Magdala
Mark 12:18-27
Could God make a rock so big and heavy that He couldn’t lift it? Who made God? Sound familiar? I can still picture the scene. The pastor stops in to our religion class and we proceed to pepper him with ‘what if” questions about God. It’s not that we really wanted an answer; we just were looking for a question that would stump him, leave him with a slightly puzzled look and no answer at all, all in an effort to rattle his composure.
Today it’s the Sadducees turn to try and get under Jesus’ skin by asking a ridiculous question about heaven. What if a woman ended up marrying 7 men (brothers)? Then who is she married to when she gets to heaven?
Let’s be clear; the Sadducees don’t even want an answer from Jesus; they just want to make Him look foolish. They don’t even believe in a resurrection. And Jesus’ response? Does He get angry or put them down? Does He berate them for asking such a silly question? No, He calmly gives them an answer, a real response.
You are thinking only in human terms – marriage, husbands and wives. Heaven is so beyond human understanding that you can’t even begin to comprehend it. What He means is that heaven is so completely beyond this human existence, so completely beyond anything we can imagine. It is living so totally in the presence of God that simple human desires are trivial. We think we know what love is; Jesus says wait until you get to heaven. Then you will know real love. We think we know what happiness is; just wait!
So if the fears and anxiety of these long 15 months have gotten to you, to us all, and there seems to be no end of bad news and hypocrisy and outright bigotry, just wait! Something better is coming!