Reflection for March 21 – Kate Heichler

Today’s Passage from The Bible:  Mark 12:13-27

Then they sent to him some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him in what he said. And they came and said to him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?’ But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, ‘Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it.’ And they brought one. Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ And they were utterly amazed at him.

Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, 

‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; and the second married her and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had married her.’

Jesus said to them, ‘Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.’

   Reflection – Kate Heichler

I wonder if Jesus got tired of the constant attempts by the religious leaders to trap him – to get him to say something that would get him into trouble with the people who adored him, or with the Roman authorities. There are two traps in this passage – one about taxes, one about marriage, but Jesus eludes both by affirming this simple principle: the realm of God and the realm of humankind are not the same. 

As followers of Jesus, united with him in baptism, it is our calling to live in both realms, bringing the power and love of God into the human realm, while already living the eternal life Jesus won for us. In this life we pay participate in civic life and enter into covenanted relationships with one another. We engage fully with all our embodied gifts of emotion and intellect – while learning to live in that realm of God that is eternal. All that means most to us in this realm is passing away. But the love gets carried over. 

We may not love one more than another in the Life eternal, so human institutions like marriage will not apply (remember, it’s “till death us do part…”) But we will live awash in Love, with nothing to pay for. All has been paid.