Tuesday, February 26

Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. "Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. The second and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?" (Luke 20: 27-33)

The Sadducees are posing this crazy, hypothetical scenario to test Jesus. We see this as a direct challenge to the hope and belief in God’s vision of the afterlife and the resurrection. The Sadducees know that there is no real answer, yet they want to see how Jesus will respond to their question. They do not believe in the resurrection and by asking this question, they expect that their beliefs will be justified. Their proposed sequence of events has the tone of an adversarial debate, one of absurdity that reflects their overall attitude toward Jesus and his followers. The fact that one woman is to be married to all seven brothers throughout her life is indeed ridiculous - and to speculate to whom she will be married at the resurrection seems quite the daunting task.

Reflecting and meditating on this scripture, we were compelled to read further and find out Jesus' response. To paraphrase, Jesus reminds the Sadducees that marriage is of this physical world and temporary – not eternal. For those who believe and have faith in the resurrection and Jesus' teachings, shall be alive and in the presence of God at the resurrection – as His children, of His being – with the Father, not with each other as a married couple. Our marriages, in this world, to one another will not be the defining relationships of our lives in the resurrection. We will be angels in heaven, the children of God. Marriage and reproduction are necessary to life on earth, a world where people die, but they are obsolete concepts in a world where beings live forever.

It is our hope that, even though marriage is not eternal, we who commit ourselves to one another in this life, shall still be together, side by side, as angels of God in the afterlife, surrounded by those we love.

John and Jessica Lenhart