Accidents?

We keep the artificial sweetener saccharine in the house. Beloved Husband uses it, picking those ubiquitous pink envelopes not only at home but in restaurants, too. It was an accidental lab discovery that provided this sugar substitute. In 1878 Constantin Fahlberg was working on coal tar derivatives at Johns Hopkins University, find saccharine by accident. We need to look for answers beyond the expected places, too.

An example is found in Matthew 22: 23-33. There is a lot of information in those ten verses. The Sadducees had come up with an unanswerable question. They knew it could not be answered because it contained an invalid assumption – that there was life after death. Sadducees knew there was no resurrection. They could prove it with scriptures that had been studied for hundreds of years. In this question, they would catch Jesus and invalidate His ministry.

Do we not see this today? Though the questions differ, do not men ask questions they deem unanswerable?

The Sadducees’ question related to the Jewish tradition of a man marrying his brother’s widow. In this question, one woman consecutively married seven brothers as the previous died. Now, which would be the husband in heaven, knowing no woman could have seven husbands at the same time.

Christ defined their error in two ways.

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. (Matthew 22:29 KJV)

Jesus continued, telling us what to expect following the resurrection – no marriage, just as angels do not marry. No scriptures cited, simply personal knowledge. Then He used scripture to validate resurrection.

But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. (Matthew 22:31-32 KJV)

We have Sadducees today. Matthew Henry’s explanation applies to many in today’s world: “... Sadducees were much of the genius of the Epicureans; they denied the resurrection, they said, There is no future state, no life after this; that, when the body dies, the soul is annihilated, and dies with it; that there is no state of rewards or punishments in the other world; no judgment to come in heaven or hell. They maintained, that, except God, there is not spirit, nothing but matter and motion. They would not own the divine inspiration of the prophets, nor any revelation from heaven.”

Many of today’s Sadducees would also deny the existence of a supreme being, looking upon the creation of the universe as an accident similar to finding saccharine. They tend to forget that accidents occur while something else is happening.

The final comment from today’s scriptures is tied to astonishment.

And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine. (Matthew 22:33 KJV)

His doctrine remains astonishing today. The answers to our questions are within His word. They will not move off the paper and shake us by the shoulders to get our attention. We do have to read them, study them, come to understand their source and build faith as we continue to learn more and more. Then we can astonish others with His truth. The greatest, to me, was said to Nicodemus.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:16-17 KJV)