NOW AND FOREVER
Opening Prayer
Great Physician, I pray for those close to me who are wrestling with sickness. Please touch them and give them hope.
Read Mark 12:18–27
Marriage at the Resurrection
18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection[a] whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’[b]? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
Footnotes:
a Mark 12:23 Some manuscripts resurrection, when people rise from the dead,
b Mark 12:26 Exodus 3:6
New International Version (NIV)
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Reflect
What do you think heaven is really like?Again, the Sadducees try to catch Jesus out with a divisive question. If, as the Sadducees believed, there is no resurrection from the dead, then Jesus could not have risen. And if Jesus did not rise from the dead then death, sickness and sin still have power over us. As Paul says so clearly in 1 Corinthians 15:12–19, our faith is futile if the dead are not raised.
In the hustle and bustle of our twenty-first-century lives, it is easy to forget that this life is not the main deal: it is only a preparation. Our bodies may be decaying, we may be fighting sickness, but we are made to live forever! Let’s lift our eyes of our present struggles and remind ourselves that one day we will be with Christ in glory!
From the hints Jesus gives in this passage, we can only guess at the details of what our eternal existence will be like. As far as marrying is concerned, we will be “like the angels” (25), but the Bible doesn’t give us a very clear idea of what this means! What we do know for certain is that both they and we will spend eternity worshipping the Lamb who was slain and who was raised to life (Revelation 5:11–13).
Apply
Read Revelation 21. Take some time to picture not only what heaven will look like, but also what it might be like to live there. Ask God to fix your heart on His eternal.
Closing prayer
Lord, thank You that You were with me in the past, You are with me in the here and now, and one day I will be with You forever.
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