resurrection and law

Good morning brothers and sisters,
Jesus is still teaching in Jerusalem when some Sadducees approach him with a question. Every era has its important theological questions and Jesus' time was no different. There was a division between two groups of religious leaders in Judaism: Pharisees and Sadducees. Sadducees often controlled the temple and followed only scripture. In other words they didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead or angels. Pharisees were famous for interpreting the law carefully and separating the people of Israel from their gentile neighbors, but they believed in some teachings that went beyond the scripture including a belief in the resurrection of the dead and the role of angels as God's messengers.

In this story the Sadducees come to question Jesus. True to form, they ask him a question that brings into question the logic of the resurrection. Jesus shows himself firmly committed to a belief in the resurrection, a belief Jesus will embody in his own life. For Jesus, while the future will have something in common with today, God's kingdom is also radically different. As often, we won't know what the resurrection will really be like until that last day. Until then we trust in God's love and work for greater justice in the world.
God bless,
Sam

Matthew 22:23-33

23The same day some Sadducees came to him, saying there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, 24“Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.’ 25Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother. 26The second did the same, so also the third, down to the seventh. 27Last of all, the woman herself died. 28In the resurrection, then, whose wife of the seven will she be? For all of them had married her.”



29Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. 30For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, 32‘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.” 33And when the crowd heard it, they were astounded at his teaching.