Week 18, Day 5
May 5, 2022 Scripture: Matthew 22 Matthew 22:29–32 29Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” Matthew 22:37–40 37Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Jesus is presented a scenario trying to discredit the resurrection and new life. The scenario is a woman who would have undergone some of the worst sorrow one could ever experience. She married and remarried 7 times because all of her husbands died. I can read through that story and just think of it as a made up scenario meant to trip up Jesus. But what great sorrow that would have been for a woman to have no children and experience that much death. Resting in that for a moment, that tension, Jesus’ words give us great comfort. “God is the God of the living, not the dead.” God is raising up new life. It’s a point forward to what is to come in the resurrection of Christ. The only thing that can get us through this mess of death, the resurrection, is the very thing the Sadducees are interrogating Jesus over. They are focused on death. Jesus is focused on new life. He is making all things new. This scenario is followed up by the Greatest Commandment. The whole law is summed up in this, Love God and love others. This is where we find life and enjoy it. This is where we find strength in the midst of great trials, is that there is a loving God whom I love. He’s rescued me and is my greatest hope. Find new life in Christ today. Believe in God, His Word and his power!
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AuthorJordan Ickes, Minister of Etna Green Church of Christ. Archives
December 2022
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