The
passage we just heard about one bride for 7 brothers sounds weird to our modern
ears. While technically it was feasible that a woman could be married to 7
brothers, one at a time, it is highly improbable.
But
this reading isn’t about brides or brothers. This passage shows the increasing
tension between the Sadducees and Jesus. The Sadducees were the group in charge
of the temple. And the Sadducees took the Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Bible
as we have it, as their sacred scripture. That is the books of Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, for the Sadducees, these were the books
that mattered. As Resurrection isn’t explicitly mentioned, then it isn’t a part
of their belief.
In
asking Jesus the question about marriage and resurrection, they are trying to
show the absurdity of the idea of resurrection, and trying to catch Jesus out. ‘Their
question is premised on the assumption that eternal life is an endless state of
“more of the same.”[i]’
I
have had people ask me, will someone with a disability still have that
disability in resurrection life? The question makes the same mistake as the Sadducees,
that is that resurrection life looks like this life.
Here
is a story:
Story: Waterbugs
and Dragonflies: Explaining Death to Young Children"
by
Doris Stickney
From: "Waterbugs and Dragonflies:
Explaining Death to Young Children"
by Doris Stickney
https://www.rainbowsbridge.com/belovedhearts/stories/doris-waterbugsanddragonflies-632617144169637500.aspx
