Matthew 22:29

The Sadducees were a powerful religious group in Jesus's time who did not believe in resurrection — the idea that people rise from the dead after they die. They posed a clever hypothetical to Jesus: a woman had married seven brothers in succession (as Jewish law allowed to continue a family line), so whose wife would she be after death? Jesus doesn't engage the riddle. Instead, he identifies the root of their confusion: they don't actually know what Scripture says about God, and they have underestimated what God is capable of. It's a sharp, direct rebuke from someone who sees past the question to the questioner's deeper problem.

Lord, forgive me for the times I've read your words but missed you in them. Help me approach Scripture not as a puzzle to solve but as a window into who you truly are. Expand my understanding of your power beyond my comfortable assumptions. Amen.

There's something uncomfortable about Jesus's words here — not just for the Sadducees, but for anyone who has ever picked up a Bible and thought they had it figured out. These were educated, respected religious leaders who had memorized vast amounts of Scripture. And yet Jesus says: you don't know it. Because knowing Scripture isn't just about knowing the words. It's about knowing the God behind the words — his character, his power, his capacity to do things that don't fit neatly into our logic. Think about the places where you've quietly put a ceiling on God. Maybe it's a relationship you've written off as broken for good. Maybe it's a prayer you stopped praying because the answer seemed impossible. The Sadducees' error wasn't ignorance — it was confident ignorance. They were sure they understood the limits. You might be doing the same thing. What if God is bigger than your current reading of him?