The Trick of the Sad U Sees

"In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be?" Luke 20. 27-38

The Sadducees were a group within Judaism with their own unique beliefs, including that scripture only included the Pentateuch and that no teaching was authoritative unless found in those five books of Moses in which there is no mention of resurrection (by that term).

A group of Sadducees came to Jesus with a trick question, the crux of which was if a woman marries seven times, all seven husbands die and then she dies, whose wife will she be in heaven? Knowing full well that they did not believe in the resurrection and that this was a typical confrontation and response challenge, Jesus said "Those who belong to this age marry...but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage." and then he closed with the big challenge, "...he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive." Reminds me of Jesus' words in the Gospel of John: "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."

The word "resurrection" comes from the Latin resurgere, meaning "to rise again". It is formed from the prefix re- ("again") and the verb surgere ("to rise"). Literally it translates "a straightening from under again." In Reading Between the Lines, we were challenged to describe resurrection in art and to create it out of our hearts rather than our heads. Then sit before our creations and ask what we are telling ourselves about "resurrection."

Today's gospel challenges us to reflect on our perspectives on resurrection, what it has to do with the living or the dead. Is God a God of the living or the dead for you, and how does your answer affect how you live out your answer every day.