THEN THE SADDUCEES, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. 20Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
24Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
Original Meaning
THE SADDUCEES APPEAR for the first time in this Gospel, and they appear as opponents of Jesus. Mark introduces them as those who do not believe in resurrection. Jesus has predicted his resurrection three times (8:31; 9:31; 10:34). If there is no resurrection, then Jesus will not be vindicated by God.
What little we know about the Sadducees derives almost entirely from their bitter opponents, who preserved memories of conflicts with them. They did not leave a written legacy and did not survive the debacle against Rome. They were a pro-priestly party that considered the five books of Moses alone as binding. Their conservatism led them to reject any theological innovations they regarded as derived from something other than the Pentateuch. The belief in the resurrection fell into that category since the books of Moses never mention it.1 The Wisdom of Solomon 1:16–2:24 presents the derisive worldview of the ungodly; 2:1–5 contains a pessimistic argument against the afterlife. This perspective may accord with that of the Sadducees.
For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,
“Short and sorrowful is our life,
and there is no remedy when a life comes to its end,
and no one has been known to return from Hades.
For we were born by mere chance,
and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been,
for the breath in our nostrils is smoke,
and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts;
when it is extinguished, the body will return to ashes,
and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.
Our name will be forgotten in time,
and no one will remember our works;
our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud,
and be scattered like mist
that is chased by the rays of the sun
and overcome by its heat.
For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow,
and there is no return from our death,
because it is sealed up and no one turns back.” (NRSV)
The Sadducees bait Jesus with a teasing conundrum based on the law of levirate marriage, which prescribed what should happen when a man died with no heirs. One of his surviving brothers was to take the widow in marriage to provide the deceased with an heir (Deut. 25:5–10; see Gen. 38:6–26; Ruth 3–4).2 The law was primarily motivated by the desire to keep the brother’s inheritance in the family—“his widow must not marry outside the family” (Deut. 25:5). In the Sadducees’ contrived case study, the first brother died with no children to carry on his name. Each of the other brothers married the widow according to the levirate custom and each died childless, until finally the hard-luck widow herself died.3 With relish, the Sadducees spring the punch line, designed to ridicule belief in the resurrection, “At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” (12:23). Behind this spoof lies a crass assumption that resurrection life will be no different from life as we experience it on earth—except, in this case, more chaotic.
Jesus follows his pattern of dealing with hostile questioners by going on the attack. His response fits a chiastic pattern:
a. You are in error [planao].
b. You do not know the Scriptures.
c. You do not know the power of God.
c.′ [The power of God] raises the dead and they become like angels.
b.′ [Scripture is cited] In the bush passage, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is God of the living.
a.′ You are badly mistaken [planao].
This structure reveals the emphases in Jesus’ counterattack that get to the heart of the matter: The Sadducees are deceived because they are ignorant of Scripture and underestimate the power of God.
Jesus first corrects the Sadducees on their view of the resurrection life. They should not compare the resurrection life to life on earth. Resurrection does not mean the continuation of the same thing, only longer. The resurrected are transfigured into a new dimension of life that we have never experienced (see 9:2–3; Rev. 7:9–17).4
Jesus then corrects the Sadducees’ biblical ignorance by reminding them of the “bush” passage in the Pentateuch that identifies God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex. 3:6).5 Would God claim to be the God of ghostly shadows or of those who no longer exist? The living God would hardly identify himself as the God of corpses. He does not say, “I was their God,” but “I am their God.” God remains their God even in death. The Sadducees do not reckon with God’s power or God’s love to give them life again (see 1 Cor. 6:14). The angel testifies at the conclusion of this Gospel that God is more powerful than death (Mark 16:6; see Rom. 4:17). Jesus’ parting shot, “You are badly mistaken,” affirms that some truths are not open to debate.
Bridging Contexts
MANY PEOPLE IN the ancient world did not believe in an afterlife. Archaeologists have uncovered tombstones inscriptions that were so common they were abbreviated like R.I.P. (Rest in Peace). They read: “I was not. I was. I am not. I do not care.” The following are two examples, each including a parting word.
I did not exist, I was born; I existed, I do not exist; so much (for that). If anyone says anything different, he will be lying: I shall not exist.
Greetings, if you are a just person.
My child guard yourself lest you trip: the tongue itself is not troubled, indeed, whenever it speaks; but whenever it errs it contributes many evils.6
When I had just tasted life fate snatched me, an infant, and I did not see my father’s pattern; but I died after enjoying the light of eleven months, then I returned it. I lie in the tomb forever, no longer seeing the light; but you, stranger, read this and weep as you come upon the tomb of Eunoe.7
The use of the “I” suggests that the “I don’t care” is a faked swagger. They do care and do long to continue after they are dead. But there did not seem to be any reasonable hope. Christianity offered the promise of resurrection, a promise not offered elsewhere.
Many people today do not know what to think about an afterlife. Some take for granted that they will continue in a blessed afterlife with God, no matter how they related to God in this life. Many assume that the human soul is indestructible. Like the black box in an airplane it survives the crash of death. Some believe in reincarnation. Others conjecture nothing and believe nothing. They are consoled by a “maybe” or assume that a total lack of consciousness after death makes the whole issue unimportant. Most persons are so absorbed with life here and now that thought for the future after death never arises.
