The Resurrection

GOSPEL OF MARK SERIES.

THE BIBLE: GOSPEL OF MARK ICON

During 2019, each week, I will write a weekly post about the Gospel of Mark, as I review and explore each of the 16 chapters and how it may be applied in our daily lives. If you are following this series for the first time, you will find this series under Scripture- New Testament- Gospel of Mark. 

Click here to read the first post in the series. I have written this series in different years (2012, 2015, 2018) with some irregularity, but am determined to complete this series this year since I am more than half way through this Gospel.

My goal is to understand and pray the Gospel of Mark. I hope you will join me on this journey as we travel through the liturgical season.  In today's post we explore chapter 12:18-27 which is called The Resurrection.

THE RESURRECTION.

A third time, Jesus is presented with a question from his enemies, this time from the Sadducees, the only occasion they are mentioned in Mark’s gospel.  Sadducees were the hereditary priestly caste, more political than religious in the interests, who were from the leading families of the Jerusalem establishment.  From them the high priest was chosen.  They were conservative, in contrast to the progressive pharisees, and based themselves chiefly on the five books of law, the Pentateuch or the first part of the Old Testament.  They questioned belief in angels and spirits and in personal immortality after death.

Like the Pharisees and Herodians, they come to discredit Jesus in the eyes of the people.  They propose a situation which they think makes the resurrection after death impossible.  Their question presumes a Jewish custom concerning the obligation of a dead man’s brother or nearest relative.  The answer of Jesus, as Mark tells it, has two main truths.  One is the manner of Resurrection, the other the fact of resurrection.

There will be no marrying, Jesus says, in the risen life, but all will be like angels in heaven.  Angels in the Jewish understanding at that time were not primarily beings without bodies, but beings who lived always in God’s presence and who served God by bringing to men and women a universal concern for all things.  Jesus is not saying that husbands and wives will love each other and less intimately in the life after death , but they will love each other more, without the exclusiveness which is a married love now.

Secondly, Jesus bluntly tells the Sadducees they are wrong to deny the resurrection.  In the law, which they accept, Moses on the mound saw God as the God of Abraham, of Isaac and the God of Jacob.  All these were long dead at the time of Moses.  A relation with the eternal God stretches beyond death.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

In our journal and/or our discussion group we may wish to reflect on this passage as follows:

• Name the key points that you have learnt about the person of Jesus in this passage of scripture?

• Imagine that you are one of the Pharisees and Sadducees- What do you see and hear and feel. What can I learn from this?

• Imagine being Jesus telling the Pharisees and Sadducees and the and knowing that they did not understand- what would you have felt?  

• What is reading the Gospel passage with the eyes and ears of disciple mean to me?

• How does Jesus make clear His teaching to me in this passage?
• Consider a situation in your life today where the parable of Jesus about the Resurrection might have a meaning for you.
  
  
• Pray for people called to be God’s servants and messengers in places and situations where they are treated badly. Is there a situation or a person in your parish who is treated badly for doing the right thing?
• Consider how much my faith gives a special ‘taste’ to my day to day living as a Christian, that is, one who follows Jesus as the Christ?
• What are the areas in my life I need to bring to Jesus in the light of this parable? What questions do I want to ask Him?

• Am I willing to look into myself with honesty and ask how much do I grasp what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus in the light of this teaching? 

• Is my faith in the divine power of Christ, whom we follow, large enough to make us ready to follow the teachings of Jesus?