HE Is GOD Of The Living

"The Sadducees also came to JESUS.  Since they claim that there is no resurrection, they questioned HIM in this way, 'Master, in the Scriptures Moses gave us this law: If anyone dies and leaves a wife but no children, his brother must take the woman, and, with her, have a baby, who will be considered the child of his deceased brother.  Now, there were seven bothers.  The first married the wife, but he died without leaving any children.  The second took the wife, and he also died, leaving no children.  The same thing happened to the third.  In fact, all seven brothers died, leaving no children.  Last of all, the woman died.  Now, in the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife?  For all seven brothers had her as wife?'

JESUS replied, 'Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of GOD?  When they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry, but are like the angels in heaven.

Now, about the resurrection of the dead, have you never had thoughts about the burning bush in the book of Moses?  GOD said to Moses: I AM the GOD of Abraham, the GOD of Isaac and the GOD of Jacob.  HE is the GOD, not of the dead, but of the living.  You are totally wrong.'" - Mark 12:18-27

Moses And The Burning Bush

(Mark's intention has been to put side by side the confrontations of JESUS with the two most important parties of the Jewish people: the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  The Sadducees--the chief priests--are the managers of GOD 's people.  They do not believe in the spiritual nor in the resurrection.  According to them these are disastrous innovations that weaken the national spirit and the power of the central system.  The Hebrew Bible is limited to the Pentateuch where much is said of priests and nothing at all about resurrection.

What is "resurrection"?  When JESUS called the daughter of Jairus [Mark 5:21] and Lazarus [John 11:1] back to life, they only recovered the life they had before.  The daughter went back to her dreams, Lazarus went to work in his garden and after this both had to die again.  This was not really resurrection.

Many people think that there is 'something" after death and that something in us, called "soul", survives.  This belief is partly true but it is not the most important aspect.  The resurrection points, not to a survival of "something of us," but to a transformation and raising up of our whole person.  This will be through grace and the work of GOD: we will be reborn of GOD HIMSELF.

We would like to know what we shall be once risen, but that is impossible.  If we think back on what Paul tried to make us understand on this subject in 1 Corinthians 15:35-57, this we must admit: as long as we are in the present world, a world where material things and time are our natural lot, it is impossible to imagine "the new heavens and the new earth" announced by the prophets and by JESUS [Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1-4].

Let us come back to Paul's comparisons: if someone has never seen more than the seeds of plants or trees, how could she imagine the plant covered with flowers or the tree fully grown?  What common feature is there in appearance between the colorless, lifeless little seed and the plant with its flowers swaying in the wind?  Whoever looks at the tree or plant knows well the source of this life that she admires.  It is today impossible for us to imagine what we shall become, in the totality of our human being, after the transfiguration to which GOD calls us.  When it has taken place we shall understand the vital link between what we shall be then and what we are today.

With this, we understand the double reproach of JESUS to the Sadducees.

You do not understand the power of GOD.  They only imagine a caricature of the resurrection.

You do not understand the Scriptures.  Very few books of the Hebrew Bible speak of the Resurrection, but all of them refer to a living GOD who makes us HIS friends.

I AM the GOD of Abraham, the GOD of Isaac and the GOD of Jacob.  If GOD committed HIMSELF to them, could HE be indifferent to their death and let them disappear forever, while HE enjoys HIMSELF in HIS glory?)

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