God is not the God of the dead, but of the living

The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, saying: "Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. Last of all the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her."

Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

- Matthew 22:23-33

On Saturday, we read of a plot to trap Jesus. This was done by the Pharisees, who sent some of their students along with a group of Herodians to pose Him a question: "Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" If Jesus answered one way, He would be seen as a collaborator with Rome, the other way He would seem a revolutionary. But Jesus knew what they were doing. He answered: "Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? Show me the tax money." So they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?" They said to Him, "Caesar's" And He said to them, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." When they heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, saying: . . . We see the evangelist introducing us to the different groups that form the leadership of the temple. In the previous reading, it was a group of students of the Pharisees, plus some Herodians who sought to trap Jesus. In today's, it is Sadducees who approach Him. The Sadducees, in contrast to the Pharisees, did not believe in an afterlife; the people asking the question in today's reading do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, so their question focuses on this doctrine. They were a wealthy, landowning class, aristocratic in nature. But as a party they completely disappeared after the siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple in A.D. 70.

"Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. Likewise the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. Last of all the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her." Their question focuses in on the here and now. Perhaps as landowners and aristocrats, their understanding of property and wealth and inheritance, lineage, plays its part in their perspective -- and hence their failure to accept the doctrine of resurrection. Jesus' answer will shed more light on this.

Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven." Jesus first addresses the nature of the kingdom of heaven. What is the resurrection like? Clearly, He shows that we will all be changed. My study bible notes that Scriptures say nothing about earthly laws of marriage being applicable to the future Kingdom. If we consider the state of matrimony, even as Jesus proposed it -- a return to the state of marriage in the Garden -- we can think of the realities of this world, the conditions for the relationships of men and women as reported in Scripture after the exile from the Garden, and know that the life in the Kingdom is something altogether different. And what is also left out of this equation, Jesus says, is the power of God. We witness with Peter, James, and John the Transfiguration of Christ, and this allows us to contemplate in a vivid illustration the power of God, the reality of life in that Kingdom. Of course, the power of God is also expressed in the signs of Jesus. Everything is transformed in this power, and with it all things are possible. The Sadducees must leave a worldly perspective, and enter one of faith -- a faith that enables human beings to enter into or participate, however dimly, in the mysteries of God.

"But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching. Here, Jesus takes us even more deeply into mystery, and expresses the power of that life in the Kingdom. And life is, indeed, the key word. In John's gospel, one that focuses so much on the mysteries of the kingdom, Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. In the statements beginning I AM, He reveals the realities of God's kingdom, God's nature. In that kingdom, then, there is no death, all live in Him. My study bible says of Jesus' response to the Sadducees, "They do not know the power of God, which transforms us from death to life. The 'dead' even now are living before God." The resurrection, the kingdom, is a kingdom of life: eternal and timeless, a place of no death.

It's interesting to parallel the statements of Jesus and the Sadducees and think of the implications for the nature of the kingdom. In their eyes, perhaps, marriage is not about union, but about an alliance for property and lineage, and a wife a part of that property. So the first thing we must think about in this place of transformation, of pure life without the shadow of death, is a recognition of the spiritual reality of human beings as God's creatures, and those who live in God. Therefore the nature of relationships must change in this sense. We work in the world for certain goals and conditions, but for what will we work in that kingdom? What will be our purpose, the image God plants in our hearts? We really can't have much of an idea about this, but from Jesus' answer we can start to think, of this place with no death, with life everlasting, beyond the sense of time that we know in the world, a realm of God. Jesus clearly invites us -- and even here, the Sadducees -- into the realm of mystery, which is previewed for us in Scripture, and given to us in the words of God: "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." As with Jesus' I AM statements, God is an ever-present eternal, life itself. And we are here in the world invited in, to prepare for what is to come, connected in faith on a journey, on the Way. How will we lead that life in the world that leads us into the world to come, the mysteries of the kingdom? What kind of faith does this ask of us? What kind of perspective? I think that there is the key. Given our introduction here to the mysteries of the reality of that kingdom, what should be our perspective in the world? Let us think about relatedness and relationship, righteousness, and what Christ reveals about the nature of the Kingdom of God. When we set our goals, can we keep this in mind? How does faith lead us there? And what does it teach us about ourselves, that we are let into this place, to share in the mystery, to be at least invited in?