40 Days Reading & Response

Week 5 - Day 3

4/9/2019

The Gospel of Mark Chapter 12, v. 18 (see the Reading Tips to the right or bottom of this page)
Discussion about Resurrection
Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. They posed this question: 19 “Teacher, Moses gave us a law that if a man dies, leaving a wife without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name. 20 Well, suppose there were seven brothers.

The oldest one married and then died without children. 21 So the second brother married the widow, but he also died without children. Then the third brother married her. 22 This continued with all seven of them, and still there were no children. Last of all, the woman also died. 23 So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.” 24 Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. 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. 26 “But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—haven’t you ever read about this in the writings of Moses, in the story of the burning bush? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said to Moses, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 27 So he is the God of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error.”

The Most Important Commandment
28 One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. 30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” 32 The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. 33 And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.” 34 Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Whose Son Is the Messiah?
35 Later, as Jesus was teaching the people in the Temple, he asked, “Why do the teachers of religious law claim that the Messiah is the son of David? 36 For David himself, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit in the place of honor at my right hand
until I humble your enemies beneath your feet.’
37 Since David himself called the Messiah ‘my Lord,’ how can the Messiah be his son?” The large crowd listened to him with great delight. 38 Jesus also taught: “Beware of these teachers of religious law! For they like to parade around in flowing robes and receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces. 39 And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and the head table at banquets. 40 Yet they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public. Because of this, they will be more severely punished.”

About today's contributor . . . Jennifer has a background in Social Work and cross-cultural missions. She lives in TriBeCa with her husband and two kids.
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What stands out to me from this passage is all the people who are trying to outsmart Jesus. Coming up with these elaborate scenarios (like the seven brothers all marrying the same woman!), just so they can try and trick him into saying the wrong thing. Instead of learning from this great man, they were so fixated on trying to catch him saying something wrong. What a waste of an amazing opportunity! They were standing before Jesus, and able to speak to him about anything they wanted, and this is how they chose to spend their time? It seems so ridiculous to me, yet I am sure I have done similar things in my relationship with God. I want to be more like the man who asked about the “greatest commandment”. He seemed to truly come before Jesus ready to learn, with an open heart and mind. And Jesus recognized that and acknowledged it.

What about you? What stood out to you most from this passage?
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Please join the conversation by leaving a comment.

16 Comments

Wells

4/10/2019 03:55:59 am

Great comment Jennifer! The pharisees did miss great learning opportunities from Jesus who was right in front of them. And how often do we not realize that God is in every day situations trying to show or teach or even just reassure us but we miss it.

Dan K

4/10/2019 04:33:20 am

Jennifer,
That’s a fascinating observation! At this point, I’m so jaded by their routine through all of the chapters that I’ve forgotten about the missed opportunity.
There is one person who stands out though and that definitely caught my attention. The one who Jesus says is “not far from the kingdom of heaven.” I wonder what exactly he meant by that...

Ben

4/10/2019 05:04:54 am

This caught my attention too

Sara

4/10/2019 04:40:22 am

Thanks for sharing Jennifer! What stood out to me most is the verse where Jesus tells them their mistake is not knowing the power of God. It seems they can’t alter their view of things because their view of God is so limited. Jesus surprise me- expand my view of who you are!

Rose

4/10/2019 06:30:09 am

The verse... "So he is the God of the living, not the dead" made me think about the limited perspective of the religious leaders too. They were so clearly fixated on their future "ranking" and where they might be sat in heaven (and with which wife!) that they were blind to the grace of God on this earth.

Thanks Jennifer, this also made me think about their desire to 'trick' Jesus and I wonder if their treatment of him was a reflection of how they felt... they obviously LOVED rules and had based their whole lives around following them, so to have someone like Jesus come along and potentially 'catch them out' probably felt quite threatening, and thus they acted out of fear.

Melinda

4/10/2019 06:33:04 am

Jennifer, thanks so much! What a waste of time for sure trying to argue Jesus into a corner.. 🤦‍♀️ But the discussion of the dead and whether God is the God of the living or the dead.. struck a chord in a different way for me.. I was struck by the truth that yes, God is for all times, all spaces.. on the way to work today I was thinking of the statement that people say here in reference to the dead “Rest in peace”.. and the way that Jesus describes them doesn’t strike me as people at rest.. I wonder what it means to be in relationship with God after you die.. ?? If we and Abraham have the same God right now, what would that mean? Like God of Abraham, Moses, Issac and Melinda...

Jamie

4/10/2019 07:10:20 am

"Like God of Abraham, Moses, Issac and Melinda"

I LOVE this, Melinda! I don't know what it means to be in relationship with God after we die, but I love that you're thinking about it. I think about it a lot too. Jesus and the Apostles always talk about the next life, but we never get a lot of details. LOL.

Emily

4/10/2019 06:33:52 pm

Love this so much “the God of Melinda” ❤️

Chris

4/10/2019 07:06:38 am

Well said, Jennifer. It's amazing what selfishness can make people do, and miss.

My favorite part of this passage is the scripture Jesus cites to demonstrate that the dead will be resurrected: "Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said to Moses, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’" Like, they're here with Me, right now, in the house.

I doubt that most people who have ever read this passage, however faithful and optimistic, understood it to mean that God's people are resurrected in heaven. Perhaps Moses himself didn't really get the implied message.

Jesus' use of it brings a big smile to my face -- I think because is shows that God's plan and ways are even better, and more favorable to me, than I could imagine, even when I read the Scripture very closely. And, He identifies Himself with people like me. He says to others, you know Me, because you know Chris. I'm his God. Whoa.

4/10/2019 12:51:03 pm

Love that! 😮 Whoa!

4/10/2019 07:19:28 am

It's interesting that you have all these religious leaders trying to trick Jesus and then out of nowhere this one guy stands up and asks him a serious question. I imagine that this man saw how awful the rest of them were being and tried to change the tone of the conversation. He obviously saw what the others didn't and was maybe trying to gently point out their ignorance. But not in a way that's confrontational or accusatory. I feel inspired to be more gentle with people who see things differently than me.

Kevin

4/10/2019 11:02:23 am

Thanks Jennifer! Truly engaging Jesus without an ulterior motive is a challenge.
I think that the most surprising thing from this passage is that Jesus seemed surprised by one of the religious teachers when he replied to the question of what was the greatest commandment.

4/10/2019 06:29:57 pm

So, I would say the core of who I am is my faith – it grounds me, it is my foundation, and what I am striving to be better in – and if I were asked to explain the core of my faith I would quote the greatest commandment. This is what I am trying to orient my life around…but what strikes me today and what I am wondering is what would my life look like if I loved God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. What would I really be doing, saying, thinking, etc..and how would it look different from my life now? I feel like my love for God is more of a truth in my life than an action – but this commandment today reads so active. I love God, but am I loving God with everything I have?

John

4/11/2019 04:28:50 am

Wow - thanks for this!

4/14/2019 12:37:50 am

Appreciate this question of loving vs love, Emily.

Joy

4/11/2019 11:02:16 am

Hi Jennifer, Thank you for your sharing.
I just can't stop amazed by Jesus' answers for all those confusing and complicated questions! He is really good at surprising us with answers and actions in the bible. I'm looking forward to seeing how he will surprise each one of us in our lives. Surprise us Jesus!

reading & response

Week 5 - Day 3

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