Some of the Sadducees decided to have fun with the country preacher from up in Galilee. They concocted a story (Mark 12:18-23) about a man who had married a woman and then died childless; in accordance with levirate marriage, his brother had then married the woman, but he too had died childless; as there were seven brothers in this family, this pattern repeated through the remaining five brothers, before the woman herself died. When they had finished the story, the Sadducees posed this question to Jesus: since she’s been married to all of them, whose wife will she be in heaven? The plan was that whatever Jesus answered, they would argue that his answer was arbitrary, and he’d be baffled and humiliated.

How would Jesus respond to these people who intended to make fun of him? He asked, “Isn’t this the reason you get it wrong: because you don’t know the scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God?” (12:24). But what did Jesus’ voice sound like, when he asked that question? Maybe he spat out these words with anger in his voice, as a harsh rebuke; or his words might have carried a tone of sadness, as a lament; or his voice might have expressed compassion, as a warm invitation, to give the Sadducees the opportunity to realize that their hearts really did want to know the scriptures and the power of God.

We learn part of the answer to that question by speaking the words out loud ourselves. That’s because it’s harder to “hear” the voice tones when we read the words silently. You could try that out, just by saying verse 24 out loud a few times: first with anger in your voice, then with sadness, then with invitation. (Seriously. Out loud.) After you’ve done that, you could ask, “In which of those three readings did I sense Jesus speaking to me?”

And how will you answer Jesus’ question? Is it the case for you, too, that the reason you get things wrong is that you don’t know the scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God? What might you do, to gain a better knowledge of them? What’s the next step you should take, to do that?

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Help us, Jesus, to hear your voice: not just to read the words written on the page, but to hear you speaking to us, within our own souls. And grant us the grace to know the scriptures, and the power of God, as we follow you in all we do.

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