Majoring in The Minors
Mark 12:18-27
18. Some Sadducees (who say that there is no resurrection) came to Jesus, and began questioning Him, saying,
19. “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that IF A MAN’S BROTHER DIES and leaves behind a wife AND LEAVES NO CHILD, HIS BROTHER SHOULD MARRY THE WIFE AND RAISE UP CHILDREN TO HIS BROTHER.
20. “There were seven brothers; and the first took a wife, and died leaving no children.
21. “The second one married her, and died leaving behind no children; and the third likewise;
22. and so all seven left no children. Last of all the woman died also.
23. “In the resurrection, when they rise again, which one’s wife will she be? For all seven had married her.”
24. Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God?
25. “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
26. “But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, and the God of Jacob’?
27. “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken.”
(Mark 12:18-27)
If you were as small as an ant, it would certainly change your view of the world. Suddenly, a field of grass would turn into an incredibly thick forest. A street curbing would become a towering wall of rock. For you, it would certainly be reality, but reality as viewed from your perspective. The reality you see, however, may not necessarily be the true reality.
Our perception of reality changes based upon our unique perspective. It is our point of view. What we see from our point of view may be true, but it may not be all that is true. There is a difference between that which is true and that which is the truth.
For instance, it is true that I am a sinner. But it’s also the truth is that I am a sinner saved by grace. It is true that my righteousness is as filthy rags before God. But it is a greater truth that I am clothed in Christ's righteousness. Christ is my righteousness, and I stand complete in Him. It is true that I suffer defeat from time to time. But, it is also true that I am an overcomer in Christ, and ultimate victory belongs to the people of God. It is true that at times I question my salvation. But it is a greater truth that my salvation is not dependent on my mortal feelings. While it is true that I may not feel saved, the greater truth is that I am saved.
At times it is difficult to see the forest because we are concentrating on individual trees. Without noticing, we get sidetracked and focus in on concerns that don't really count. At times we major on minor issues. We do this in marriage when we focus in on the small things which irritate us instead of on the positive relationship which means so much to us. It's so easy in raising our children to focus on the mistakes they make instead of on their character development. In our jobs, there are always those tasks which are unpleasant. We can let them occupy our time and tongue or we can emphasize those things which make our work meaningful. Even in the church, we can major on the minors. In the church the challenge always is to keep the main things the main thing.
The Bible is itself a living illustration of man's tendency to major on the minors. Over and over on its pages, we see God calling His people back to Himself. God is forever re-focusing the priorities of His people on the things that really count. In our scripture today, Jesus confronts the unbelieving Sadducees who were notorious for their lack of perspective. They were too focused on their own social status to focus in on the things which were really important. They had limited vision, they were myopic, they saw only the human dimension. The Sadducees rejected the supernatural because they couldn't understand it. They mistakenly didn't believe in the resurrection because it defied human logic. So Jesus confronts the Sadducees concerning their error regarding the resurrection. And in this text, He points them to what really matters.
Do you find yourself getting sidetracked on minor issues? Do you major on the minors, too? It is so easy to get sidetracked on peripheral issues instead of concentrating on understanding the Scriptures and experiencing the power of God. If we do, we will be limited in our vision. We will end up mistaken in our conclusions. And our spiritual life will be constantly frustrated because we will continue to see through human eyes and perceive through human understanding. The challenge for us is to shape our thinking in light of God's truth and God's power. As we do that, a whole new world will open up to us.
Jesus' encounter with the Sadducees has a message for God's people today.
Ridiculous Conjecture
Notice first, the unyielding Sadducees as they come to Jesus to question Him concerning the resurrection. I'm sure the Sadducees had noticed that the Pharisees and Herodians had failed in their attempt to trap Jesus. Now it was their turn. I'm sure, they thought that they would succeed.
The Sadducees were extremely status conscious. They were worldly and wealthy, ill mannered, and rude. Josephus wrote, "The Sadducees...are, even among themselves, rather boorish in their behavior, and in their social relationship with their peers are as rude as aliens." They were a proud and arrogant people who somehow thought they were better than other people. Acts 23:8 tells us that they did not believe in the resurrection, nor did they believe in the existence of angels and spirits. They only accepted the Torah, or the first five books of Moses. They claimed that the resurrection was not taught in the Torah. Therefore, it was a false doctrine.
