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 to 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 

 

We are currently following the events of Holy Week.  Jesus has entered the holy city in His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.  He has cleansed the temple, and been subject to questioning from the religious leaders as to His authority to do so.  He has responded with two parables:  one declaring Himself to be the stone the builders rejected; the other about the wedding garment and the wedding of Christ the Bridegroom and His Bride the Church.  Yesterday we read that, after this, the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him 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 to 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.  Christ tells the Sadducess, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God."  Here my study Bible says that Christ confirms that there will be a resurrection, but not of the sort the Sadducees are imagining.  The Sadducees, for whom only the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch, or Torah) were held as sacred, and who formed a type of landowning aristocracy around Jerusalem, neither believed in an afterlife, nor in angels.  They consider the resurrection to be a continuation of earthly life (including marriage), and so they are mocking the doctrine of resurrection with what my study Bible calls an absurd scenario.  But, as Christ tells them, they are ignorant of the Scriptures -- which reveal a complete transfiguration of life in the resurrection.  Therefore, such an "earthly" question is irrelevant to the understanding of what resurrection is.  Moreover, they can't understand how Abraham and his sons can be alive in God even if they are physically dead.   My study Bible declares that it is the clear teaching of Christ that the souls of the faithful who have departed life in this world 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."   My study Bible informs us that the Pharisees had fond 613 commandments in the Scriptures and debated about which one was central.  Here Jesus teaches the first and the second -- constituting the grand summary of the Law.  Although this lawyer has come with malice to test the Lord, my study Bible points out that in St. Mark's account, this man is converted by Christ's answer (see Mark 12:28-34).  It's also noted here that the second commandment should be understood as written:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself -- or more clearly, "as being yourself."  It's often misinterpreted to read "You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself."  But this destroys the force of the statement, my study Bible says.  How much we love ourselves isn't the standard by which Christ calls us to love others.  Instead, we're called to love our neighbor as being of the same nature as we are; that is, created in God's image and likeness just as we are.  Patristic commentary teaches us that we find our true self in loving our neighbor.

In our recent readings, Jesus has spoken of the "wedding garment" (in the parable of the Wedding Feast), and how those without the proper garment (supplied by the King; that is, in the parable, God) will not be allowed to attend.  This wedding garment, given by the King, has been explained by my study Bible as first, one's baptismal garment, but beyond that, "a life of faith, repentance, virtue, and charity."  That is, it is woven from what we have done in our lives, particularly if we have lived faithfully, prayerfully.  This corresponds to the soul.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus was quizzed about the tax money, in an effort to trap Him by the Pharisees.  He pointed to Caesar's image on the coin of the tax money, and said, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."  But this must not be understood as separating life into two aspects of sacred and secular:  rather, all of life belongs to God, and we can render our due responsibility to the state without losing our connection to God.  The conflict comes when the state or other organization asks of us that which is contrary to God. Thus, the wedding garment, or the soul, our connection to God, is important to us all the time.  Here in today's reading, concerning the resurrection, there remains this sense about the soul.  But Christ teaches us about the transformation that happens in resurrection.  Jesus teaches the Sadducess about those in the resurrection:  "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven."  But then He adds an even more significant teaching:  "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."   It is said that all life is in the hands of God and is sustained by God.  In this respect, it is the soul that contains our connection with God; therefore God has to be as Jesus says, the God of the living.  In a sense, this question and teaching following on the parable of the Wedding Feast Jesus gave earlier, says something essential about how we understand life.  We seek to preserve and sustain our souls, because this is our connection with God, our depth of connection to life itself.  If the soul perishes, then we lose our connection with God, our hope of the eternal life of resurrection ("For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" - Matthew 16:26).  To repeat the conclusion of my study Bible, "It is the clear teaching of Christ that the souls of the faithful who have departed life in this world are sustained before the face of God in anticipation of the final joy of the resurrection."  Therefore faithful, prayerful living -- maintaining our connection with God, the root of life itself -- becomes the means whereby our souls are sustained in an eternal union with God.  In that sense of union, we return again to the theme of the wedding feast, when the Bridegroom, the Son, is united to His Bride, the Church, the faithful.  Let us see what the Sadducees are blind to.  In some sense, it is the flesh they see, and understand the Law as essential correction, perhaps, for the desires of the flesh that lead to sin.  But salvation in the sense that we understand it, that which leads to this eternal life depicted in the resurrection, asks more of us, as Christ explained to the rich young ruler (who was perhaps himself a Sadducee).  That rich man was told by Christ to sell what he had, give to the poor.  Thereby he would have "treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."  That particular man was asked to give up his wealth and give to the poor for treasure in heaven; but, as my study Bible explained in that reading, we each will be called in different ways to follow Christ -- and this trust in Christ, this faith, is what leads to eternal life, the resurrection of which these Sadducees are ignorant.  When we ponder "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" we must consider what it means that "all live to God," because again, what this means is that there isn't a separation between the sacred and secular, nor even the life of the resurrection from our present life in the sense that we are always choosing to "live to God" or not.  The latter part of today's reading is also relevant to this understanding, for in loving our neighbor "as ourselves" -- that is, as being of the same substance, created in the image and likeness of God as we are -- we are weave our wedding garment as we are taught.  And, it's important to note, this commandment does not divide life into the sacred and secular either.  Moreover, the living of this commandment enforces that we might have treasures in heaven through our lives in this world, although life in the resurrection is something different in quality than the life we know, changed and transfigured.  But we are asked by Christ to "come, follow Me," for He is the One who merged a human soul with the divine will, making it possible for us all to enter the resurrected life.  Let us continually seek to follow Him, and be aware of what we are doing when we so choose.  Let us live to Him.