Reflections on Scripture Thirty-Second Sunday Gospel C
Some Sadducees,
those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question
to Jesus, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone's brother dies
leaving a wife but no child,
his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her,
and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her."
his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her,
and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her."
·
The
Sadducees were less orthodox than the Pharisees. They held only to the first
five books of the OT, the Torah. Since the belief in a future resurrection
developed in the later books of the OT, they did not accept this understanding.
·
But
even though they are normally in opposition to the Pharisees, here they are in
union with them. Jesus is their common foe. The Pharisees have not succeeded in
trapping Jesus, so the Sadducees take their shot at him.
o
They
try to present Jesus with a dilemma. If Moses permited a woman to remarry every
time her husband dies. The dilemma is: will this not bring confusion into the
next life? How will she determine who is her legitimate spouse if all of them
are raised?
Jesus said to them, "The children of
this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the
coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in
marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the
children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known
in the passage about the bush, when he called out 'Lord, ' the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of
the living, for to him all are alive."
·
What
two answers does Jesus give them? He deals with them on their own terms.
·
Life
in heaven is entirely different from life on earth. The focus of our union is
not primarily with each other but with God. Because of our union with God, our
union with each other is perfected. There is no more jealously or selfishness,
only love of the other.
·
The
resurrection was foreshadowed even in the first five books of the OT. Because
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob physically died, they are alive with God in heaven as
all who are truly children of God.
·
Even
though in the Creed we profess the resurrection of the body and life
everlasting, how often have we reflected on what this truly means to us?
What do we take from this passage and apply to our
life?
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