Two Necessary Things

Mark 12:24

New International Version

Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?

For Meditation

Haters will do anything to entrap and destroy the person they dislike. If they have to dance with the devil to satisfy their desire, they will jump into hell with him. The Pharisees and Herodians—two parties who hated each other—allied to trap Jesus but failed, but that was not the end. The Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court of Israel that sent them, sent another group, the Sadducees, to do what they failed to achieve.

They were the faction of the Sanhedrin who did not believe in the resurrection.

The Sadducees came to Jesus with a hypothetical story they framed around the leverite law God designed to ensure the continued lineage of men who died without a male child and the inheritance of their property (Deut. 25:5-6). Their story ended at the resurrection, the very doctrine they denied, and that exposed their hypocrisy. 

A woman, they said, married successively through seven brothers, each of whom died without having children with her. Finally, the woman died, and their question?

“At the resurrection, whose wife would [the woman] be” (Mk. 12:23).

I love the Lord when He calls out hypocrites and the bluff of His detractors. He sent three shots at the Sadducees before touching their question: You are in error; you do not understand the scriptures; you do not know the power of God (24). That must have dazed those proud men for a minute, like a boxer caught by a powerful undercut in the ring. How dare He call us ignorant? Who does He think He is?

Remember, the Sadducees were the aristocratic party in the Sanhedrin that boasted of members from the priesthood, including the high priests and upper class, with wealth and influence. They were very conservative in biblical interpretation and regarded only the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible the Jews called Torah, as the only word of God, dismissing the Prophetic books, Wisdom Literature, and other writings. Since Moses did not directly teach a physical resurrection in the Pentateuch, they rejected its reality. 

They did not believe in angels and demons. Neither did they believe in the sovereign rule of God over human life, but they stressed an unrestrained free-will-driven human life and affairs. Jesus was, therefore, right in His rebuke, and the Sadducees needed to hear it. If they understood the scriptures, they would have known God and His sovereignty, power, and the outworking of His absolute authority over everything. He displayed these in Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, the Red Sea crossing, and all the miracles through their forty years in the wilderness. Nothing would have caused them to doubt God’s ability to raise the dead. Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah would have spoken to them as a foreshadowing of Calvary and the resurrection of Christ.

So, Jesus rebuked them. After all, He is God incarnate, the Word of God personified.

Like the Sadducees, the problems and confusion in the church today have their roots in our lack of understanding of the scriptures and an improper appreciation of the power of God in the affairs of humankind and the world.

May the Lord give us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to help us know Christ better. May He enlighten the eyes of our understanding to appreciate His incomparably great power for us who believe (Eph. 1:17-21) so we can trust in His promises and remain faithful to Him.