Our adult Life Group (a.k.a. Sunday School) is still in the midst of our Easter study. This is because my co-teacher, a couple of years ago, mused about whether we could do a beginning-to-end Easter study one year, beginning with the Triumphal Entry through Easter day.

The main problem with that is the volume of material. I worked it out, and determined that you had more than 60 lessons to do if you didn’t skip anything. I don’t like to skip things, so that was a dilemma. I worked out a program where we did that in five parts, meaning you do one part each year. My co-teacher agreed with that.

Year one covers Sunday-Monday-Tuesday of Holy Week. Yesterday we had lesson #10 in that, covering when the Sadducees questioned Jesus about the resurrection. It was a bogus, exaggerated question, not for illumination rather than to support their ill-informed beliefs. Jesus, of course, destroyed those beliefs quite easily.

Do you remember the story? Using the Levirate marriage, as defined in Deuteronomy 25:5-10, the Sadducees said a man married, had no children, and left his widow for his brother to marry. He did so, and died in the same status. This went on for seven brothers, all who died, then the woman died childless. Their question was: At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since she was married to the seven brothers?

Jesus’ answer was: You err because 1) you don’t know the scriptures, and 2) you don’t know the power of God. The Sadducees considered only the five books of Moses as authoritative. Naturally their question came from that source. So, naturally, Jesus’ answer came from that source as well.

First, he said they didn’t understand what the resurrection would be like. In it would be no marriages, births, death. It won’t be like life on earth, extended to another realm. Those thought worthy of the resurrection would become like angels, who have no need for such earthly activities. So Jesus answered their question: Yes, silly Sadducees, there is a resurrection but she won’t be anyone’s wife in it.

But Jesus went on to prove there would indeed be a resurrection. In the account of the burning bush, Jesus said that God said to Moses, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Since they had all died centuries before Moses lived, if both their bodies and souls had died, God couldn’t have said that. He would have had to say, “I was the God of…”, of something similar. Instead, He said “I am the God of….” Thus, He is the God of the dead.

The Sadducees rejected the concept of an afterlife and resurrection because it isn’t explicitly stated in scripture. Jesus showed them sometimes you have to dig deeper. See what the words imply but may not state as clearly as you’d like them to say something. The truth is there, if you just know the scripture through deep study.

Concerning the power of God, it is also seen in the account of the burning bush. The bush in the desert burned, but wasn’t burned up to embers and ashes. It remained an intact bush. A miracle? It was certainly something that defied the laws of nature, so, yes, it was a miracle. It was a demonstration of the power of God. The God who could make a bush burn but remain a bush could make a resurrection happen.

My final words in class were: Don’t be like the Sadducees. Know the scripture, and know the power of God. We discussed how we can do this.

It was a good class. Sixteen of us had the chance to see what the scripture was really telling us, and what the power of God was like. I hope we all take Jesus’ words to heart and really, really get to know the scriptures and his power.