Jesus appeals only to Scripture and our experience with God to answer the doubters. One should follow his example and resist any attempt to make the case for resurrection from supposed scientific, empirical proof. The near-death experiences of some, for example, may be shown simply to be the chemical reactions of a brain shutting down. Belief in the resurrection does not derive from what we can prove. Our faith in the resurrection is based on our faith in the power of God and that alone. Our hope cannot be based on human egoism that longs to survive the grave but only in God, who makes alive. The New Testament teaches that the same God who gave us life in the first place will miraculously give us life again. John Baillie wrote:
If the individual can commune with God, then he must matter to God; and if he matters to God, he must share God’s eternity. For if God really rules, He can’t be conceived as scrapping what is precious in his sight.8
One may guess that death must be something very much like birth. Before birth the child is totally surrounded in what is a safe and warm environment and gets all of his life from his mother. But he does not see his mother. When birth comes, it must be quite a shock to the child. The baby leaves the safe and warm confines of the mother’s womb and enters a harsh, bright, cold world. But only after birth is the child able to see its mother and be held and kissed. In life on this earth we are totally surrounded by God, who sustains our lives. But God remains invisible to us. When death comes to each of us, it may be a shock to the system, but then we will see the God who gave us life, nourished us, and gives us life again (1 John 3:2).
Contemporary Significance
JESUS IS NOT interested in carrying on a dialogue with those who disbelieve. Mark does not describe the reaction of the Sadducees to Jesus’ argument. He does not say that they were shocked at his answer as the Pharisees and Herodians were (12:17). They probably remained hardened in their skepticism. Most do not come to faith in God’s care for each individual and power to raise each one through arguments and proofs. Nevertheless, the church must present its arguments for its faith as Jesus did to counter false views.
The media gives its fantasy version of what happens in death through popular movies. Those images have an enormous subliminal effect on both Christians and non-Christians. The church must give its answer. It needs to proclaim its message clearly to a confused world that is much deceived as the Sadducees were. As Paul recognized, the resurrection is central to our faith. If there is no resurrection from the dead, then we are fools (1 Cor. 15:17–19). Jesus’ response to the Sadducees’ challenge helps us see what to emphasize and what to ignore. He rejects the Sadducees’ mistaken earthly images of resurrection life and seizes on an individual’s relationship to God. We should avoid attempts to describe what heavenly life is like. Instead, we should highlight the necessity of a close tie to the heavenly Father, who keeps his promises.
One danger in portraying the resurrection life to come is that our image tends to match our wishes for an earthly utopia. The Sadducees derived their illustration from those who painted pictures of the resurrection life in worldly terms. Most envision the resurrection body as a spruced-up version of our physical bodies, and we visualize heaven in earthly terms that suit our own desires. We can see this tendency in contemporary cartoons that depict people floating on clouds, still occupied by the same concerns that they had on earth. Movies also depict ghosts still involving themselves in earthly life, wandering aimlessly about as disembodied spirits, or being summoned from the dead.
Many Christians who believe in the resurrection also view it from a defective anthropocentric point of view. They visualize the afterlife as a great reunion of family and friends—a continuation of life on earth without all the problems that hamper our happiness. Just analyze gospel songs that describe what heaven is like to see the truth of this statement. It is easy to understand why this is so. The family is the place where most experience unconditional love. The problem is that the idea of meeting God takes a backseat. That may be attributable to the failure to have met God while alive on earth. The major danger in trying to portray the resurrection life is that our image more often than not matches our wishes for an earthly utopia, and human beings wind up as the center of this life rather than God.
We should learn from Jesus’ reticence in this passage to describe the resurrection life. He says that the Sadducees are quite mistaken in their views, but he does not correct them by giving a more complete picture. In fact, he gives no description of the afterlife, which is understandable. How can we comprehend anything except in earthly images? It would be like trying to explain to persons who lived all their lives isolated on Arctic tundra what a tropical beach is like. Only with difficulty could one describe palm trees, a sandy beach, colorful birds, fish, shells, and coral to someone who has no conception of such things. It would be easier to describe the landscape by telling them what was not there: no snow, polar bears, ice floes, freezing winds. The Sadducees pictured the resurrection life in terms of what they were familiar with in earthly life, and it naturally made no sense. Jesus only tells them what is not there: no marriage or giving in marriage.
Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees’ ridicule of the resurrection scraps their naive view that heaven will be like earth. The resurrection life is like our life on earth in only one way: The relationship that an individual has with God continues beyond death. While relationships among family members and friends, as dear as they are, are severed temporarily by death, nothing, not even death, separates us from God. Being a child of God is therefore not some transitory experience. It lasts forever. The Christian faith affirms that each individual life is important to God, not as a part of some family unit, but as an individual. The same God who gave us life in the first place has the power to raise us to new life. If one does not have a relationship with God in this life, however, one can hardly expect to begin one in the next.
Many today who do not know God believe that dead is dead and that the only thing that lives on is the legacy of one’s children and one’s notable works. Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud claimed that hope in the resurrection stifles caring about the serious matters of this life. They have been shown wrong by the imposed atheism of governments. There is a direct relation between belief in the life to come and ethical responsibility. A citizen of one of those countries said that the state has taken away belief in the resurrection of the dead, and we have seen a consequent growth in crime and immorality because people have been taught to live only for today and only for themselves. We see the same in nations whose citizens are practical atheists—those who live as if there is no God.