In today's gospel reading from Mark 12:13-27, Jesus is asked questions by people hoping to trick or embarrass him. Predictably, Jesus has no trouble deflecting these attempts to ensnare him, but the answers Jesus gives may raise some interesting questions for us.
"Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." Well that is plain enough, but then again the Bible says, "The earth is the LORD's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it." (Ps. 24:1) So just what sort of neat division has Jesus actually provided for us here?
And while issues of Levirate marriage don't much concern modern day Christians, more than a few folks hoping to be rejoined with a spouse after death might not be overjoyed by Jesus' answer to the Sadducees. "For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven." Now exactly what being "like angels in heaven" means is beyond me, but Jesus' words about the resurrection as an entirely different sort of existence seem to challenge many our our own quaint notions of life after death.
Obviously our own questions for Jesus aren't intended to do him harm like those in this reading, but that doesn't mean our questions cannot be self serving. Seeing how surprising Jesus' answers are to friend and foe alike, maybe our first question should be, "What are the right questions?"
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