Jesus is in a specific historical situation. He is in Jerusalem knowing that He is about to be arrested and condemned by the leaders of His own people and left alone by His close companions. Yet, He is still self-possessed and trusting. In this encounter with the Sadducees, He is not only teaching, but bearing witness to His own faith in the resurrection. He leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection.
The Levitical Law is far removed from our experience, so we have to work with it. In the culture of this time, the lowly status of women is reinforced. Women found their identity in having children. A woman who had no husband and therefore no children was a nobody. Her inferior status is summed up in the Sadducees’ question ‘To which of them will she be wife?’Which can be interpreted as ‘she has no husband so who will she be?’
This is typical of people who say there is no resurrection. We fall into that category when we define people by their achievements – jobs/ bank accounts/ popularity/ prestige/ fame. We look scornfully at those who have none of these things – or lose them by ‘dying’. Like the Sadducees asking ‘to which of them will she be wife?’
The capitalist system with its emphasis on productivity and consumption says that there is no resurrection. Nations too, can seek their identity in military or economic victories saying that what makes us a great nation is that we are number ONE.
Jesus distinguishes between children of this world and children of the resurrection (there is a bit of both in each of us).
Children of this world focus on achievements. ‘Taking wives and husbands’ does not only refer to marriage but to all of life. We make being perfect the goal of our spiritual life so when we fall into sin we become nobodies.
To the question of ‘whose wife will she be?’ Jesus replies – she was never just somebody’s wife, she was a person in her own right. She is always her own person. This is the real understanding of the resurrection – for us, each person has their own place in heaven. The Father of Jesus is with the Hoy Spirit and that helps Jesus to face death in the knowledge of the resurrection.
If we too listen to Jesus, we will know that all people have within them the seed of immortality, the potential to be truly alive to God and what Father/ Son/ Holy Spirit wants for us.
This week I will pray about the resurrection of Christ.
with love and prayers Fr Michael