New Life

Mark 12:18-27New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

18 Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; 21 and the second married the widow and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; 22 none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. 23 In the resurrectionwhose wife will she be? For the seven had married her.”

24 Jesus said to them, “Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.”

This is the text that I think forces us to confront in ourselves all those happy images we make for ourselves of the afterlife: that we will be blissfully reunited with the ones we love.  

Or for some, maybe those aren't such happy images, if the ones they "love" were abusive or frightening.

Instead, Jesus says not to expect things to be as they are here.  

The first hint of this was with Jesus' own resurrection.  He was Jesus, yet the disciples didn't recognize him.

The same.

But different.

Don't get me wrong.  I don't believe there is anything wrong with comforting words to folks who in grief need to imagine seeing loved ones again.  And in all honesty, I have no idea that they won't see them again.

But the focus, says Jesus, will not be on us bringing our images of Resurrection to God.  Instead, we will see God's version of life in a new way. One without the baggage that we tend to bring to it.

Lord of life, remind us that you are the author of all life and that you will surprise us always with new life and new creation. Amen.