BIBLE STUDY #19
THIRTY SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
NOVEMBER 7, 2010

 Gospel Luke 20:27-38


Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,
came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying,
"Teacher, Moses wrote for us,
If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child,
his brother must take the wife
and raise up descendants for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers;
the first married a woman but died childless.
Then the second and the third married her,
and likewise all the seven died childless.
Finally the woman also died.
Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?
For all seven had been married to her."
Jesus said to them,
"The children of this age marry and remarry;
but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age
and to the resurrection of the dead
neither marry nor are given in marriage.
They can no longer die,
for they are like angels;
and they are the children of God
because they are the ones who will rise.
That the dead will rise
even Moses made known in the passage about the bush,
when he called out 'Lord, '
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;
and he is not God of the dead, but of the living,
for to him all are alive."


The Gospel of the Lord


Reading 1 2Mc 7:1-2, 9-14


It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested
and tortured with whips and scourges by the king,
to force them to eat pork in violation of God's law.
One of the brothers, speaking for the others, said:
"What do you expect to achieve by questioning us?
We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors."
At the point of death he said:
"You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life,
but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever.
It is for his laws that we are dying."
After him the third suffered their cruel sport.
He put out his tongue at once when told to do so,
and bravely held out his hands, as he spoke these noble words:
"It was from Heaven that I received these;
for the sake of his laws I disdain them;
from him I hope to receive them again."
Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man's courage,
because he regarded his sufferings as nothing.
After he had died,
they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in the same way.
When he was near death, he said,
"It is my choice to die at the hands of men
with the hope God gives of being raised up by him;
but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.

The Word of the Lord


Reflection


The Sadducees were from the priestly class that also included many prominent laymen. They only accepted the Torah (or Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the bible) as being authentic and revealed by God. Consequently, they did not believe in the idea of resurrection.


In this confrontation with Jesus, the Sadducees are not trying to learn from Jesus but to use scripture to show him up to be a fraud so others wouldn’t believe in him.


The law they refer to is the levirate marriage law as stipulated by Moses in Dt 25:5 and Gen 38:8. When a husband died without leaving children, his brother was required to take the wife and beget children who would receive his brother’s name and inheritance. In an era of high infant mortality and to keep the community populated, a law like this was necessary. It also would have been extremely difficult for a family without a father because there was no way they could support themselves.


The Sadducees propose a case of utter silliness to show that the idea of resurrection is ridiculous. A man dies, and each of his brothers in turn tries to beget children to no avail. Now they want to know whose wife is she in eternal life? They think they have Jesus with this one, because they are convinced of their correctness.


Jesus response tells us that there are two ages. The first is the age of human history. The levirate marriage law is necessary to keep up the human population and for the preservation of the community. This is the age in which men and women live and act according to the condition of human existence.


The second age follows the end of history when all are resurrected and it is a different mode of existence. This existence is comparable to that of angels where people won’t marry, they don’t die, so these two ages are distinct and mutually exclusive. What applies in one age does not apply in the other. Therefore, the problem of whom the wife would be married to is irrelevant.


Jesus then goes on to show the reality of the resurrection to the Sadducees by using their great figure of Moses. Since Moses comes from the Torah, Jesus is using the Sadducees own beliefs to show that resurrection exists. When Moses met God at the burning bush, he refers to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; since God is the God of the living and not the dead, they must have been brought back to life. As it says in the last sentence of the gospel, “for to him (God) all are alive." They are not resuscitated, that is brought back to their former way of life, nor is the resurrection some time in the future. They are currently alive in a different mode of existence.


Although the Sadducees didn’t believe in resurrection, some Jews did, as early as 2 centuries before Jesus. In the first reading from 2Maccabees, 7 brothers and their mother are arrested and tortured to try and make them eat pork. Each one in turn refused, and all died horribly, with their mother being the last to be tortured and killed.


What would motivate them to do this? If there were no resurrection, why would they bother? If all were blackness and nothingness after death, why not just give in and eat pork? The answer comes in verse 9: “You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying.”


