Word to the Wise
Saturday, November 25, 2006 - 33RD SATURDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
[Revelation 11:4-12 and Luke 20:27-40]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........
This is, for me, one of the most entertaining incidents in the New Testament. It is not only a classic bit of rabbinical debate, but the subject itself is one that one could ponder for quite awhile. The Sadducees were a priestly and aristocratic caste in Jerusalem who were very narrow in their acceptance of scripture. They would only recognize the Pentateuch or Torah, the first five books of the Bible, in which they believed there was no reference to a resurrection from the dead. Since they had reason to believe that Jesus often took the position that the Pharisees did, that indeed there is a resurrection, they bring an absurd question to him in hopes of disproving the possibility of a resurrection. (Those who study logic know that the reductio ad absurdum is a fallacy, but in debate and advertising, logic can disappear!) Jesus demolishes their position by pointing out that in the incident of the Burning Bush, God refers to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as if they are alive! If that is so, then there must be life beyond the grave! However, the subject doesn't stop there.because Jesus wants to make the point that marriage is a reality for this world and not for the next. Our own fantasies get a check here because there is always some speculation about what we are going to be like in heaven. Indeed people wonder if their favorite pets or (horrors) their ex-spouse or enemy will be there was well. (They should read Flannery O'Connor's famous story, REVELATION). The "bottom line" for this incident is that resurrection from the dead is a matter of our faith. The best we can know of what heaven is like comes in the words of Jesus: "They can no longer die, for they are like angels...." I guess that's not bad at all. AMEN
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