You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God

 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.

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'"  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." 

- Matthew 22:23-40

Yesterday, we read that the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Jesus in His talk.  And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for you do not regard the person of men.  Tell us, therefore, what do You think?  Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"  But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, "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 to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."  When they had 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:  "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."   The Sadducees were a type of aristocratic landowning group, another party holding power in the temple and the Council.   The text itself explains that they had no belief in resurrection, while the Pharisees disagreed on this.   The focus of the question to Jesus is a type of inheritance question, which might be fitting to the perspective of the Sadducees.  They did not hold to the "traditions" of the Pharisees and believed in a more literal interpretation of the written law.  After the Roman siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Sadducees ceased to exist as a  party.

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.   Christ confirms there will be a resurrection, but what the Sadducees imagine is meant by "resurrection" is a false concept.  They're assuming resurrection is a continuation of earthly life (including earthly marriage).  My study bible says they are mocking the concept, therefore, with an absurd scenario.  But importantly, Jesus tells them they do not know the Scriptures, nor do they understand the power of God.  The Scriptures in fact reveal a transfiguration of life in the resurrection.  How can Abraham and his sons be alive in God (as the present "I am" indicates) even if they are physically dead?  My study bible tells us that it is the clear teaching of Christ that the souls of the faithful who have departed this life are sustained before the face of God in anticipation of the final joy of the resurrection.

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'"  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."  Here Jesus is questioned by the Pharisees, and the question also reflects their particular emphasis and orientation.  They had found 613 commandments in the Scriptures, and debated about which was central.  Here Jesus clearly places the first and second in relation to one another, and make up a grand summary of the Law.  My study bible says that although this lawyer (an expert in the Law) has come to test Jesus with malice, St. Mark's account teaches us that he was converted by the answer of Christ (Mark 12:28-34).

Faith is an interesting thing to consider.  How do we come by our faith?  How do we know what is true, and what is not?  Ultimately faith is about a perception in the heart.  When Jesus speaks about "hard-heartedness," He's speaking about a failure to perceive something, to understand.  "Hard-heartedness" is a form of denial, a type of implacability, an unwillingness to reconsider.  The Sadducees begin with a question that comes from their own limited understanding of the Scriptures and also of the power of God.  Jesus' answer is to expand that, to respond with a reading of the Scripture that indicates both the nature of the resurrection, and also the nature of God and the reality of those who live in God.  The Pharisees come testing Him with an assumption that perhaps they can debate His answer, but His answer is too expansive -- and it pinpoints the full nature of the Prophets and the Law in two commands which teach us about how we are to live.  It defies the assumption that there is just one law that is better than all the rest or more important.  Ultimately, Christ reveals to us both the nature of God, and the nature of human beings as creations and as children of God.  Is it possible that we may live in God, that the resurrection defies all our expectations of life?  Yes it is.  The revelation in the Scripture has taught, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," a testimony to the fullness of life beyond limitations of time and space.  The two great commandments give us the fullness of the relationship with God that extends to relationship between all the rest of us and its rootedness in love and loyalty, a full expression of covenant beyond literal readings of  law.  We have to expand our own understanding to find the fullness of these teachings, and that requires the involvement of the heart.   What does it mean to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind?  This asks of us the experience of such love to understand it and to find all of the things it may give us.  Faith can't be understood with proofs that deny experience of that faith, of that love.  How does one explain such love discovered in relationship without the experience of it?  The growth of a person in relationship to God is an experience of love, what it does for the lover, not only the beloved.  This is a key part of why the second commandment comes next and also must be included.  How does one understand what capacities love and relationship give us to then in turn wisely love others, without the experience of the loving relationship with God which helps to teach us what we don't know about love.  Hard-heartedness is linked to all of this because it is the failure to perceive.  That is, a kind of stony internal state that does not want to know and is incapable of receiving what is given in such a relationship.  And that's where we start with knowledge of God, and the joy of such relationship and relatedness.  Righteousness, in this understanding, is "right-relatedness."  We first seek relationship with the author of love, and in that relationship we are taught to extend it into the world, making our lives a journey of understanding and growth in this task, and giving us light and joy in expanding our knowledge of God and of life itself.  For that there are no proofs but the fruits of the Spirit, the experience of this journey, and our capacity to understand it and see it in ourselves and others.