The Sadducees’ Question (Part 2 of 2)

Music playing Afterlife. But behind this inquiry, the Sadducees were trying to get Jesus to contradict his own claims about the resurrection. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg takes us to Mark chapter 12, beginning at verse 18. The Sadducees had put Jesus on the defense.

Here's how the story unfolds. The Sadducees had posed a question about the resurrection, despite the fact that they didn't even believe in the resurrection. And there is a cynicism about the way in which they come to Jesus.

Their motivation is absolutely clear. They want to expose, if they can, the absurdity of the resurrection itself. And although previous attempts to trap Jesus have ended in failure, by means of this particular approach, these individuals were hoping to discredit him.

And as you read the opening part of this little paragraph, you have the sense that they feel that perhaps on this occasion they've done a very good job. But in verse 25, Jesus begins to answer them. And the first answer he gives is in relationship to the specific question that they had raised. Although it is a spurious question, nevertheless, Jesus addresses it. The whole question was in relationship to the demands of the law of God, which you can find in Deuteronomy 25, which made provision for the lineage of a man if he had died childless.

And these Sadducees are using this lever at law, pushed to the level of absurdity, to somehow or another, at least in their minds, bolster up their conviction that the idea of the resurrection is entirely untenable, because what they're saying is the chaos that would ensue in the afterlife is such that God would never, ever have had any part in making such a thing happen. If, as a result of divorce or as a result of the death of a spouse, there has been in an individual's life more than one marriage, then that introduces the prospect of, in the afterlife, meeting up with more than one spouse. And what are you going to do? Who are you going to live with? How are you going to spend your time?

And so on. And if you've ever thought these things out—and I'm sure many of you have—you've wondered, really, just exactly how it was going to spin for you. Well, what Jesus says in verse 25 is essentially, you're not really going to have to worry about it at all. Don't lose any sleep over it, he says, because there will actually be no need for procreation in the afterlife, and therefore no need for marriage. And it is in this respect, he says, that you will be like the angels. Now, it's important that you notice he doesn't say that you're going to become angels but that you will be like the angels. Now, I don't know how this strikes you, but I would include this as one of the hard sayings of Jesus—a hard saying of Jesus in this respect—that for those of us who have or are enjoying married life, the companionship that it provides, the joys of every aspect of marriage, the concept of a heaven that removes us from this realm, is not, I would suggest to you, something that is immediately attractive. Now, I don't think that we have to feel bad about this in the first instance, because after all, one of the great gifts that God has given to us as children of men is the gift of family life, is the gift of marriage, the relationships that he has established from the very beginning of creation. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

This has been instituted by God himself. But when we think in terms of what eternity will be, we discover that it isn't going to include that. Which is tough for us if our view of heaven is essentially the Irving Berlin view of heaven.

And what is that? Well, it goes like this. Heaven, I'm in heaven, and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak.

And I seem to find the happiness I seek when we're out together dancing cheek to cheek. So the Christian says, that is, for me, at least in measure, wrapped up somehow in my anticipation of life as it might ultimately be. And so, essentially, what we do is we project the best that we have now, we kind of supersize it and assume then that that is going to be heaven. And the way in which we think about these things—or I can put it in the first person—the way in which I think about these things clarifies for me just how earthly-minded so many of my heavenly thoughts prove to be. And when it comes to this issue of heaven itself and the afterlife, I realize when I read an answer like verse 25 just how daunting it really is.

Now, maybe it's not good to be so honest, I don't know, but there you have it. Marriage and reproduction belong to the earthly sphere, which is temporary, but the heavenly life is eternal. So, immediately, the carpet is pulled out from underneath these characters. They've come with this elaborate attempt at undermining the whole concept of the resurrection, and Jesus says, well, first of all, in terms of the specifics that you're mentioning, that really is a moot point. Because, actually, when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels.

Oh, well, you say to yourself, well, he's only referring to the process. So when you get there, you don't get married, and you're not given in marriage. But that's okay, because I'm already married. So I don't have to worry about the process.

So I'll go up there as I am. It's only for those that somehow or another want to get married. I don't want to get married. I am married.

But that only mitigates it in part, doesn't it, when you think it through? But for those of us in married life who enjoy one another's company and who have already made secret plans to meet each other, whatever the program is, I don't know where we're gonna meet. I don't know where it is.

