The resurrection and marriage Luke 20:27-38

Luke 20:27-38 Gospel reflections for Sunday 7th November 2010

Well, a lot can happen in a week! (We've suddenly plunged into a fairly "heavy" reading here.) I think it is important for us to fill in the gaps between the Luke 19 Zaccheus Story of last week and this story. Luke follows the Zaccheus incident with

• the parable of the talents
• the massive triumphal entry scene
• Jesus throwing his weight around in the temple cleansing
• Jesus' authority being questioned
• another vineyard parable
• the Pharisees paying taxes to Caesar trap

... we get the impression that this probably all takes place in the space of less than a week ... and now Jesus is set to take on this new group of opponents the Sadducees. (not previously mentioned in Luke's Gospel.)

The Sadducees were a powerful group of people in Jewish Society, but very conservative in their religious views (or perhaps old-fashioned is a better term). They were not really part of main-stream Jewish religion. For them, their world of religious belief was dictated to purely by the Torah - the first five books of the Old Testament. Unless a doctrinal point could be supported by the law of Moses and those five books, it had no basis. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection because there is no basis for it in the Torah.

 (It is interesting that the Pharisees who are perhaps taking a breather and recovering from being put in their place by Jesus are smugly sitting in the wings here, planning their next move, while they enjoy observing Jesus take apart these "new" opponents (see v 39 that follows.)

So what's the point here? Well it seems to me that this passage is about setting the Sadducees straight. The passage is also significant because Jesus is speaking about life after death without using a parable, so we are given a glimpse here of what we are in for. The eye-opening thing is that we are talking a new age way beyond average human comprehension. Jesus clearly gives us a clue that heaven will be nothing like life as we know it here on earth.

For me, I'm happy to let this little battle with the Pharisees and Sadducees slide on through to the keeper ... and rather take some reassurance in a couple of key phrases:

1. ... those who are considered worth of taking part in that age (v 35 ... that's us - we can feel very confident about that as we view things from the opposite side of the cross.)
2. "He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for to him all are alive" (v38)

As we try to put this latest episode into some sort of perspective, can we imagine what emotional turmoil Jesus must have been going through in this sequence of events over the past week (also mindful if what lies ahead for him in the next few days)?

For us today? Not a bad foundation on whom to build our daily life ... someone who walks beside us, provides our source of strength, wisdom and courage to engage with the Pharisees and Sadducees of the 21st Century.

 Have a good week!

Nev