Today’s scripture: Luke 20:27-40 (NRSV) (KJV) (The Message) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Keith Phillips):
I love a little repartee. There’s nothing quite like the back-and-forth banter between thinking persons to broaden one’s horizons and to produce new perspectives. But what the Sadducees were doing with Jesus in this passage of scripture was nothing like that. Their minds were already made up. There was no spirit of inquiry here; no desire to explore, to learn and grow. Probably their only intent was to trap Jesus with a trick question.
First, the Sadducees, according to the first century Jewish historian Josephus, took their theology only from the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). Deuteronomy 25:5-10 taught that if a married man died without children, his brother was to marry the widow to produce children/heirs for the deceased. A little weird to us, but important in cultures where keeping the land in the family/clan/tribe was extremely important. At the same time, there is no mention whatsoever of resurrection in the Torah. So the question about seven brothers marrying this one woman was likely intended by the Sadducees to demonstrate the absurdity of a belief in the resurrection.
Jesus cunningly counters by challenging the presupposition that life after the resurrection will be like life in the here and now. (For me, that’s Good News. I can’t imagine why some people are hoping for a life there that’s similar to the one they have here, unless they have no imagination.) Jesus makes it clear that we will be wholly transformed. It’s going to be different, and way better. And saying that we’ll be like the angels as children of God was a particular dig at the Sadducees, who didn’t believe in angels, either.
Then Jesus pointedly takes one of the most foundational statements in the Torah to prove how wrong the Sadducees were about the resurrection: the story of Moses and the burning bush, where God is revealed as the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. In effect, Jesus is telling them that to deny the resurrection is to deny the existence of God, since God is a God of the living. To us, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all “considered worthy” (verse 35) who’ve gone on before us are dead, but to God they are still live.
Thought for the day: Lord, may I always trust you enough, and may you always trust me enough, that we can have that back-and-forth dialogue in order to keep growing. Amen.
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.