The God of the Living
Scripture Reading — Mark 12:18-27
“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
Mark 12:27
The Sadducees believed that if you wanted to prove a point from the Bible, you could only use the first five books written by Moses. Resurrection is not mentioned in these books, they said, and they did not believe in the teaching of the resurrection.
Their Scriptures were too small. They did not include the Psalms or the Prophets or other writings. To the Sadducees, God’s revelation stopped with Moses. No wonder they could not see God revealed in Jesus.
The God of the Sadducees became a past-tense God, an outdated, powerless, and irrelevant God. Jesus pointed out, though, that God’s own testimony to Moses was that his name is “I am.” God is the ever-present God. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob may have died hundreds of years earlier, but “I am” is still their God! In other words, Moses too revealed God as the God of the living, and this pointed to his promise of resurrection.
There are many heirs of the Sadducees today who have devised their own arguments for denying the resurrection. They point to the destruction of life by natural calamities and by human greed, pride, power-plots, and all manner of evil. Would a good and all-powerful God not stop this, put an end to these destructive forces?
Yes, he would. And he will. And resurrection is how the Bible says he is going to do it.
Father, we are not immune to the arguments of those who deny the resurrection. Empower us by your Spirit to hold on to the good news of Easter. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.
About the author — Gordon Pols
Rev. Gordon Pols and his wife, Ann, have two married children and two grandchildren. After serving four congregations in Western and Central Canada, Rev. Pols retired from active ministry in 2007. He is currently doing parttime pastoral work with West End Christian Reformed Church, Edmonton, Alberta. He also works parttime for Crossroad Bible Institute, promoting a Bible study correspondence course for prison inmates.
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