Gospel: Luke 20:27-40
Then some Sadducees arrived. These people claim that there is no resurrection, and they asked Jesus this question, “Master, in the law Moses told us, ‘If anyone dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother must take the wife, and any child born to them will be regarded as the child of the deceased.’ Now, there were seven brothers: the first married, but died without children. The second married the woman, but also died childless. And then the third married her, and in this same way all seven died, leaving no children. Last of all the woman died. On the day of the resurrection, to which of them will the woman be a wife? For all seven had her as a wife.”
And Jesus replied, “Taking a husband or a wife is proper to people of this world, but for those who are considered worthy of the world to come, and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage. Besides, they cannot die, for they are like the angels. They are sons and daughters of God, because they are born of the resurrection.
Yes, the dead will be raised, as Moses revealed at the burning bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. For God is God of the living, and not of the dead, for to him everyone is alive.”

Reflections
“God of the living, and not of the dead, for to him everyone is alive.”
The Sadducees represent one of the two prominent factions in the time of Jesus. The other one is the group known as the Pharisees. While they share religious fervor and adherence to the Je- wish faith, they differ in doctrinal matters. The Sadducees believed only in the things found in the writings of Moses, namely, the Torah. The Pharisees on the other hand believed in the Torah and other beliefs coming from oral tradition, which includes faith in the resurrection and the angels. In the gospel, the inquiring Sadducees must have felt scorned by the response of Jesus: there is a resurrection and angels exist.
The resurrection is the firm assurance of our hope in the life to come. Many of us are scared of “passing away” because it seems to point to vanishing and disappearance. But the God of life, Jesus, consistently points to our “passing on” from this life to the next. Of course it’s not a continuation of earthly life (e.g. those who are married here will not be husbands and wives there) but a new and fuller life. Jesus affirms the existence of an- gels, too. We will be like angels, with life not threatened by death anymore. But we will not become angels.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2019