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Gospel: Mark 12: 18-27
Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection,
came to Jesus and put this question to him, saying,
“Teacher, Moses wrote for us,
If someone’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child,
his brother must take the wife
and raise up descendants for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers.
The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants.
So the second brother married her and died, leaving no descendants,
and the third likewise.
And the seven left no descendants.
Last of all the woman also died.
At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be?
For all seven had been married to her.”
Jesus said to them, “Are you not misled
because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
When they rise from the dead,
they neither marry nor are given in marriage,
but they are like the angels in heaven.
As for the dead being raised,
have you not read in the Book of Moses,
in the passage about the bush, how God told him,
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob?
He is not God of the dead but of the living.
You are greatly misled.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Our Christian faith has been described by some as a stained glass window.
From the outside, it can appear dark, dusty, even outdated. But once you enter into it and see the light shining through, it reveals marvelous truths.
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In today’s Gospel, the Sadducees question Jesus about the possibility of the resurrection. But they’re approaching it from the wrong angle; they’re on the outside, looking in.
They don’t believe in the possibility of the resurrection; nor do they have a heart willing to see. They only want to make Jesus look like a fool.
So, the Lord tells them plainly, “You are misled, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”
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Not much has changed today. It seems most critics question our faith, not because they are doing so from within the Church, but from the outside looking in.
Some will never believe; like the Sadducees they don’t want to.
But others may have a valid curiosity, real questions, or concerns that keep them from entering into our faith. Part of what may bring them into the fold is whether or not we can answer their questions.
If someone asked you, for example, “How can there be life after death?” What would you say?
Or, on a more basic level, “Why should I follow Jesus?” What would you say?
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Perhaps you might return to that stained glass window. From the outside, it makes little sense. But once you enter in – once your heart is open to all possibilities – you begin to understand.
“Come, and see!”
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Image credits: (1) Dreamstime.com (2) The Rosette Stained Glass Window, Notre Dame (3) Ibid.