regarded as the child of the deceased man.’ Now, there were seven brothers; the first married a wife, but he died without children;
and the second and the third took the wife; in fact all seven died leaving no children. Last of all the woman died. On the day of the resurrection,
to which of them will the woman be wife? For the seven had her as wife.” And Jesus replied, “Taking husband or wife is proper to people of this world,
but for those who are considered worthy of the world to come and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage. Besides, they cannot die
for they are like the angels. They too are sons and daughters of God because they are born of the resurrection. Yes, the dead will be raised, and even
Moses implied it in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. For he is
God of the living and not of the dead, and for him all are alive.”(...)
Reflection:
The question of the one bride and the seven brothers is
not a search for the truth. The Sadducees are not there to
look for an answer. They have their own agenda. They hope
to catch Jesus in their carefully crafted question, and thus to
demonstrate how “foolish” ideas of a resurrection from
the dead are. For this group believes that there is no
resurrection of the dead. The purpose of this question is
not to “get Jesus into trouble,” but to further the dogma of
this group. If Jesus, the most noted and famous teacher
alive, could be stumped by their question, then He would
reluctantly be an endorser of their view. Then the table is
turned. Jesus demolishes their claim by saying that in heaven,
earthly ties will be transformed. This pleased the teachers of
the Law who are present. They hold the opposite view from
the Sadducees. Even though these rival groups had come to
some kind of alliance (formally or informally) to rid Judaism of
Jesus, they still had their own pet dogmas and practices,
their own “sacred cows,” which they could not leave alone, even
for a short period of time. The rivalry and competition are still
here, even in the midst of this inquisition.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2021