The Sadducees were no doubt delighted whenever the Pharisees and Herodians had been so easily handled by the Lord Jesus. They, however, had a question which no one had been able to answer. It concerned the resurrection. The Sadducees prided themselves on being rational and logical in thought. They did not believe in the resurrection. It was unreasonable to them. And they had developed a very sophisticated defense mechanism. It is thought by some that the question they put to Jesus concerning the resurrection was one which had been put successfully to the Pharisees and others who believed in the resurrection. But, no one had been able to answer their question. They probably felt confident that Jesus would not be able to answer it as well. Although He had easily handled the Pharisees and Herodians, He would certainly be no match for them - or at least this is what they thought. And so in their unyielding and stubborn way, they came to Jesus. They did not attempt to flatter Him at all. Rather, they came in all their brashness arrogance and put their question directly to Him.
Notice the unlikely scenario they described for Jesus. They spoke of the law of Levirate marriage (verse 19). Moses had given this law in Deuteronomy 25. It was an ancient custom whereby, if a married man's brother died, he would marry his brother's widow, thus preserving the family from dying out and keeping the family wealth intact. It was a convenient social custom. But the picture the Sadducees painted was a very unlikely one indeed.
They posed the hypothetical situation whereby, one by one, seven brothers would marry the same woman. Each, in turn, would die. Upon the death of each husband, the brother next in line would marry the woman. None of these marriages would have children. And finally, the woman herself would die. Probably in exhaustion from all those husbands. The question the Sadducees had was: whose wife would she be in the resurrection? No doubt, they had used this unlikely scenario to confuse the Pharisees. The Pharisees were easily led into an endless, furious examination of the minutest points of the law. It is easy to picture them huddling together, trying to answer the Sadducees' impossible question. There was nothing written on this subject. Nobody had made any authoritative pronouncements. This kind of question could serve to throw the Pharisees into a panic for days. It's like trying to determine how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
This was not only an unlikely situation, it was ridiculous conjecture. Furthermore, the Sadducees didn't care about whose wife someone would be in the resurrection. They didn't even believe in the resurrection. They were merely playing a game with words to try to confuse the Savior. They thought they had the upper hand, but they were wrong. Jesus replies to them in verse 24, a verse we shall examine in more detail later. He tells them that they are greatly mistaken about the resurrection. They are mistaken for two reasons. The first is ignorance of God's word. And the second is ignorance of His power.
Resurrection Considerations
Jesus goes on to address certain considerations about the resurrection. Notice in verse 25 that Jesus says, "When they rise from the dead..." He does not say if they rise from the dead, but when they rise. Jesus believed in the resurrection, and so should we.
When we rise from the dead, we will be alive in a different dimension. Jesus says, in verse 25, that there is no marriage in heaven, but that we are like the angels. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I do know it means that our heavenly state is a glorified state. Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 15 about the resurrection from the dead. He says, in verse 44, about our physical bodies, that:
"It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."
A few verses later, he adds, in verse 52,
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed."
Alive in a different dimension. When we rise from the dead and go to be with Jesus, we will have glorified bodies like the angels.
Even though we will be alive in this different dimension, I'm sure we will recognize one another. We will be in perfect fellowship with everyone. There will be perfect peace, perfect unity, and perfect love. And we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Jesus believed in the resurrection of the dead. He believed in it so much, He even raised Lazarus from the dead. He believed in it so much, He said, "I am the resurrection and the life." He believed in it so much He even rose from the dead Himself.
We not only will be alive in a different dimension, we will be alive with a divine destiny after we are raised from the dead. Jesus presses on to confront the Sadducees with their own ignorance of their Torah. In verse 26, He asks them if they were not aware of what Moses had said in Exodus. Moses quoted what God had said to Him as "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. This was in their own Torah, that portion of the Bible they believed was doctrinally correct. Jesus makes the point that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. God cannot be the God of the dead. If the dead cease to exist, how can He be their God? Here is an example of the divine logic of Jesus. It is impeccable. You can only have a relationship with someone who is alive. God, who lives in the spiritual dimension, can only be the God of those who are alive, either in the physical or in the spiritual dimension. The Sadducees had missed this point because they had not studied the Scriptures.
