Luke 20:27-40 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.” 39Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40For they no longer dared to ask him another question.
“Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.”
Reflection on Luke 20:27-40
Inspiration from 2025-11-22 Daily Prayer
Marriage and the begetting of children are clearly designed to continue the human race on earth. People die. Not so in heaven. The children of the resurrection will enjoy an eternity of joy and happiness.
We give thanks to the Lord for all that he has won for us by his life, death and resurrection.
Further reflection
The categories and ideas of the Sadducees were just too limiting and confined. Jesus invites them to see beyond their logical clever limits. I take time to allow Jesus to speak to my presumptions, asking him to soften my heart, to loosen my grip on what I have become used to.
If God is not beyond our imagination, we will never be surprised. The tidy arguments of the Sadducees helped them to keep their worlds in order, but kept them earthbound. I allow God to draw me beyond any narrowing view.
Jesus avoids the problems of the situation described here by summing up that God is the God of the living, and we can leave the questions of details after death in the hands of the living God. Wherever there is real life, the sharing of physical life as in parenthood and the sharing of the life of love and justice, God is present. God is alive where people are alive to each other and to each other's needs and joys. God is the one who sent Jesus that we too might have life to the full.
The categories and ideas of the Sadducees were just too limiting and confined. Jesus invites them to see beyond their logical clever limits. I take time to allow Jesus to speak to my presumptions, asking him to soften my heart, to loosen my grip on what I have become used to.
If God is not beyond our imagination, we will never be surprised. The tidy arguments of the Sadducees helped them to keep their worlds in order, but kept them earthbound. I allow God to draw me beyond any narrowing view.