"MORAL CONCERNS" 

Our Gospel reading today brings us into the middle of a controversy of that day. This controversy in involved whether or not there was Biblical authority concerning the resurrection of the dead. This may seem like dry stuff to us today, but it was an important concern of that day and age. There were many faithful Jews who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. There were many others who did. The surface issue revolved around what happens to you when you die. The underlying issue though involved how Scripture was to be interpreted.

The Sadducees' question about the widow and her seven husband-brothers and her infertility refers to Deuteronomy 26 verse 5 were it says that if a man died childless, his brother must marry the widow, get her pregnant and raise the child as the dead brother's so as to carry on that hereditary line. Well, besides being terribly misogynistic, the Sadducees were baiting Jesus to pick a side in the controversy of the day.... The Sadducees were strict constructionists. They believed only in the written words as they were found in the five books of the Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Sadducees were very literal in their understanding of those written words. In those Five Books of Moses, the Sadducees claimed they could find no proof about a doctrine of resurrection.  

The Pharisees, another group of religious types in Jesus' day and age, argued that in addition to the written tradition of Scripture as found in those Five Books of Moses, there was also the oral tradition passed down by the prophets. The Pharisees did believe in resurrection based on their non-literal understanding of the five Books of the Torah and the prophetic writings. So, we're immersed in a "controversy of the day" in today's Gospel.

Jesus decided to take a broader view in response to the Sadducees. The way Jesus answered had not been considered by either the Sadducees or the Pharisees. Jesus reasoned that the enormity of the love of God transcends even the written words of Scripture. God did not abandon Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to death. These men were God's beloved in the Torah. Jesus says that to God, these three individuals are alive. Jesus also says that we cannot think of heaven in terms of this earth, or this place. Life in heaven will be far different, because we will be different. Although difficult to accept, Jesus is saying two things here: that sometimes it is better to recognize the mystery of the unknown; and that there are limitations to our own understanding. Luke Timothy Johnson says that Jesus is saying that there is a "radical discontinuity" between the Kingdom of God that Jesus is proclaiming and the shallow human expectations of what the messiah and heaven will be like.