NOTES for Mar 12:18-27

The clashes between Christ's logic and every form of human logic are always instructive. The Sadducees want not merely to debate yet another opponent; they need to lower the level at which spiritual questions are considered. And so they make one of their many attempts to put Christ at a loss, although the contrived situation they cite sounds far too much like a joke. But Christ not only avoids the trap; in His answer He reveals the mystery that death does not exist, that the Living God is the God of the living, and that the life He gives is altogether different, unlike human conceptions.
When we consider Scripture only according to the letter, we sometimes risk falling into “Sadducean” reasoning by trying to apply the logic of limited understanding to complex concepts. Yet God's ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts. Although they are inaccessible to us in their fullness, Christ has given us the possibility of reflecting on His logic and thereby drawing nearer to a true understanding of what He proclaimed.