Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

Luke 20: 27 - 38 in its biblical context

The Sadducees were a powerful group within Judaism, made up of both the lay and priestly aristocracy.  The Sadducees had control of the Sanhedrin, the Jews’ supreme council.  The chief priests who want Jesus dead, and who serve on the council of elders and on the Sanhedrin, are Sadducees.  The Sadducees do not believe in the resurrection.  The question of life after death was a point of disagreement within Judaism at this time.  In this Gospel, the Sadducees argue their point of view with Jesus.

The Sadducees base their argument against the possibility of resurrection on the law (the first five books of the Old Testament).  The Sadducees remind Jesus that the law requires a man to raise up an heir in the name of his brother should the brother die without having children (see Deut 25:5). The thinking behind this law was that since there is no life beyond earth, the way to give meaning to one’s life and to extend it into the future was to have offspring.  If a man died childless, his family had the obligation to raise up an heir in his name.  The Sadducees then point out that under no circumstances would it be considered moral for a woman to have more than one husband at a time.  If there is life after death, wouldn’t obedience to the law result in multiple husbands?  Obviously, this would be wrong.  Therefore there can be no life after death. 

In response to this argument Jesus first challenges the Sadducees’ assumption that life after resurrection is simply a continuation of life as it has been experienced on earth where people who have been married are still married.  On earth people do enter into marriage to have children.  Without procreation human life would not continue at all.  However, in the world to come procreation will not be necessary to continue human life because people will not die. Because resurrection means life, there is no need for sons to carry on the family name.   “They can no longer die, for they are like angels.”  The Sadducees’ assumption that people are married in the world to come is wrong.  With no need for sons, there was no need for marriage in the age to come.  The absurdity of multiple marriages does not disprove resurrection; resurrection makes remarriage unnecessary.  Next Jesus turns to the one authority he knows the Sadducees will accept, the same authority they used in posing their question: the law.  Jesus points out that in the story of the burning bush, God is called the “God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”(Ex 3:6).  Since God is the God of the living, not the God of the dead, these patriarchs must still be alive.  Therefore, Moses himself showed that the dead rise again.  Notice that when Jesus speaks of those who are judged worthy of a place in the resurrection he says that they do not marry, not that they will not marry: “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.”  In other words, Jesus implies that for some “the age to come” is already present.  The passage may be a hint that a vocation to the single life derives some of its meaning from the fact that it is a sign in this world of “the age to come.”

Reflection

As baptised Christians, we align ourselves with Jesus who teaches resurrection and eternal life share with him in glory.  Nonetheless, our belief in Jesus and the resurrection makes eternal life no less a mystery.  We believe, however, because Jesus has died and risen.  He has gone before us.  He has shown us the way.  His victory is our sure hope.  Our choices today about whether we follow Jesus faithfully and live gospel values by dying to ourselves reveal the extent of our own hope in sharing in Jesus’ risen life.

In the gospel, the Sadducees are putting a question to Jesus in accord with their belief that this life is all there is.  In no uncertain terms Jesus affirms resurrection and eternal life. 

We live in a world beset by evil and filled with life-threatening situations.  It is hope in a future that God will provide which upholds and sustains us and guides us in the choices to be faithful to the Gospel, no matter what we face.

We do face “death” every day: dying to self.  Gospel living, then, is more than a matter of religious practices.  Gospel living means that we align ourselves with Jesus’ living and dying.  He modelled for us the self-sacrificing giving which leads to eternal life. 

Questions for Faith-Sharing Groups

printable version