MARKAN MEDITATIONS

Meditations in the Gospel of St. Mark

St. Mark 12:18-27

=====

IT IS the Sadduccees who now seek to embarrass Jesus with their questions. There have always been within the visible church those who deny God's truth. The Sadduccees denied that there was any resurrection of the dead.

The first thing we need to notice is where error flourishes. Error flourishes, firstly, when there is ignorance of the Scriptures, neglect of the Scriptures, or rejection of the testimony of the Scriptures. Jesus tells the Sadduccees that there error was rooted in their ignorance of the Scriptures.

Scripture is God's divine supernatural revelation to us of his truth. It is from the Scriptures that we learn truth. We shall be ignorant of the truth if we do not read and study the Bible. But study on its own is not enough. Our study must be accompanied with the faith that the Bible is the Word of God and is God's truth to us, and we must submit ourselves to that truth, receive it, believe it and obey it. Our study of the Bible will still produce ignorance and error if we come to the Bible simply to reject all we find we can't accept, and so set our minds and understanding above God.

Secondly, error will flourish if we do not know the power of God. Jesus says of the Sadduccees that they did not know the power of God. We must notice exactly what Jesus is saying concerning the Sadduccees. He says that they did not know God's power, that is they had not experienced it. Without the experience of God's power, human pride reduces all things to the level of human wisdom and possibility. This was where their error had arisen. To human wisdom and power there is no possibility of resurrection after death. Death is a final enemy that we can't do anything about. Once death overtakes us, we are helpless to bring life back again. Further we can't see beyond death and so human wisdom can easily deny that there is any resurrection. It is only when we have experienced the power of God in our lives that we are able to believe in a God who raises the dead.

What does Jesus mean by knowing the power of God. Surely it must be the experience of the living God in our lives in saving power, so that we experience the miracle of new birth, where we become a new creation. God makes his power known to us in converting grace and we are made to feel our sins, repent of them, and to reach out to God's mercy in Christ. Then we experience the power of God in the forgiveness of our sins for Christ's sake, and the spiritual resurrection within as we are raised with Christ to new life. We then know God and his power in reality. The knowledge of the power of God comes when we have a vital saving encounter with God, and know him as our Creator and Lord.

Without this inner work of God's power, a person may see the power of God in some act, and observe it objectively outside themselves, but they have not experienced it. Thus when people who are unconverted see a miracle from God they see the power of God, but do not experience the power in their lives. This is also true when such power of God may act in a miracle of healing in their body. They have still only observed the power of God at work, but have not experienced it in their lives. We must be born again to really experience the power of God and so know this power.

When we have experienced the power of God in new birth and salvation, then we truly believe in it, because it works within us. If we have only just observed the power of God without experiencing God in a new creation, we may have some faith in a God of wonders, but it is faith more in the works of God, rather than the God of Power himself.

It is only those who enjoy converting grace that can really know truth, but even then we need to be humble before God, and live under the authority of the Scriptures. Humility is needed so that we realise how easily cultural conditioning and prejudice can mask the truth, and how easily our fleshly desires may colour our perception of the revelation God as given us in the Bible. Humbly listening to God through the Holy Spirit is essential. We must be open to his revelation of understanding every time we read the Bible. Each time we must be open, and not have our minds shut by previously fixed opinions.