Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss Pastor Jonah Sage's sermon from Mark 12:18-34.
Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss Pastor Jonah Sage's sermon from Mark 12:18-34.
Bobby: Welcome to the Midweek Checkup. My name is Bobby Gilles and my colleague is Lindsey Blair.
Lindsey:This past Sunday, Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Mark twelve, verses eighteen through thirty-four. But if you missed the sermon or need help remembering, you’re in the right place because it’s time for the Midweek Checkup.
Bobby: Jonah began by noting that the Sadducees were deliberately twisting an Old Testament law called a Levirite marriage in order to trap Jesus. They came up with a crazy scenario where a woman survives seven husbands and then dies. “So, who is her husband in heaven?” They ask, although the Sadducees didn’t even believe in life after death. Jesus knows he's being trapped, so he gives them a brief, poignant response. It's indirect, a bit vague, and requires imagination...this forces the trappers to reflect and reconsider.
Lindsey: Jesus says when the dead rise they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. "Marry" and "given in marriage" were two very specific words in that patriarchal culture. "Marry" referred to the man's role in a marriage proposal: initiation and pursuit. "Given in marriage" referred to the woman's role, receiving and responding. Gendered words for a specific role, and Jesus says that thing won't happen. He doesn't say there will be NO marriage, just not that kind. He's saying what you think of won't be what it is...like the angels. To which the Sadducees probably would have said, "But we have no idea what angels are really like!" To which Jesus probably would have said "EXACTLY!"
Bobby: The point Jesus is making here is that what's coming is beyond what you can imagine. One teacher of the law was listening to all this and liked Jesus’s answer so he asked him what the greatest command of God is. Jesus says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” A sincere, curious, genuine question comes, and Jesus gives him a plain, frank, direct answer. What do we do? Love God and love people.
Lindsey: When someone is trapping you, it's not an act of love. It's an act of violence of some sort. It's not loving to engage in that. So, like Jesus...don't. What's most important in this life? Love God and love each other. How will the world know we are Jesus' disciples? Love. What if we prayed for the people the world tells us to hate?
Bobby: What if we said the best way to show the world who Jesus is was to really love the people we're most inclined to disagree with?
What is coming for us at the resurrection of the dead is beyond our ability to understand, but it's coming. And so we prepare by receiving Jesus' invitation to become a people of love.
Lindsey: This Sunday, we will continue our series Journey Into The Night from the Gospel of Mark. And in Bible Fellowship we’ll finish our discussion of the first epistle of John. Join us, and bring a friend.