FOR THE Twenty Second Sunday after Pentecost, this controversial section of scripture tells us of yet another group who challenged Jesus. The Sadducees confronted our Lord about marriage and resurrection. The challengers were of a religious and political party in Israel usually more conservative than the Pharisaic liberalities. In their theological outlook, they noted that the Law and Prophets in the Old Testament writings had little comment about our human existence after death. Therefore, they did not predict heaven or hell as a future destination for the dead. Sadducees were indeed skeptical about the afterlife, and any rewards or punishment thought to be meted out upon a person’s arrival there. We read...
There came to him some Sadducees, those who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the wife and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and died without children; and the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”
And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him.”And some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
(Luke 20:27–40)
Because of their outlook, the Sadducees came to Jesus with a hypothetical story, They offered that a woman had survived many marriages. According to the laws of the priests, they said the woman had sequentially and rightly married seven times... since under the law it was provided for her remarriage to the brother of a husband who had died childless. The purpose of the remarriage law was to provide descendants to carry on the deceased husband’s name. The Sadducees continued that one at a time, each of the seven husbands had died. Using this legal context, they then presented a legal question to Jesus about the idea of resurrection and whose wife she ultimately would be.
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Jesus responded to their challenge by saying that it is not legitimate to project earthly conditions into the heavenly state. He said boldly that eternal life for the believer is actually life in the present and in the age to come. A believer already participates in this, but life gains fuller expression once the future age arrives. This statement turned their attention to the nature of Resurrection. At that time, Jesus taught that the dead who believe in him shall rise. He therefore referred the Sadducees to the authority of Moses, whom the Sadducees respected. Our Lord reminded that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are also going to “rise.” Consequently, we who are of like nature and are now baptized into Christ... believe that our existence rests both in our past and the present, but we are also preserved into God's promised future.
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We know from this scripture lesson that Jesus’ answer was happily approved by some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. They were pleased to see the Sadducees' challenge put down. However, as Christian persons living in a modern world, we also may see that in facing challenges of unbelievers today, we also must reject all arguments that cast uncertainty or rejection on eternal life. We who are the baptized of Christ may rightly claim that heavenly citizenship is promised to us. This opportunity has been given freely by the Holy Spirit and is available to those who come to Christ in faith. I ask you then… when Jesus returns… will he find this Resurrection faith upon the earth? I dare say he will.
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May the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord… Amen
