The God of the Living

The God of the Living

Lk 20: 27 – 38

32^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Introduction

Our Gospel reading is about Jesus clarifying some questions that  some Sadducees posed to him about the resurrection. Jesus’ response is both an affirmation of the resurrection and an insight into the kind of life that awaits us.

The Gospel

²⁷ Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him ²⁸ and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man^[a] shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. ²⁹ Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; ³⁰ then the second ³¹ and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. ³² Finally the woman also died. ³³ In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”
³⁴ Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; ³⁵ but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. ³⁶ Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. ³⁷ And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. ³⁸ Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” ³⁹ Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 

Reflection

Today’s reading gives us an insight into the afterlife. As Christians, we believe in the afterlife primarily because Jesus himself rose from the dead. Without the resurrection of Jesus, our faith would make no sense at all, says St. Paul, and we would be the most wretched of all people because our faith would be dead if indeed Jesus didn’t rise from death. 

While it may be easier for us today to believe in the afterlife, it wasn’t so at the time of Jesus. In Jesus’ time, not all believed in the afterlife. A particular religious group, called the Sadducees, did not believe in the resurrection. This is why, perhaps, in our reading today, these very same group approached Jesus and posed to him a question about the afterlife. Actually, it was not really a question; it was more of a presentation of a hypothetical case involving a woman whose husband died and who subsequently married her brothers- in- law in the process.

Their hypothetical case ended with a question that Jesus had to answer: “in the resurrection, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.” Their case was apparently based on Deut 25: 5 – 6, which required a man to raise up offspring for a brother who has died. However, following their line of reasoning and the question they posed to the Lord, it seems that they were not really looking for clarifications; they wanted merely to show to Jesus and to their audience how ridiculous it would have been to believe in the resurrection if such were the case. 

But Jesus clarifies and even corrects this kind of perception about the afterlife, in two stages:

First, when he said: “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.”

Jesus was telling them that the afterlife could never be comparable to our earthly life. The afterlife is not a mere repetition or an extension of the life we have here on earth. Life there would not have the same earthly assumptions. Life there would completely be different and be completely transformed. This transformation is affirmed by Jesus when he says: ” Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.” In the afterlife, one can no longer think of birth or death or pro-creation or marriage. The children of the resurrection will have a completely transformed life like those of the angels.

Second, Jesus corrects our common perception that those who have gone to the afterlife are dead. Jesus corrects this when he says: “Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” This statement means that even if Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have long been dead, God still calls himself the God of these people whom he considers not dead but alive. And because God considers these people still alive, God rightfully calls himself, the God of the living and not of the dead. 

This reading clarifies our perception of the afterlife in the following way:

First, we shouldn’t think of the afterlife as a mere extension of our earthly life where we imagine ourselves having the same physical needs there in heaven. Jesus somehow tells us that it is much much better than that. He tells us that we will be like the angels, sons and daughters of the resurrection who will no longer face death and suffering; there in that paradise, we shall no longer shed any tear because the Lord himself will wipe away all our tears. There in that place which he had prepared for us, there will simply be joy and happiness and unimaginable love from God who has incredibly loved us.  Such a beautiful place is simply beyond our imagination.

Second, we have to think of death as simply a passage from one form of life to another; from an earthly life to a new life in heaven. In both cases, it is still life. In our Christian belief, death is just a moment when our physical bodies die. But it is in death where we continue to live, believing that the Lord has created us for himself for all eternity. Even in death, we live in the Lord. This becomes our source of hope because even if we die, we shall continue to live in the Lord. 

Our reading speaks to us about the end times; times when finally, in death we shall meet God face to face. Death for us, while really a sad and sorrowful moment for anyone, must be for all men and women of faith a moment of new life that is possible only because of Him who has died and has risen for our sake. Because we have died with him, we shall also rise up with him and meet him in that kingdom that knows no end. 

Prayer

Dear Jesus, death is a frightening thing. But today, you describe the afterlife is such beautiful terms that it is almost impossible for me to imagine how beautiful the afterlife could be. Perhaps I think of death as a sad moment because I am leaving my earthly life and all the good things that I’ve had in it. But here you are, telling me to correct my perception about death; that it is actually life once more, this time transformed in unimaginably beautiful ways. Teach me, God of life, to know that those who believe in you will not see death, but life eternal. Amen.

^“ If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. “– Rom 14: 8