November 4, 2017. Matthew 22, Mark 12.

 

Most “normal” individuals do not have a death wish.  This is obvious as we witness how most individuals react to a circumstance or news about something that is life threatening.  They hear the word “cancer” and terror grips their very soul.  They see a weapon pulled and instantly run for cover.  But the fact of the matter is that whether a person believes in God or not, what God says is absolutely true, “And just as each person is destined to die once…” (Hebrews 9:27 NLT)

The day they are born, every human being begins a journey to death. No one knows the length of that journey or the exact way the journey will end, but it will end in what we call death.  

Being destined for this end to our journey, what would be the next best thing we could wish for or desire?  Answer: To be raised from the dead.  

As the death of Jesus draws closer, the religious leaders desire to make Jesus look foolish and wrong in the eyes of the common person following Him.  Therefore, they test Him with various questions.  One of those questions comes from the Sadducees, who do not believe in the resurrection.  It is a ridiculous question about a woman who has been married to seven brothers who all died and then she herself dies.  Their question is, “Therefore, in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as wife.” (Mark 12:23)

Jesus addresses both their question and their unbelief in a resurrection from the dead in His reply.

Mark 12:24 Jesus answered and said to them, "Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God?”

 

Mark 12:26-27 But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken.

People who do not know the Scriptures or the power of God will not believe in the fact that God will raise up His people from the dead.  He is that powerful, and the only way He can truly be the God of His people is for His people to be alive.  Dead people have no God and cannot worship God.  Those who are raised from the dead by the power of God, do have God as the god of their life and can continue to worship God.

So while everyone has a journey to death, those who are God’s people do not conclude their earthly journey with death, but with the power of God raising them from the dead.  That is why Jesus desires for people to believe in Him and receive Him as their Savior and Lord.  So their journey does not end with death, but resurrection.