Mark 12:18-27
Find a way to separate yourself from whatever’s going on around you so you can fully enter into today’s passage. if you haven’t read the introduction to Mark’s Gospel, read it here.
With the “image of God” message from Mark 12:13-17 in mind, read Mark 12:18-27 paying special attention to Jesus response to the Sadducees beginning in verse 24. Also bear in mind that the Sadducees were a Jewish religious sect who rejected anything supernatural – including life after death.
It would be easy to get distracted by the elaborate story these religious Sadducees spin (and that is their goal – to draw Jesus into a confusing argument), but Jesus cuts straight through the trickery and reiterates the point he just made to the Pharisees: all people, male and female, are created in the image of God. Therefore no one owns anyone else because every person belongs to God alone. And like the angels (also created beings), when those who have died rise to life after death, they will neither claim another person as their own nor be claimed by another. The woman in the story belongs to no one but God.
How do you respond to the thought that you belong to God and every other person belongs only to God?
At times, most of us have felt possessive of another person. How does Jesus’ answer in this passage address this?
Read Mark 12:18-27 again focusing in on Jesus’ words in verse 27.
In John’s Gospel we will see that eternal life includes the life we are living today if we are seeking to know God through Jesus. Of course, as long as we inhabit these earthly bodies, we will only experience glimpses of what we will experience in full when we are face-to-face with Jesus after death. God is the God of the living, either those living in their earthly bodies, or those who have died a physical death and are living fully in the presence of Jesus.
How have you experienced glimpses of the Kingdom of Heaven breaking through into your earthly life?
If you can’t identify such experiences, consider asking Jesus to open your eyes to see where his Kingdom is breaking into your life and this world.
As followers of Jesus, his mission is our mission: to restore all people and all things to the way God originally intended. We have the incredible privilege of bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth, and we do this by scattering seeds of shalom wherever we go as Jesus’ representatives.
One of the surest ways to see the Kingdom of Heaven break into our lives and into the world around us is to purposefully and freely scatter seeds of shalom.
Take a few moments to talk all of this over with Jesus. Consider asking him to give you the desire and the ability to live on his mission daily – beginning today.
Are you finding these meditations to be helpful? If so, please forward them to a couple of friends. Interested in going deeper? Check out The Everyday Jesus Follower’s Guide and blog.
