Our Venerable Father Ephrem the Syrian (373)
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1 Peter 3:10-22; Mark 12:18-27
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Today’s encounter with the Sadducees in Mark’s Gospel is unique as it is the only encounter between Christ and this small group of aristocratic and wealthy Jews. The Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, did not believe in the Resurrection and attached much greater importance to the Pentateuch than to the rest of the Old Testament Scriptures.
The Sadducees, using the Pentateuch as the basis of their argument and this particularly exaggerated example found in today’s Gospel, argue that there is no evidence for immortal life.
Jesus, however, in quoting Exodus 3:6, shows that those who have physically died are not dead but continue to live, for if God is the God of the living and also the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then those patriarchs and all that followed must be living. Jesus shows the Sadducees that the resurrection is real.
Our deceased loved ones are like the patriarchs: their death on earth was simply a transference into a new and different life, and through our prayers, we lift them towards an immortal life constantly in God’s presence.