Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost November 9 2025

Prayer of the Day
O God, our eternal redeemer, by the presence of your Spirit you renew and direct our hearts. Keep always in our mind the end of all things and the day of judgment. Inspire us for a holy life here, and bring us to the joy of the resurrection, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Gospel Reading
Luke 20:27-38 27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to [Jesus] 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 shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman 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.”

Reflections and Commentary
It would be understandable to dismiss the Sadducees’ debate about the resurrection as esoteric and possibly not all that relevant. After all, the Sadducees represent one branch of Judaism that has its own take on things and they had plenty of disagreements with the likes of the Pharisees.

If you’re reading this, you’re getting a bit of bonus material that might make for too long a sermon. So onward….

Who are the Sadducees in relation to the Pharisees?

The Sadducees were the wealthy priestly class. They held that the first five books of the Hebrew scripture called the Pentateuch were the only authoritative teaching. And, as Luke reports, the Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection. The largest public debates were between the Sadducees (who got on find with Rome and liked the existing social order) and the Pharisees.

Pharisees were devout and were primarily ‘lay people’ with credentialed rabbis. They accepted the prophets and wisdom writings as authoritative scripture. The Pharisees did believe in the resurrection. This branch of the faith believed that a righteous life lived in contrast to the occupying rulers (and what a parade of occupiers troops through Israel’s history!) and the dominant culture was the way to honour God and the faith.

And so ??? The Sadducees aren’t asking Jesus about the resurrection because they seek comfort. They want to discredit Jesus. Here’s where setting the scene matters: Jesus and his rag tag band have marched into Jerusalem and he has taken a leaf from the prophets’ (and the reformer Ezra’s) playbook by chasing off the money changers and would be profiteers from the temple. So all the controversies about Jesus’ authority and what he’s about come to a fever pitch and he “gets it from all sides” as varied factions seek to discredit and ultimately kill him.

The “case study”: The scenario in which the brother of a childless widow marries her is called “levirate marriage” (from a latin term for brother-in-law). Such marriages were common and usually produced children, so if the woman had the misfortune of being widowed a second time, her children and late husband’s family would care for her. The question the Sadducees pose seems absurd…how often would one encounter a woman widowed seven times? So in this resurrection that they don’t believe in, the Sadducees want to know who whom the woman would be married in the after life.

Jesus’ response: Jesus takes the question at face value despite the many reasons not to. His teaching can be divided into two parts. First, the resurrected life isn’t like this one. It seems germane that the purpose of marriage in the ancient near east was to unite families as a way of building security and wealth (a social safety net, if you will). In the resurrected life, no need for such safety nets or even any other allegiances that matter in this life. Second, Jesus draws examples from the “Pentateuch” when he speaks about Moses’ encounter with God’s presence in the form of a burning bush. From the brush fire, the Lord self declares as God of Abraham, Sarah and the line of ancestors. Jesus emphasizes that the Holy voice speaks in the present tense. Resurrection versus immortality: So what happens to us when we die? today’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t give much detail about how all of this works and maybe we aren’t really sure what we believe about what happens to us after we die. So what are the possibilities?

Nothing and that’s it The body dies and our consciousness lives on (immortality) You die…the whole kit and kaboodle and then you’re resurrected. The ancient Hebrews believed that body and soul were indivisible. So back to the ages old debate—if the self is body and ‘soul’ then what happens to that whole self after death? Resurrection?

You have to die to be resurrected. Maybe we are like we were before we were born. To quote from a decades old conversation a teacher had with his young son, “You mean (before I was born) I was no place?” Perhaps resurrection takes us from ‘no place’ to new life.

And so…. What do we mean when we say we believe in the resurrection of the body? What difference does it make anyway? Is enough that Jesus reminds us of God’s claim on us as God of the living? How does that affect how we live? How does all of this speculation inform the ways in which we love God and neighbour (and Jesus, the prophets and Moses talk a lot about that)?

Where do you find comfort and hope? Do we just ‘gut it out’ until the Sweet by and by (whatever that looks like) becomes our post earth reality? Where is God NOW? What implications does God of the living have for the life you are living right now? These questions are the ones we fuss with and live with and frankly are probably much more fraught than the silly scenario the Sadducees toss Jesus’ way.

As now, so then There are headstones in cemeteries with a verse that reads: As you are now I once was As I am now, you will eventually be.

The generations pass. We come and we go. As people of faith, we cling to scriptures and Jesus’ words that where he is we will be (John 14)—So the God of the living in whom we trust in this life is the same God that abides—-how ever it happens—in whatever happens after this life.