06/03/2026
Measuring Faith
Sacred Scripture
Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and put this question to him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants. So the second brother married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third likewise. And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also died. At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her.” Jesus said to them, “Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven. As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled.” (Mark 12:18-27)
Reflection
The Sadducees approached Jesus with a question that wasn’t really a question. It was a trap disguised as logic — a hypothetical meant to make the resurrection look foolish. But beneath their cleverness was a deeper limitation: they could not imagine a God whose power extended beyond the boundaries of their own understanding.
The Sadducees believed only in what they could see. No angels. No spiritual realm. No resurrection. No life beyond this life.
Their world was flat. Their heaven was earthly. Their God was small.
And Jesus answers them with a diagnosis that reaches across centuries:
“You are greatly misled.”
Not because they lacked intelligence. Not because they were malicious. But because they tried to understand divine realities with human categories.
We do the same.
We try to “figure out” life by thinking harder, analyzing more, replaying conversations, or trying to decode God’s will as if it were a puzzle we could solve with enough mental effort. But thinking is not prayer. And analysis is not surrender.
There are moments when our minds become noisy — when confusion, emotion, or fear cloud our judgment — and Jesus’ words land with surprising gentleness:
“You are misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”
He is not shaming us. He is inviting us to stop shrinking God down to the size of our own reasoning.
The path forward is humility — the kind that says:
“Lord, I don’t understand. And I don’t need to — not yet. Teach me. Lead me. Reveal what I cannot see.”
When we stop forcing clarity, God often gives it. When we stop trying to control outcomes, God often shows the way. When we stop insisting on our categories, God reveals His power.
Jesus ends the exchange with a truth that reorients everything:
“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
Faith is not about clinging to what we can explain. Faith is about trusting the God whose life, power, and presence stretch far beyond what we can imagine.
Prayer of The Day
“Lord, I want to know Your truth, not my version of it. When I am misled by my own thoughts, emotions, or assumptions, draw me back to You. Teach me to be humble, to listen, and to trust Your power more than my understanding. Jesus, I trust in You.”
Daily Note
The Sadducees’ question may seem distant, but the heart of it is timeless: Do we live as if this world is all there is, or do we live as people of the resurrection — people who trust that God’s power extends beyond death, beyond fear, beyond confusion, and beyond the limits of our own minds