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JUNE 5, 2013  ST. BONIFACE, bishop and martyr

  

     One after another, the opponents of Jesus come forward to test him.  We have seen the chief priests-scribes-elders, the Pharisees-Herodians, and now we encounter the Sadducees.  This group came from aristocratic priestly folks in Jerusalem.  They had a "live and let live" relationship with the Romans which enabled them to maintain their status as an elite.  Their distinguishing mark was that they did not accept any scriptural tradition or oral tradition outside the first five books of the scriptures - the Torah (or "Pentateuch").  The Pharisees, however, did accept other scriptures and traditions.  [St. Paul would later take advantage of this difference to cause a riot and escape - Acts 23:6-10].  In today's gospel scripture, the Sadducees bring an absurd question in an effort to trap Jesus.  The Jewish law called "the levirate law" was designed to continue a family.  The fact situation, however, is designed to prove there is no resurrection from the dead because it would create a later absurd situation.  Jesus replies that the "later" situation presumes continuance of the earthly one, and that presumption is not correct.  Furthermore, the Sadducees failed to see in the Torah that God, in speaking to Moses, mentions Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as if they are still alive!  Therefore there must be life after death!

     All of this could serve as interesting rabbinical (and Christian) theological debate, but the intent of the story is to show the growing tension between Jesus and his opponents and that he has the power of God to make determinations!  The references to angels and resurrection from the dead, however, should give us a bit of a pause because we might let them go by in our fascination with the scene!  The community was already accepting both as a matter of faith!  Do we?   AMEN