The group of people that commonly opposed Jesus were the Pharisees. But in Luke
20:27 we see Jesus being questioned by some Sadducees. These were people that
belonged to another sect in Judaism, made up of mainly wealthy, priestly
aristocrats. And they did not believe in the doctrine of the resurrection.
They came to Jesus painting a hypothetical
scenario. Their reference was the levirate marriage recorded in
Deuteronomy 25:5-6. The law states the awkward responsibility of a man who had
to marry his dead brother's wife, to produce an heir for him. They described to
Jesus a scene of seven dead brothers who were married to the same woman, who
left none of them an heir. And finally that woman also died. They mockingly
asked the Lord whose wife she would be at the resurrection.
The scenario painted was a total
absurdity. If it had really happened, the woman would have been the prime
suspect of seven murders. The fact that they didn't believe in the doctrine of
the resurrection makes it clear that they had an ulterior motive. They
were skeptics and their real intention was to discredit the doctrine of the
resurrection of the dead. Jesus' answers to them revealed a few things to us
that there is a world after this earthly life is over. Unlike earthly life, the
resurrected has no marriage, neither will people be given in marriage, as there
would be no necessity for procreation. Significant changes would take place in
the resurrected life. Like angels, those who attain it would live endlessly. In
that resurrected life, we belong to the larger family of God. The resurrected life is for those found
worthy by God.
Pointing to the Exodus account where
God confronted Moses with the burning bush, Jesus said, God revealed Himself as
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He was basically asserting that the
Patriarchs are alive with God, they are in another dimension. They are alive
with God even now. Here the Scribes applauded Him but the Sadducees' position
was debunked and they kept silent.
The Sadducees showed that they did
not know the Scriptures. Hence they were ignorant of His power. What about us?
Do we know the Scriptures? If we do, then the whole resource of heaven is at
our disposal. Truly Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He is the God
of the living. Because we are in Christ, He has written the resurrected life
indelibly in our soul.
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