The Gospel for All Saints Sunday (November 7, 2004)
Luke 20:27-38
Some Sadducees—those who argue that there is no resurrection—approached him and they put this question to him, ‘Master, Moses prescribed for us, if a man’s married brother dies childless, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Well then, there were seven brothers; the first, having married a wife, died childless. The second and then the third married the widow. And the same with all seven, they died leaving no children. Finally the woman herself died. Now, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?’ Jesus replied, ‘The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are children of God. And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him everyone is alive.’ -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
A Study
This is an interesting and somewhat ironic setup trying to trap Jesus, once again. Sadducees, who have no belief in a resurrection, ask Jesus who, at the resurrection, would be married to the widow. This provides a segue for Jesus to correct their thinking as well as to define the state of those humans who have been resurrected and to reveal that all humans share in God's love.
A Reflection
It appears that the Sadducees were trying to prove to Jesus how ridiculous the Pharisaic arguments for resurrection and angels and spirits were. Instead, Jesus, referring to the Pentateuch, uses the Sadducees' own understanding of the Law to prove to them the invalidity of their arguments.
This text also opens up another insight: when, in the creeds, we refer to the "quick and the dead," we somehow think of those alive now and those who have lived before as in two different camps. Instead, Jesus tells us that all of God's human creatures are numbered among "the living."
Thornton Wilder's Our Town depicts a small village and its residents; some of them die, and we are given a glimpse into their condition -- the dead -- after a while. I am uncertain as to whether it is a good thing or not that most of us have this drama as our only view of what it must be like while we are waiting for the resurrection -- if we have to wait at all. Wilder created a place that was neither pleasant nor unpleasant for the formerly living, a sort of Limbo in which they could see what was going on with each other and with those they left, but were not motivated to interact.
The sad fact is that we have no similar picture from the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament. The various denominations have come up with some suppositions and conjectures, but that's all they are, and some of them theorize about things that are scary. The Roman Catholic church has the concept of Limbo for unbaptized babies, for example; where did that come from?
Of course, when we anthropomorphize God -- try to put Him in human terms -- we fall dreadfully short, since He exceeds us in all dimensions. But human is the only objective standard we have. And against that standard, what purpose does it serve God to stack us up in Limbo or Purgatory when He could have us with Him in His Kingdom?
Let us then do justice, and love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.
The Collect
O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
8:24:24 PM 
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