They believed that if they remained faithful, even through great pain, that God who would raise them to eternal life would reward them. We as Christians have that same evidence with the many martyrs in our tradition.


To me, with resurrection, the world makes sense. Resurrection is a great sign of hope for us. It tells us that we have a God who is intimately and personally involved in each and every life, who cares for us and tells us the best way to live through the teachings of Jesus Christ His Son, a Son that died to take away our sins and offer us new life in this age and eternal life in the age to come, and who sends His Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen us along the way to be the best disciples along the way.


Imagine what the world would be like if every one tried to live as Jesus taught. Imagine if every one forgave those who hurt them; if we asked for forgiveness when we hurt someone else; if we sacrificed for the good of others; if we all shared what we had with those in need; if we were always kind and never talked behind someone’s back or tried to slander them; if we respected everyone’s property; if we could eliminate prejudice in all it’s forms; if we could recognize all people as God’s children, treating them with love as God does; if everyone were honest; and if we were more concerned about the welfare of others than ourselves, to mention a few things.


The resurrection tells us that if we all lived like this, there is the possibility of a better life and a better world. If we all lived a resurrected life our streets would be safe; our children would have good schools; our court backlog could be reduced; we could have fair laws, honest politicians, and good judges; we could trust people, and our lives in general would be greatly enhanced and improved.


We need to acknowledge a God who gives us his word in scripture so we know how to live our lives and organize our society. I believe that scripture is God’s “owners manual.” To learn how to operate a new car, we should read the owner’s manual. To learn how to operate our lives, we should read the bible. In the bible God tells us the best way to live, and if we organize our lives and our society around these principles, we will have the best lives and the best society.


All of this is the reason why resurrection is necessary and essential for our survival. God is systematically being eliminated from our society and public life in recent decades. Faith and religion is in the private sphere and is only an opinion. What happens when we eliminate God? Look at it this way. Darkness doesn’t exist by itself, but is the measure of light, specifically the lack of light. When a room is totally dark, or pitch black, as we would say, there is no light at all. Neither does cold exist by itself; it is the absence of heat. What takes the place of God as God is eliminated in our lives? The absence of God is evil, which doesn’t exist by itself, but is the lack of God in our hearts and lives.


On one hand, we have made great strides in improving our society, such as in women’s rights and the rights of minorities and I believe God inspires these changes; certainly Dr Martin Luther king was a man of great faith working for improvement in the lives of African Americans.


But on the other hand, as we eliminate God more and more from our society and lives, when God becomes only an option and not a necessity, when faith is private and not public, we end up with evil, such as abortion on demand, euthanasia, unsafe streets, rampant drugs, pornography, predators, an increase in poverty, theft of our identity, belongings, and even our health and lives, just to mention a few things.


If there is no resurrection (and therefore no God) how do we organize our lives? Who determines what is just and right?


This is why it is important to keep religion and faith as a viable part of our societal sphere. I am not advocating that we should all be one religion, but that we should all believe and practice a faith to which God call us. While religions are wildly divergent on matters of theology and worship, we have a common consensus on matters of morality. All the virtues listed previously could come from any faith tradition, and even from the natural law, the law that God places in our hearts.


Without the resurrection, life is hopeless: there is nothing permanent and viable for all time on which to base our laws, regulate our lives, or build our society except the lowest common denominator, the most popular opinions, and the loudest voices. If death is the end, why follow any law, except to avoid jail? Why not take advantage of people and events if there are no eternal consequences? Don’t good guys finish last? Why not think of number 1 first? Why not get away with whatever I can?


I choose not to live like that because that is no way to live. I choose Christ regardless of the cost because that is the way to live. Christ shows me the way to a better life and the Holy Spirit guides me and gives me the strength to live that life. Since Christ paid the price for my sins, I can ask and receive forgiveness for any sin I commit, no matter how bad it is, knowing that I’ll be forgiven. As long as I try my best (and what else can God ask of me?) I know that some day I will participate in the resurrection.


Can anyone tell me a better way to peace, happiness, and meaning in this life, as well as the reward of eternal life? I’m all ears.



Fr. Phil