Corona Chronicles - Crown of Thorns

Welcome back to Corona Chronicles, and we are back here in Mark 12, and we're in this little section where various opponents of Jesus are trying to pin him with their questions and trap him to find a reason not to listen to him and worse to get rid of him completely. And we saw quite a politically loaded question in our last session, a question about how to relate to Gentle authorities to Caesar, And now we're thinking about a a religious more of a religious trap as the sadducees come to him in in verse in verse 18. Sagencies who say there is no resurrection came to him and questioned him. Teacher, Moses wrote for us, that if a man's brother dies leaving a wife behind but no child, that man should take the wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were 7 brothers.

The first married a woman and dying left no offspring, The second also took her, and he died, leaving no offspring, and the third likewise, none of the 7 left offspring. Last of all, the woman died too. In the resurrection when they rise, whose wife will she be since the 7 had married her. Jesus spoke to them, isn't this the reason why you're mistaken? You don't know the Scriptures or the power of God.

For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but I like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, haven't you read in the book of Moses in the passage about the burning bush, how God said to him, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, you are badly mistaken. That's gonna shut them up. So there's another group.

So you had the pharisees and the herodians who hated each other coming together to trap him. And then there's these in many ways, the more sort of intellectual -- Yes. -- the more liberal minded sadducees. And they're thinking, okay, they had a go. Yeah.

Now let's put a very intelligent scriptural question just to him. Yeah. And they just like the previous opponents, they've they've basically already decided what they think is true. Right. And they're not coming ready to learn, they're coming to trap.

Yeah. And what they wanna do here is to prove that Jesus' doctrine of the resurrection is just ridiculous. They want to show that it doesn't work with what Moses said. So they're trying to say, you go on about Moses and fathers. Your doctrine of the resurrection is not found there.

You've departed from Moses. So 1, you're unfaithful. 2, you're just ridiculous. And let me prove how ridiculous you are with this illustration. And I mean, it's not a real story.

It's just a made up thing. They don't know anyone that, you know, has 7 brothers and 1 woman marries them all -- Yeah. -- and has no children. But, yeah, they're just making this up. And it I mean, it is quite a funny story.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And when we did the Mark drama, which is a, you know, a a a dramatized version of Mark's gospel in the in the round. This is this is 1 of the best seats.

It is, because it was just funny, wasn't it? Because was dying, another was dying, another was dying, all 7 die. Yeah. I mean, what's this woman doing? Yeah.

I think the question would be, is this woman killing them? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, so it's all about the resurrection and who they're gonna be married and and that sort of stuff to show as say those 2 things are stupid and you don't know the Moses.

And what they're assuming here, and this is the the big problem that Jesus puts his finger on is that the the the the age to come or the new creation is going to be exactly like this 1. Yeah. So they're thinking, well, marriage offspring, that's what it's like here, that's what it's going to be like there. But Jesus is saying, although there is a degree of continuity, there are actually things that are very different about the age to come. And the reason you don't get it is because you actually don't know the very scriptures you claim to be using against me.

So and that is the answer to all of our problems, isn't it? You know, we don't know the scriptures or hour of God. And Jesus is saying here, no, look, you're wrong. Yes, yes, there will be some things the same. We will have bodies.

There will be relationships. There will be a resurrected age. We're talking about a new earth, a restored, redeemed earth. But, you know, this this this idea of needing to marry in order to keep living -- Mhmm. -- so that we can have offspring.

That's not how it's gonna that's not how it's gonna be. There's gonna be no marriage because there's gonna be no need for off spring because we're all gonna live forever in the presence of God and and be married to him. Yeah. So they're not they're not seeing they're just thinking, here's how it is now. Yes.

That's how it will be then. That's stupid, isn't it Jesus? Well, is it because they're secular. Really in many ways they but they're believing this world is all there is. Yeah.

And to to imagine an eternity or a heaven is just saying, okay, we don't like the things about this world and and that's what atheists and secular still, isn't it? Mhmm. They they imagine when we're talking about the new creation and new heaven. There's just an extended extension of us. Yes.

We're just getting older and more frail and more senile and, you know, and and so they're not they're not they're not reading the scriptures. No. No. And then his answer is just fantastic at the end. He goes straight to Moses -- Yeah.

-- straight to the heart of Moses. I know. Yeah. In in Exeter 3 straight to the, you know, 1 of the big things -- Yeah. -- that shows God making a people and and declaring who God is.

And there he says, I am the God of Abraham who was dead by then -- Yes. -- the God of Isaac who was dead by then. The God of Jacob who was dead by then. Yeah. And so if your secularist view is God is God just then the God of dead people.

Yes. And then of course he says God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are badly mistaken. And it's a very strong bit of language there, isn't it? It is very strong.

Yeah. And for people who prided themselves in understanding the scriptures, it's quite embarrassing for them, isn't it? But -- Yeah. -- as you say, you know, the the very simple point Jesus makes. And this is just this is why he is such a master because it's not really difficult, what he says.

You know, I it's not I was the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. I am. In other words, they still live. They're alive to me. I'm the god of the living.

And so, you know, what what a way to tackle these opponents to prove that they are the ones who don't know Moses and that they are the ones who look ridiculous now. Not Jesus. Yeah. So I mean, that just shows us, isn't it? And you you do get this.

I mean, we have then we're as passed as people coming and asking us questions. And sometimes it's just really it's you're you're quite embarrassed for them. Because they're so ignorant that you you don't sort of often want to expose their ignorance because you feel a little bit embarrassed for them. But there are times where you have to expose because they're influencing people and say no, you're badly badly mistake you need to read the scriptures and understand what's going on. Yeah.

And and what God is saying. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So there is a resurrection.

There is and that's the encouragement here, isn't that that is the encouragement. There there is an age to come which will be both like and also very unlike this age that we've got to look forward to, and we will be with the God who lives and we will live forever in his presence. I mean, what the scriptures are about. Hope, isn't it? Yeah.

I mean, I heard the archbishop of Canterbury on the on the radio today talking about grief. Yes. His grief day. He was on with another religious leader. I think they're on for about 7 minutes on prime radio, radio 4.

Talking about grief. He didn't he must be a sadducee as far as I can see because he didn't mention God once or even spirituality or even prayer or certainly not the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so there are these sadducees around. Yeah. Just trying to give advice the advice was okay.

Yeah. You know, in 1 level, time is a healer and all that sort of stuff, all that sort of secular stuff. And what he should have said -- Yeah. -- was Jesus said, I am the resurrection of life. Yeah.

And there is hope to come. Yes. And we need to know the scriptures and the power of God. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, if if you know if Christians can't speak a word into death and grief, you know, we may as well pack up -- Yeah. -- really. Yeah. So there is hope in Resoressia -- There is. -- because God is the God of the living, not of the dead.

Yeah. We'll leave it there.