18 There came to Jesus Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection. They asked him, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote to us, ‘If a man’s brother dies, and leaves a wife behind him, and leaves no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 20 There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and dying left no offspring. 21 The second took her, and died, leaving no children behind him. The third likewise; 22 and the seven took her and left no children. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be of them? For the seven had her as a wife.”

24 Jesus answered them, “Isn’t this because you are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God? 25 For when they will rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 But about the dead, that they are raised; haven’t you read in the book of Moses, about the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are therefore badly mistaken.”

Mark 12:18-27 - World English Bible

In these verses from Mark 12, Jesus entered into a intricate debate with the Sadducees that might elude the modern reader. The Sadducees were a small, but powerful party of Temple elites. As theological minimalists, they restricted faith and duty to worship of YHWH found in the Torah; they rejected any tenet outside the first five books of the Bible, including belief in the resurrection. When they argued with the Lord, they presented a scenario based upon "kinsman-redeemer" law (Deuteronomy 25:5-10); its absurd conclusion (whose wife will the woman be in the resurrection?) meant to show the incompatibility of the belief with the Law. God's word could not be broken and faith in the resurrection was outside that word, they concluded.

Jesus counter-argued in two ways. First, he said the institution of marriage did not exist in the resurrection; the raised are like angels. Second, he trumped the passage the Sadducees sighted with the passage of the primary revelation: Moses before the burning bush (Exodus 3:6). YHWH, the living Deity, revealed himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jesus hinged his argument on the term "living." Obviously, God could not die; he always lived. But, the Lord added the notion that, for God to be God, he needed worshipers, living beings to give him the praise he was due. The dead could not worship, so there must be those in the heavenly court who lived (for example, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). Hence, he concluded "He is not the God of the dead, but the living." Ergo, the resurrection.

While the argument Jesus had with the Sadducees might strike us as odd, it cut to the heart of faith. What kind of deity do we worship, the God of the dead or the living? In other words, do we live our faith as if there is a tomorrow, a life with God forever? Or do we exist as if faith didn't matter?

What kind of faith do you show to others?