Matthew 22:23-33
The same day some Sadducees came to him, saying there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother. The second did the same, so also the third, down to the seventh. Last of all, the woman herself died. In the resurrection, then, whose wife of the seven will she be? For all of them had married her.”
Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the living.” And when the crowd heard it, they were astounded at his teaching.
Always trying to trip Jesus up. If it wasn’t the Pharisees, then it was the other important group-within-a-group, the Sadducees. They were the ones interested in ‘the law,’ sometimes described as ‘teachers of the law’ in scripture. And they did not believe in a bodily resurrection. So they decided to hone in on that doctrinal issue and see if they couldn’t stump the teacher.
No such luck. They took a fine point in the law – the levirate marriage succession, wherein a widowed woman became the wife (or the property?) of her former husband’s brother – and came up with the most complicated scenario they could devise, sure that they had finally found a way to make this popular teacher fumble and bumble his way to an answer.
As always, Jesus turns the tables. He didn’t just do it literally, you know. He did it all the time with these pesky questions, and today’s little vignette is a particularly interesting example of that technique. Not only does Jesus affirm his belief in a resurrection, but he fills in some blanks about that transformative new life that awaits us after death. Not sure if this means we’ll be asexual or just unsexual, but it’s surely different from this life, isn’t it? And then he pulls the rug right out from under them and asks, “Why do you keep talking about the resurrection of the dead?? We serve a God of the living!”
And that is just about the finest and simplest expositions of the doctrine of bodily resurrection I’ve ever read anywhere.
Thank you, Lord, for the promise of eternity. We don’t understand it — something we share with the Sadducees of the first century! But we trust that you DO understand it and that you’re speaking truth to these trouble-makers. Thank you for always telling the truth, even when we try our best to trip you up. Thank you for making it simple and for keeping the main thing, the main thing.
Again, another story to reread. Eternity is really incomprehensible in that our starting point is finite, but we will be living with the infinite Creator of the Universe eternally. Our gifts and talents used to further God’s glory forever……incomprehensible. And exciting, and awe inspiring and humbling to think that God will use us forever…..A Living God!
Amen, amen.
Such an uplift that reaffirms: 1) Jesus can NEVER be stumped–not by tricky questions, not by tricky situations in our lives. He is all-knowing and all-wise. He can handle anything. 2) “I AM,” he said. Present tense. Ours is a God of the Living–now and always. Hallelujah! Thank you, Diana, for the spirit-boost!
Exactly – Jesus is pretty much un-stumpable! And you’re welcome.
One of the most comforting and compelling words Jesus spoke. God IS the God of the living, not of the dead. Though we don’t understand that in the here and now, it doesn’t matter. All will we put to rights in the eternal, where God’s face and intentions are revealed.
Blessings, Diana!