Seven Brides for One Brother

 

 I don’t think the Sadducees really cared about Jesus’ opinion on resurrection (Luke 20:27-38.) Not unlike some of our political news reporters who ask leading questions for which they already know the answer, the Sadducees tried to embarrass Jesus by having him say something that “contradicts” the Mosaic law. Yet, motives aside, was their question really unreasonable?  

The Sadducees did not believe in man as spiritual beings and viewed the person strictly from a human perspective. Resurrection and life after death were not consistent with their beliefs based on the Torah.   Jewish law determined their stance on women, marriage and procreation. So querying's about remarriage and life after death were intended to trap Jesus fidelity to Mosaic law. 

The Sadducees based their beliefs on the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah or the laws of Moses. However, Moses was dealing in a time and place during which a man was responsible for insuring the preservation of his “tribal” lineage and his family. Jesus’ stance on earthly convention had nothing to do with the laws of Moses. God cannot be defined or confined by man’s laws. We are limited to understand only to the extent that our intellect permits. God does not conform to human understanding or is confined by our earthly dimension.

Of course, in all cultures and especially in Jesus' time, marriage and procreation were crucial to maintaining lineage, stability and survival. Jesus was not rejecting or taking a stand on marriage but rather teaching that marriage is a human social contract and as such is irrelevant in the next “age” in which procreation and adherence to Mosaic law is not applicable or necessary in life eternal. 

 David Steindl-Rast writes in Deeper than Words that “Jesus’ resurrection has nothing to do with coming back to life (as Lazarus did in John’s Gospel). The Nicene and Apostle Creeds do not refer to resurrection as ‘coming back’ to this life. No, resurrection is a sacred movement of life's completion. It’s a new beginning in a new dimension of existence in which the power of love breaks the bonds of death consistent with our humanity. The followers of Jesus knew and experienced the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a life-changing event.”

“For many of us mystery became an adversary; unknowing became a weakness. The contemplative spiritual life is an ongoing reversal of this adjustment. It is a slow and sometimes painful process of becoming ‘little children’ again in which we first make friends with mystery and finally fall in love with it again.”  (Gerald May, Dark Night of the Soul).