Luke 20:27-38 NRSVue

²⁷Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 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 a woman 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.”

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Some thoughts on this scripture

Reflection
Jesus was being hassled by a trick question from someone who denies the resurrection of the dead.

Reflection
How would I deal with this situation?

Reflection
Do I hear Jesus' strong affirmation of eternal life? How am I moved by it?

Reflection
Jesus is facing a trick question. The Sadducees wanted scorned the idea of rising from the dead. Jesus lifts them from the human tangles in which their theology has trapped them, to a cosmic vision. 'He is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all are alive.' We are part of that cosmos that transcends space and time, and embraces not merely Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but my parents and all my ancestors to the beginning of creation. In the resurrection we will share the eternal Now of God.

Reflection
It may be that the conundrum of the Sadducees was offered more to confound Jesus than to seek illumination. I think of how the discussion that engages me is for my good or how much is less than helpful to my journey in faith.

Reflection
I pray with compassion for all those whose reason and intelligence is missing the humility to accept the truths that faith uncovers, I give thanks for the intuitions and insights that have been given to me.