Unimportant Questions

Gospel: Mark 12: 18-27

Life is filled with questions of relative or even no importance at all.  Does it really matter where we go out for dinner? Is a blue ink pen better than black? We fret over a million such issues in life, only to realize later on how unimportant the question really was.  Something similar is at work in today's Gospel portion, and behind it we come to realize why we do get so hung up over unimportant matters.  

First, let us note that this requirement in the Law of Moses regarding the marrying of a brother's widow is a precept that has not been practiced in some time. Its importance has died away.  Yet for some reason it occupied the minds of people in Jesus' day.  Does it really matter whose wife she is in heaven? This question only matters if we are still preoccupied with our own self-interest, possessions, and power - and carry those with us into the afterlife.  

But Jesus makes clear that such things are of no importance in the reign of God.  All our perseveration over our self-interest, possessions, and power have no meaning in a place where we are to be like angels, possessing no body and hence no material needs or wants.  By setting aside our self-interest, possessions, and power now we can make ready for life in God's kingdom. By ignoring unimportant questions we can make more time for that which is important - a life of mercy and loving service to others.