Gospel Mark 12:18-27
Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and put this question to him, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants. So the second brother married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third likewise. And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also died. At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her." Jesus said to them, "Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven. As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled.”
Reflection The audience in this story is different than those that we've just reflected upon. The Sadducees were a group of Jews who simply did not believe that there was such a thing as life after death. What I think is interesting about Jesus response to them is that he's simply saying, you know you're greatly misled. You have been taught poorly and you don't understand.
There's a gentleness in the way he treats them compared to the way he treated the scribes and Pharisees. He is more compassionate and understanding. That's what he does whenever we don't understand. He gently says, you were misled and let me lead you. Let me show you the truth, and I will do that for you.
Closing Prayer Father, give us the courage to look at the things that we don't fully understand, and turn to you and ask you to explain. You long to lead us into a place of truth and life. Let us never hesitate to admit that we do not understand. But we long to understand. And when we ask, you will answer our needs. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.