Bad Theology

April 14, 2021 (Wednesday)

 

Theology can get nasty. People make up their mind and stop asking questions. Kind of like concrete, all mixed up and permanently set. Jesus had to deal with errant theology all the time. The Pharisees error tended to be hypocrisy. Today we take on a different theological sect.

 

Mark sets up the confrontation, “Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, came to Jesus and asked…” [Mark 12:18 CEB] This the Sadducees only appearance in the book of Mark. It is thought they were the wealthy aristocrats and merchants. They tended to be more political than religious.

 

They ask a theoretical question about the resurrection. Essentially they created a theoretical difficulty for those who believe in the resurrection. Jesus’s answer starts with a rebuke, “Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.” [Mark 12:24 NLT]

 

The word translated “mistake” is about their error. The Greek is a word picture that means, “wander (stray, roam) out of the way.” The point is not a deliberate rebellion. Straying off course is due to carelessness. Not paying attention has consequences.

 

The error has two parts. The lack of knowledge of Scripture and the lack of the knowing the power of God. Let’s take on the lack of Scriptural understanding. Jesus reminds them of when Moses met God at the burning bush. God identified Himself as “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” [Mark 12:26c NLT] The Sadducees conveniently ignored, explained away, or completely missed a detail. God speaks in the present tense.

 

Jesus follows up, “So he is the God of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error.” [Mark 12:27 NLT] The expression “serious error” is only found in Mark. It’s one of the reasons scholars think Mark was primarily written to Roman culture. Making a serious (and simple) mistake in Roman culture was inexcusable.

 

Jesus answered the question about the resurrection by simply claiming Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were NOT dead. My suspicion is we form theology based on what we see. The danger of creating an immovable impression of theology is missing details… either deliberately or carelessly.

 

The second issue the Sadducees had was not knowing God’s power. Can I say, not knowing God. Let me take a shot at something that is sacred in Evangelical Christianity (maybe Christianity in general). We tend to understand the language surrounding salvation as “legal” language. In legal terms, salvation becomes a contract with God.

 

While many of the words are legal in the sense of their meaning, nothing obliges God. We cannot win in court against God. Just because we go through a prescribed motion does not oblige God. Just because we think we experience something does not mean it is truth. What God does or does not do is based on who God is.

 

Kind of comforting to know, “God is love.”