A Convoluted Challenge

Here are a few thoughts about this coming Sunday's gospel, which frankly, can be confusing. What thoughts do you have? This was shared with the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church.

Gospel: Luke 20:27-38

²⁷Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to [Jesus] ²⁸and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. ²⁹Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; ³⁰then the second ³¹and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. ³²Finally the woman also died. ³³In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”
  ³⁴Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; ³⁵but 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. ³⁶Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. ³⁷And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. ³⁸Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

How is that for a convoluted story that the Sadducees presented to Jesus? The Law required this, but this is certainly an extreme example. Because the Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection, the only way someone could live on was through their children.

The gist of Jesus’ answer concerns life that is true life; resurrection life. God is, after all, the “God…of the living.” That being the case, relationship with our living God is essential. It is out of such a relationship that we connect with our God.

Because God is the God of the living, we know that those who have gone before us into the church triumphant, are alive. One article I read yesterday suggested that this gospel reading would have been a good one for All Saints’ Day. To God, “all of them are alive.” All the baptized, who believe in Christ have everlasting life. As John’s gospel says, “⁴ in him was life, and the life was the light of all people” (John 1:4). Embrace this life God has for us!

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