Behind the school sheds, I think. Just for old times' sake. But verse 25 is a hard saying of Jesus. It raises, of course, all the other correlative questions about being known and knowing in heaven. And whether the familial ties of earth will hold true into eternity, whether they will immediately be so transcended that they will be irrelevant to us, or whether they will be, if you like, enhanced in a way that we can hardly imagine. Again, this is my own personal hope, but not necessarily conviction. And that is that the things that are precious to us in this life, in terms of relationships, will not be eradicated in the afterlife but will actually be enhanced. The afterlife is not simply going to be a form of resuscitation.

It is going to be a complete transformation. But even in that transformative dimension, we have reason, I think, to anticipate the meaningfulness of these ties which have bound us together in an earthly way. These are not main things and plain things.

These are questions of conjecture. But let me give to you a quote which I have found is the best quote. In fact, you are going to love this quote so much that I'm going to tell you now that we will post it on the internet to prevent you all from phoning up and annoying my assistant tomorrow morning. This is a quote from an Irish Presbyterian minister who's a friend of mine, and it goes under the heading Relationships in Heaven.

So you just sit back and listen to this and see if you find this helpful and encouraging. What about those who are nearest to us on earth? That's the question he poses. Will I still have a special relationship with my wife in heaven? Will you still treat your parents as father and mother? Will our close friends here be our close friends there? It's all very well to look forward to meeting tens of thousands, but are we not created in such a way as to still want an inner circle?

Such questions are natural but not easy to answer. We will certainly know one another in heaven. King David looked forward to being reunited with his dead son there.

"'I shall go to him,' he said." Paul urges bereaved Christians not to, quote, sorrow as others who have no hope, for God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. The reason for not grieving like unbelievers is that their parting is not permanent. They will meet again. We cannot know less in heaven than we did on earth, and so we will recognize there those known to us here.

That is surely comforting. We're also told that many aspects of marriage will no longer be appropriate in glory, where, to quote from Mark here, they neither marry nor are given in marriage. There will be no reproduction. The husband will not need a helper, nor the wife someone to cherish her protectively.

Children will not require parental care. The relationship between Christ and his church will be so obvious as to render unnecessary a human illustration. Does this mean, then, that your husband or my best friend will be no more to us than anyone else among the multitudes of the redeemed?

I don't think so. For every good thing will be better in heaven than on earth. If God has given you a Christian husband or wife, parent or child, brother or friend, you can be sure that whatever the parameters of your future relationship with them may be, the friendship will be closer there than it is now. You will know them more intimately, love them more intensely, delight in them more fully. It is impossible that we should lose anything good in that place where good abounds. We can look at Christians whom we love especially and praise God that we will continue to love them more and more, forever and ever.

You like that quote? So imagine you take your grandchildren to you. Could you love them any more than you love them?

The idea that I could love them more and more and forever and ever? Oh, these silly Sadducees have helped us out, haven't they, by posing this question and giving us the opportunity to consider it. Then Jesus changes down into third gear, and in verse 26, he says, Now let me come to the real question that you're asking, the underlying question, what you've asked about marriage, you have been using as a ploy. I recognize that. I've addressed it as best I can. But I realize that what you're really calling in question is the notion of the resurrection itself.

That's the real issue. And so he says, 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 Abram and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead but of the living. You are quite wrong. Now, I've read this a lot this week, and you have read it a few times already today, and you may agree with me that the response of Jesus here does not strike one as immediately obvious.

Maybe you, but it didn't strike me as immediately obvious. He takes, as we noted this morning, a passage from the Scriptures, which is contained in the Pentateuch—and it was the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, the Law of Moses—that these Sadducees regarded as exclusively inspired Scripture. So he doesn't go outside of that. He doesn't go to the Psalms. He doesn't go to Psalm 16 11, where the psalmist says, Thou dost show me the path of life.

In your presence there is fullness of joy, and at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. He doesn't go to passages in Job that anticipate the resurrection. No, he says, Let's just stay right here in the section that you were mentioning earlier. In fact, he says to them, since they wouldn't be walking around with big scrolls… I mean, he couldn't… You couldn't say in those days, if you just take your Bible and look on page 848, they wouldn't be wandering around with the scrolls of the Pentateuch with them. And that's why they would refer to certain incidents in the way in which this is referenced.

You see that. He says, And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses? In the passage about the bush. In the passage about the bush. So that they would immediately say, Oh yes, I know what you're referencing there—Moses and the burning bush, which is in Exodus chapter 3. Now, this is the passage which Jesus then uses to point out to the Sadducees, from the Pentateuch, the fact of the resurrection. Which then raises the question, in what sense does this section concerning Moses and the burning bush and the statement made by God to Moses, in what sense does this convey the fact that God is the God of the living and not the dead? Because that's the punchline, isn't it, in verse 27? He says, Let me remind you of the bush.

