Are we badly mistaken too!?

Reflecting on Mark 12:18-27

“Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?” (Mark 12:24)

The Sadducees were the social (religious, political) elites in Jerusalem.
They controlled the temple, and the Sanhedrin (the Jewish high court).
They were strict literalists, only following the Books of Moses (Torah).
The Pharisees also followed the oral Torah (their ‘creeds and confessions’).
Each claimed to know the Scriptures and the power of God.
They were religious opponents, though they were united against Jesus.

Have you ever been in a debate with a strict Bible literalist?
Or been challenged by someone who adheres to the creeds and confessions?
There’s no way of winning debates with them; each is fully convinced they’re right.
Jesus challenges both groups, saying that neither understood the Scriptures.
Their failure was in limiting God’s power and purpose to the Book itself.

The Sadducees denied life after death because Moses never mentions it.
In their own logic, they were right… yet they were wrong.
The Pharisees expanded the Scriptures, but in their own strict way.
Each used their logic to defend themselves and to accuse others.
Each were convinced they were right, and looked down on others (Luke 18:9).

Jesus uses the Books of Moses to challenge the Sadducees thinking.
A strict literal reading of Exodus 3:6 seems to support life beyond death.
God is a God of life, not a God of death (Mark 12:26-27).
It is not Moses, but God, Who determines the ultimate truth.
Moses’s description of marriage itself does not fit with Scripture.
The Sadducees are referring to Deuteronomy 25:5-10.
A deceased man’s brother was obliged to marry his brother’s widow.
This would protect the clan’s assets, and also extend the bloodline.
This law was required because of death; it was not God’s ultimate will.

Yet interestingly, the Genesis 2 version is ‘marriage’ is not either.
We have developed our understanding of God’s will for marriage from Genesis 2.
But Jesus says that ‘marriage’ is not God’s ultimate will.
After Jesus returns, we will “neither marry nor be given in marriage.”
He then adds that we will “will be like the angels in heaven.” (Mark 12:25)
I have heard many explanations of these words, but they are all guesses.
Our logic, no matter how precise, is still limited and mistaken.

We need to be so careful when we force our strict interpretations on others.
They may be logical, like the Sadducees, but they are still limited.
They may be confessional, like the Pharisees, but they are still limited.
When we claim to know better, we reveal our ignorance.
We are in error because we do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

Having our interpretations and applications of Scripture is fine.
But elevating them to the level of God’s truth is ignorant and arrogant.
Forcing God and others to agree with us is the height of folly.
One day Jesus will expose our fallacies with God’s logic.
God will blow away our ‘house of card’ theologies, no matter how ‘biblical’.
Moses himself will testify against us, though we claim to follow him (John 5:39-47).

I do not understand God’s ultimate will for marriage, as Jesus explains it.
It does not fit with what Moses writes, in the Law or in Creation.
But I cling to the fact that God is a God of life, not of death.
The Scriptures speak graciously to us in our death-cursed world.
They give us shadowy pictures of God’s ultimate will, but not the whole picture.
Jesus is the closest to the ultimate reality, but even this is not fully clear.

What we do know, beyond a doubt, that God is the God of the living, of life.
Jesus comes to restore all to life through God’s gracious love.
Grace, not literalistic correctness, is the key to life.
Grace brings hope and support to a widow in an ancient patriarchal society.
Grace brings hope and support to the marriage broken by divorce.
Grace welcomes the tax collector, prostitute, legalistic religious person.
Grace overcomes our falling short of God’s ultimate will and design.
The power of God is the grace of God, not the ‘rightness’ of the believer.
We are restored to life by grace, and called to restore others by grace.

Our failure to understand the power of grace makes us “badly mistaken” too.
Judging others based on our interpretations is a failure of grace.

“Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.” (Romans 14:4)

Once again Jesus humbles us in our ignorant and arrogant claims to rightness.
If only Christians today would learn the lesson, instead of judging others.
Our strict literalisms, our legalistic confessionalism, are all badly mistaken.
We need to be humbled by the power of grace, as testified by Scripture.
We need to be graced, and so become gracious, as commanded by Scripture.
I honestly believe Jesus would say the same thing to us today:
“Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?” (Mark 12:24)

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, again and again I fall into this trap of elevating my views above others, and judging others who are not 'right' like me. Keep on humbling me by the power of God's grace, so that I may properly understand, interpret and apply the Bible, with humility and grace.