Sunday School Overview: April

April: Fulfilling Our Obligations to Family and Community

by Rev. Adrian Grubbs

If there is no resurrection of the dead … begins our text for this Easter Sunday. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul addressed one of the issues in the Corinthian Church. Some Christians there did not believe in the resurrection and life after death. They became concerned when some believers died, thinking that only those who were alive when Christ returned would be taken to Heaven. They had no concept of resurrection. To the unbeliever resurrection of the dead defies logic. It makes no sense until one comes to believe in Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord. In 15:2-6 Paul outlined the Gospel he proclaimed: Jesus died for our sins; he was buried in a tomb and was raised on the third day; and the resurrected Lord appeared to the apostles and many others during the forty days before he ascended to the Father. Without that faith in Christ, there is no hope for resurrection. As Paul argued, if there is no resurrection of the dead …, then Christ was not raised, the Gospel as proclaimed is futile, and faith in Christ is in vain. It is a mystery (15:51), but fact is, Christ has been raised! (15:20), and believers who die will be raised.

They marvelled (KJV) or were utterly amazed (NRSV) does not do justice to the Greek expression in Mark 12:17. The statement Jesus made was astounding, it was shocking – maybe not the statement itself, but that Jesus said it. He said to render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. The question was whether it was religiously right and legal to pay taxes as required by law, the laws of a foreign, occupational government. Christians live in two worlds simultaneously – the physical and the spiritual; we are subject to two governments – the civil and the religious, the temporal and the eternal, the law of the land and the law of God. In Romans 13 Paul advised Christians to be submissive to governmental authority and to “pay what is due” – taxes, tribute, respect, honor, and especially love. 1 Peter 2:13 instructs Christians “for the Lord’s sake” to submit to human institutions. Christians are to keep God’s law and, as far as possible, to be submissive to the law of the land.

Truly I tell you … is a phrase Jesus used fourteen times in Mark – so, listen up, pay close attention, this is important. Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a child will never enter it. In Mark 10 the disciples had discouraged parents from bringing their children to Jesus and distracting him from important matters. In Mark 9 the disciples acted like children when they argued about which of them in the group was greatest. Jesus reprimanded them both times by putting his arms around the children and saying that the only way into God’s Kingdom was as a little child. Children are dependent upon adults for their safety, shelter, security, and sustenance. An infant is totally dependent on the parents for everything. That is the standard for adults to enter the Kingdom of God; that is the sign of greatness. That phrase, Kingdom of God, does not mean heaven-after-you-die; it means recognizing, acknowledging, accepting, receiving God’s rule and reign in this life. A child-like attitude of trust and dependence is the key to the Kingdom of God.

Joined to and joined together in Matthew 19:5-6 are from two different Greek words. The first instance literally means “glued to, or stuck to” and the second reference means “yoked together.” The question from the Pharisees was about divorce. Jesus’ answer at first sounds like a strict legalistic view of marriage and divorce. Indeed, some Christians seem to think that divorce is the unforgivable sin, it is certainly a sign of serious failure in a personal relationship; but we know Jesus’ attitude toward legalism was negative. In his answer to the Pharisees, he pointed out that the first rule of marriage, from the time of creation, is that no man must separate what God has joined, or yoked, together. Secondly, he noted that Moses made an allowance for divorce when a marriage relationship went bad. Broken relationships is Sin and is a human problem in- and out- of the Church; but, as Jesus taught, there is forgiveness for sin. Jesus’ response to the Pharisees was not so much a legalistic rule of law but an emphasis on the sacredness of marriage and family; but when a marriage fails because humans are human, forgiveness is available. Deuteronomy 6:3-9 speaks to the importance of keeping and teaching the first commandment to our children– to love God with all that you are and have. Teaching the faith requires first keeping the faith.