As we enter the Christmas season, we should remember that a lot of people reject our Christ. They reject that there could be one true religion; they reject that a God who loves us and yet allows bad things to happen could possibly exist; and so they reject Christ. But this rejection doesn’t just happen among self-proclaimed atheists, it also happens among those who should accept Jesus Christ and who identify themselves as Christians.
In Mark 12, we see that it is not sinners who reject Jesus, but the religious leaders – the chief priests, scribes, Pharisees, Herodians and Sadducees. All these people who should have been the most receptive to Jesus were actually the most resistant to him.
Many different people reject Jesus for many different reasons. We need to ask ourselves the question: How might we be tempted to reject, resist or rebel against our Lord, Jesus Christ?
The Sadducees Were Quite Wrong
In verses 18-27, the Sadducees come to Jesus with the intent to trap him in his own words and make him look foolish. They ask a question about the law of levirate marriage (Deut. 25:5-10) and the resurrection, knowing that Jesus believes in this law and also in the resurrection – which seems ridiculous to them. The Sadducees think he is going to look like a fool trying to explain this. But instead, Jesus points out their own ignorance, revealing two ways in which they were wrong about Scripture.
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- They did not understand the concept of the resurrection. The Sadducees set up a sort of straw man in an attempt to trick Jesus, but it did not accurately represent what he believed. They thought that the resurrection life was exactly like this life, only longer. Jesus corrects them, however, saying that things will not be the same (v. 25). Heaven is going to be so much more glorious than they were proposing.
- They did not understand the character of God. Jesus refers to the story of Moses and the burning bush – a passage of Scripture that the Sadducees would have known well – and points out that God is the God of the living, not the dead (v. 27). Many of God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still in the process of being fulfilled. God’s promises to them did not end with their earthly life: there will be a resurrection.
We Are Quite Wrong
As fascinating as the resurrection, the afterlife and marriage in the afterlife are, none of these are the main points of the passage. The main point is found at the end of verse 27 when Jesus says, “You are quite wrong.” The first message that Jesus preached during his ministry on earth was to repent, meaning to change one’s mind. The idea is, as Christians, we are always being told we are quite wrong so that we are always changing. We are constantly being disciplined, corrected and therefore transformed into something new. And we can trust that this is a good thing because we know that God is good and knows what is best – proving his love for us by sending his son, Jesus Christ, to die for us so that we can be forgiven, cleaned up and reconciled to him. We can trust him when he says, “You are quite wrong.”
This Christmas, let’s drop any aspect of rejection, resistance or rebellion that we may be harboring, renew our faith and allegiance to Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, and embrace the exhilarating lifestyle of repentance, growth and change.
Response Starters
- Read Mark 12:18-27 together. What are some things that stood out to you? Discuss it.
- What is the main point of the passage?
- How might we, as Christians, be tempted to reject, resist or rebel against Jesus Christ?
- What are some of God’s promises that are still in the process of being fulfilled?
- What does it look like to embrace a daily lifestyle of repentance, growth and change?
