Saint Mark 12:18-27 Gospel for the Tuesday: Week of the Publican and the Pharisee 18 Then some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus; and they asked Him, saying: 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife; and dying, he left no offspring. 21 And the second took her, and he died; nor did he leave any offspring. And the third likewise. 22 “So the seven had her and left no offspring. Last of all the woman died also. 23 “Therefore, in the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as wife.” 24 Jesus answered and said to them, “Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken.” The Thirty-third Sunday after Pentecost February 3, 2014, The Righteous Simeon and the Prophetess Anna The Comprehensible or Incomprehensible God: Mark 12:13-17, especially vss. 14-15: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?” We encounter the first of a series of efforts by the Lord Jesus’ enemies to destroy Him (see vss. 11:18, 12:12-13). His opponents, who greatly hate Him, form an unlikely political alliance between the Pharisees, a devout Jewish sect, and the Herodians (King Herod and his worldly courtiers). This coalition seeks to lure Jesus into treasonous or blasphemous remarks, indict Him, and have Him executed. In this passage, they slyly defer to the Lord’s sovereignty, observing that Jesus “[does] not regard the person of men, but [teaches] the way of God in truth” (vs. 14). Then they ask whether or not God’s people should pay taxes to the idolatrous Roman government. The question posed by the Pharisees and Herodians appears to concern Caesar and taxation, but its purpose is to force the Lord Jesus to choose between loyalty to God and obedience to worldly government. Christ, in turn, exposes the deep error involved in making God an alternative to Caesar. Such gross oversimplification distorts theology into manageable human concepts – an impossible task. According to Saint Gregory of Nyssa, “every concept relative to God is a simulacrum, a false likeness, an idol” (Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, p. 33). The Pharisees and Herodians engage in reductionism, which attempts to minimize a complex reality by obscuring or distorting it. As rational creatures, we are incapable of speaking definitively about God’s essence. The Church Fathers use negative or superlative statements such as “uncontainable,” “incomprehensible,” “all-wise,” “almighty.” Saint Gregory the Theologian states flatly, “To define Him in words is impossible” (Lossky, p. 34). God is not some thing capable of being compared to other things; He exists beyond all categories of thought. We learn what God expects of us only insofar as He reveals His will. Without His help, neither God nor His will are comprehensible. On the other hand, it is quite possible to comprehend what Caesar expects. Every emperor mints coins with his own image. They issue decrees, such as “all the world should be registered” for taxation (Lk 2:1); in other words, they tax. The motive behind theological reductionism is our vain attempt to manage God. If we could reduce God to mere ideas and principles, then we could eliminate the essential unknowability of God. Such simplistic thinking keeps God conveniently in hand, using Him however it wills. The saints never brook such theology. Isaiah records God’s reply to the inquiries of man: “But as heaven is distant from earth, so is My way distant from your ways, and your thoughts from My mind” (Is 55:9). Saint Mark discloses the Lord Jesus’ answer to reductionism, in which He celebrates the incomprehensible majesty of God. He asks us to stand with the Prophet Jeremiah and reject the self-serving theologies of those who say: “These things are not so. Evil will not come upon us” (Jer 5:12). True faith proclaims, “Though the Mighty One should lay His hand upon me, and already He has begun, I will speak and reason before Him” (Job 13:15). Teaching us to hope in God, Solomon says: “Gladness continues for the righteous, but the hope of the ungodly perishes” (Pr 10:29). The wicked do not expect God to interfere, yet He frustrates their ways: “You weary the Lord with your words, yet you say, ‘In what way have we wearied Him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them,’ or, ‘Where is the God of justice?’” (Mal 2:17). Our ways are never hidden from God, for “His understanding is unsearchable” (Is 40:28). Thou art God ineffable, inconceivable, invisible, incomprehensible, ever-existing and eternally the same, Thou and Thine Only-begotten Son and Thy Holy Spirit. Glory to Thee! – Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 17:10:10 +0000
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