By faith

Good morning, happy Wednesday, and blessings.

The gospel for today, Mark 12:18-27, let’s see how sometimes misconceptions can keep us from seeing very simple truths. The magician tries to plant a misconception in your head that he is holding a certain card in his hand when it is really in his pocket. If it works, you are very surprised when he pulls it out of his pocket. These Sadducees were missing an abundance of Scriptural evidence for the resurrection because of their misconceptions. Today, many do likewise about this and other issues.

Apparently, the Sadducees thought that if they could make up a good enough story that they could prove their case. This is much like people today who attempt to justify sin. Instead of appealing to God's standard, the Scriptures, for what is right or wrong, people consider opinion polls or other indications of the popularity of a belief. If certain celebrities endorse an activity as a matter of choice and not morality, then that is good enough for 

some.

Jesus claims that they err because they “know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” This is an important characterization. It signals exactly how Jesus will respond to the query.

First, they do not know the power of God. They have limited God by their own conception of rational possibilities. Resurrection, for them, can only mean that life will continue as it is now. But Jesus undermines this assumption. While there is continuity between the present and resurrected life (our personal identities, for example), there is also discontinuity. The new age (the resurrected life) will be different.

Second, they do not know the Scriptures. Jesus quotes Exodus 3:6 which recalls a key moment in Israel’s history, the day when Moses encountered Yahweh at the burning bush. Many interpreters focus on the present tense (“I am the God of Abraham”) as the key to how Jesus uses the text in response to the Sadducees. In other words, God is still the God of Abraham, that is, Abraham is still living.

This confession, however, is not simply about resuscitation. Rather, we confess that God will inaugurate a new age. God will create a new heaven and a new earth in which the redeemed people of God will live in their resurrected bodies suited for the new age. While our rationality (and even our science) may find that hard to believe, Christians confess both the power of God and the narrative logic of Scripture.

Chief priests, Sadducees, Herodians, Scribes or Pharisees: they all have a challenge for Jesus and who would fancy being in their shoes! This challenge is a hypothetical hard case: just about the worst one they can think up. But Jesus knows his Scripture and he knows God. I wonder, what is it like to prove somebody wrong when you are under attack?

In other words, the resurrection of the dead is nothing like anything we can imagine. It means that God will never let go of us because he loves us. Can I make an act of faith in this?

Blessings

Fr. Luis+