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.
The Sadducees, in case you hadn’t guessed, are no fans of Jesus. They disagree with him – and with the Pharisees too, for that matter – on the issue of the resurrection. So much so that they ask a question designed simultaneously to discredit the very idea of resurrection and embarrass Jesus for entertaining it. And so they offer him a hypothetical situation of one woman being married seven times in the course of her life and then wonder playfully, actually scornfully, whose wife she will be in the resurrection.
But Jesus responds by pointing out their fundamental misunderstanding: resurrection life is not just more of the same, the mere persistence of what we have experienced here. Rather, it is an entirely different way of being in the universe, an existence linked intimately to the power and life of the universe, God almighty. And so all things – including all of our relationships – will be fundamentally different as each is connected and intertwined to the power and being of God.
We do not know what our resurrection life will be like. And, to be honest, I don’t think Jesus is trying to give hints here. Rather, he is reminding us that whatever we may not know, we do know that when we view eternal life merely as extension of what we know so far we both undersell the nature of our life with God and underestimate the power of God to bring all things to their intended end and completion in life with God.
Prayer: Dear God, remind us daily that you are the God of the living, send us to care for this life and people you have given us as a gift, and grant us the courage and strength that comes from the hope of living in due time in your nearer presence with all the people of God. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Post image: photo credit Ricardo Camacho (Creative Commons).
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