Luke 20:27 – 40 Resurrection

Luke 20:27 – 40 Resurrection

Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to him, 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 '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." Some of the scribes said in reply, "Teacher, you have answered well." And they no longer dared to ask him anything.

The plot to try to discredit Jesus proceeds, this time with the Sadducees as the instigators. They construct this highly unlikely scenario of brothers and widows - times seven. Jesus answers patiently that in the age to come our past relationships and situations no longer apply. After resurrection we are not this one’s wife or that one’s husband. I imagine we also leave all our infirmities behind – age, illness, disability. No one knows for certain what it and we will be like. Resurrection itself is a matter of faith, but I like to think we will be bright souls, purified and buoyant individuals, forgiven for our past transgressions and judged for our good works and good qualities. Wouldn’t that be nice? What do you think?