glory will be our all in the next.

Secondly, is the resurrection of the dead vs. 27 "So he (God) is the God of the living, not the dead.  You have made a serious error."  

It's important that we don't evangelical-iz this verse, as we need to look at the context ... that Jesus was reaching out to the Sadducee's, people who had denied the power of God, and had watered down the scriptures in their own right ... thinking that some of God's attributes were influenced by the Hellenistic people of the OT times they had forgotten the power of God.
Jesus was laying down that God does have the power to raise the dead, but they are living in his eyes. God is a God of the living, NOT like the god at their time and culture (Hades), that is the difference, and that God is the great "I am God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (vs. 26).  Pillars of the Jewish faith.


What is the lesson for us?   In the big picture of these verses, we need to remember the holiness of the scriptures, and to learn from them.  NOT to water them down.    That was the trouble with the Sadduccee's, they had watered down the scriptures so much, that they had forgotten the power of God.   That He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ... that He doesn't see them as dead, but alive.   May we not forget the power of God, but be humbled in the knowledge that beyond this life, there is more yet to come.