Mark 12:18-27--The Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

Mark 12:18-27
English Standard Version

The Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection
18 And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. 21 And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22 And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”

​24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 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’? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”

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The Pharisees have been bested twice (once on their own, and once with the Herodians helping them), so now the Sadducees took their turn.  It is important to know for this conversation that the Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead--they believed that people simply ceased to exist when they died.  In fact, they didn't believe in the supernatural much at all.  They claimed to believe in God and the first five books of the Bible (the Torah/the Law), but they found even that small portion of the Bible hard as it is full of miracles that they didn't really believe in.  They were rich and powerful, but not very religious--just religious enough to sound like they believed the same thing as the common person, but surprisingly enough, many of the priests (including the high priest) were from this political party).  Together the Pharisees and Sadducees made up what was called the Sanhedrin (the 70 elders that ruled over Israel).

With that background in mind, we'll see that their question to Jesus is totally disingenuous.  They don't believe in a resurrection or an afterlife.  This to them was a riddle they told people that they thought showed the preposterous nature of believing in such a resurrection and afterlife like the Pharisees did.  They told a story about a woman who was married to seven different brothers according to the Mosaic Law (don't worry about the question itself for right now other than to say that their hypothetical could actually happen and be completely legal under the Mosaic Law).  They then ask the question whose wife would she be in the resurrection?

Jesus corrected them in much the same way He did the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, only He didn't ask them "Have you not read and have not understood?".  He instead just tells them, that the reason they are confused is because they neither understand the Scriptures nor the power of God.  That would have been a slap in the face to these men who considered themselves experts in the Law, even if they didn't consider themselves very religious.  They were trying to get Jesus to play their game on their home turf (the Torah) and he tells them they don't even understand the rules of the game they are trying to play.

Jesus explains to them that in the resurrection, the purpose of man will no longer be sexual in nature (in Genesis we were told to "be fruitful and multiply.  Fill the earth and subdue it."), so we will instead have bodies in the resurrection that are like the angels of God that are asexual.  We will still recognize each other, but there will be no more need for male or female--we will all simply be servants of God living in communion with Him (and we know that we will all be part of the Bride of Christ).  We will be in such perfect union with God and each other that we will no longer need or even desire the intimacy that comes from sex.  It will be inferior and obsolete.

Then Jesus corrects their bad theology by taking them to one of the key passages in the Torah where God reveals His Name to Moses.  He said, "I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."  However, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had been dead for hundreds of years.  God did not say "I was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (past tense), but "I AM...." using the present tense.  That means that they are still alive, and He is still their God.  They had missed something so plain and obvious that was right there in front of them.  He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.  As if it wasn't obvious what conclusion should be drawn, He ends by telling them, "You are quite wrong."  We would call that a "mic drop" in today's language, but the coalition against Christ is not done yet.  There will be one more attempt by the scribes (those who were experts in the Scriptures and copied them word for word and wrote commentaries to explain them to others) would take a turn in the next passage questioning Jesus about the greatest commandment.