You know the story of the bush, don't you? He says, And this is what God said, and here's the deal. God is the God of living, of the living. He's not the God of the dead.

What is he saying? Well, think about it. Think how many years had passed by the time this incident took place in relationship to Moses. From a human perspective, from an earthly perspective, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were long gone. They hadn't been around for ages.

Literally. But when he addresses Moses, he speaks in the present tense in relationship to the patriarchs. And the point that he is making is surely this—that he is the ongoing God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are themselves ongoing. They have been gathered into the presence of God, awaiting that glorious resurrection day, when, with all the myriad hosts upon hosts, they will be gathered into the grand finale, when all of this comes down from heaven like a bride adorned for her husband, and the dwelling of God is with men in a new heaven and in a new earth. What good would it be if he called Abraham out of the hour of the coldies and made all these promises to him, and then Abraham died and it was over? That he establishes his purposes for Isaac, and Isaac dies, and it's the grand finale.

And so on. That's the point that Jesus is making. And these Sadducees were clever enough to understand exactly what he was doing, and to be clear concerning what he said. If the Sadducees had actually known God's power in the way that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had known God's power, then they would have recognized what they failed to see—that hope in God is not simply for time alone.

Hope in God is not simply for the immediate enjoyment and discoveries of his grace, all of which are wonderful, necessary, and meaningful. But if these guys, these smart-aleck Sadducees, had actually paid attention to the Bible they were reading, and if they had known the power of God revealed in the Bible they were reading, then they would not have come to Jesus with their cynical, smart-aleck questions. The problem for them lay, just as Jesus pointed out. Isn't your problem, he says, that you don't actually know the Scriptures, nor do you know the power of God? For he is the God of the living.

He's not the God of the dead. As I was sitting late this afternoon thinking along these lines, one of my songs from Sunday school came to mind. You have heard of little Moses in the bulrush.

You have heard of fearless David and his sling. You have heard the story told of dreaming Joseph, and of Jonah and a whale, I often sing. There are many, many others in the Bible. I should like to meet them all, I do declare. And by and by, the Lord will surely let us meet them at that meeting in the air. For there's going to be a meeting in the air, in the sweet, sweet by and by. I'm going to meet you, meet you over there, in a home beyond the sky.

Such singing you will hear, never heard by mortal ear. It'll be glorious, I do declare. And God's own Son will be the leading one at that meeting in the air. There the doubters will be missing altogether. All the skeptics will be absent on that day.

There will be no grumblers present to disturb us, and the achons will be busy far away. Remember burying that stuff? There the saints will have his seal upon their foreheads. Dressed in raiment none but ransom ones can wear. All who have the wedding garments will be present at the meeting in the air. Because there's going to be a meeting in the air. And God's own Son will be the leading one at that meeting in the air. You see how different this is from Islam, from the vague hopes of Zen Buddhism, from the forlorn notions in the darkness of Hinduism, for the chance of a go-around to come back again as something a little better and hopefully not a little worse than I am now?

My dear friends, let us make sure that in no respect we will ever be like these Sadducees. Let us resolve to know the Scriptures and the power of God, so that when we're asked a reason for the hope we have, we can then tell them this fantastic story. The religious leaders known as the Sadducees were thwarted in their attempt to sabotage Jesus, another reminder for us that no one can steal God's glory. You're listening to Truth for Life and a message from Alistair Begg titled, The Sadducees' Question. In this study of Jesus' life and ministry, we're seeing how he emerges from every encounter with his detractors as the Lord of all.

No one, not even his most devoted critics, could rob him of his glory. As Christians, we're given modern-day models of what complete devotion to God looks like. And perhaps no one has exemplified this more faithfully than the Puritans. Today we're pleased to offer you a brand new documentary that tells their wonderful story.

It's called, Puritan, All of Life to the Glory of God. Ask for a copy of the DVD when you give a donation today at truthforlife.org slash donate or click the image you see on your mobile app. You can also call us right now for the DVD. Call 888-588-7884.

And the DVD comes along with instructions on how you can stream the documentary if you'd prefer to do that. I'm Bob Lapine. On Thursday's program, Alistair tells the story of a man whose spiritual struggle might be a reflection of your own. Be sure to join us again tomorrow as our study in Mark 12 continues. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.