The hope for us is that this reveals to us that we never truly die. Our physical bodies may pass away, but our spirits live on forever. We have a divine destiny. Those of us who live in Jesus will live forever with Him in glory. When our physical bodies pass away, our spirits will pass on. We will be transferred from this earthly existence to a heavenly one, where we shall be with Jesus for eternity.
Relevant Concerns
This brings us to the relevant concerns of this portion of Scripture. The Sadducees were guilty of majoring on the minors. They had been unable to keep the main thing the main thing. They had become insensitive to the truth of God. But Jesus put their problem sharply in focus. He revealed to them a problem which still exists today.
In verse 24, Jesus said that the reason they were mistaken about the resurrection in two areas. Firstly, they were ignorant of the principles of Scripture, and secondly, they were ignorant of the power of the Spirit. Look at verse 24. "Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not 1understand the Scriptures or the power of God? ?"
Just as the Sadducees of Jesus’ day, many people today have a sad ignorance of the principles of Scripture. The Sadducees did not understand the Scriptures. Therefore, they were mistaken about the resurrection. Jesus quoted them one of their own well-accepted Scriptures as proof of the resurrection. Why didn't the Sadducees understand that Scripture? They didn't understand the Scripture because they didn't take time to thoroughly study the Scriptures, and they probably didn’t know. The Sadducees were selective in what they believed. Here, they had taken a part of the accepted canon of Old-Testament Scripture and singled it out as that part they would accept as inspired.
Scriptures are the word of God. And, God has given us this word in order to provide direction for our lives. In Psalms we read that God's word is "A light unto my path."
Romans 10:17 says, So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 reveal the inspiration and profitability of Scripture:
16. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17. so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
Apart from a thorough knowledge of Scripture, we fall into error. God has used the Scripture to give guidance in the most extraordinary way.
But there is also a danger of being ignorant of the power of the Spirit. These Sadducees were familiar neither with the Scriptures nor the power of God. The Pharisees could not be accused of not knowing the Scriptures. But they, like the Sadducees, were also ignorant of the power of God. You see, there is a danger in an academic knowledge of Scripture, without an understanding of the spirit of Scripture. The Bible teaches that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. We are never called simply to know the letter of the Scriptures but also the Spirit. Letter and Spirit must be wed together in order for the Scriptures to have the powerful effect God intends them to have.
What God desires is not simply an intellectual understanding based in the fact of Scripture. God desires a personal encounter with the living Lord. Paul, in Philippians 3:10, said, "That I may know Him..." We experience the power of God by coming into that dynamic, personal relationship with God's Son by His Spirit.
The key to God's power is faith. It is hearing and obeying the word of God. We experience the power of God as we commit to live by the Word. As we step out in faith, putting the word of God into our experience, the anointing of God descends upon us and we come to understand that He is able to fulfill what He has promised. He gives us the power to stand. He gives us the power to be strong. He gives us the power to be victorious. Daniel said that those who knew their God would be strong and do exploits. You experience the power by hearing and obeying.
Matthew 7:24-27 gives us a vivid illustration of this:
24. “Therefore aeveryone who hears these words of Mine and 1acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25. “And the rain fell, and the 1floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.
26. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not 1act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
27. “The rain fell, and the 1floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
We have two houses, each may be identical. One, however, is built upon a rock, and one upon the sand. The one upon the rock, the firm foundation, has the power to stand. The one on the sand has no power at all. What's the difference? The only difference is one heard the word and acted upon it; one heard the word and did not. Hearing and obeying are both essential elements of experiencing the power of God. The Sadducees got sidetracked on peripheral issues. Instead of concentrating on the things that really count - understanding the Scriptures and the power of God. So we also can get sidetracked as well. Our thinking can be limited to human logic, rather than focused on divine power. But we must shape our thinking in light of God's truth and power. Otherwise, we will major on the minors.
Do you major on the minors? Or are you able to keep the main thing the main thing? Do you know the power of God? Do you know the Scriptures? Do you have a dynamic and living relationship with Him, in which you let Him order your steps? Do you let Him order your home? Do you let Him rule your habits? Do you let Him set your priorities? As we bring together the Scriptures and the power of God, we will find His hand upon our lives, leading us, not in that which is merely true, but in the truth.
Hurtado, Larry W. Mark. Understanding the Bible Commentary Series. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2011.
________________________________________
