For Sunday
Proper 27C
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.
Reading
Reflection
This week’s gospel takes place in Jerusalem during the time we think of as Holy Week, which means Jesus is at the Temple teaching and being confronted by leaders. We need to remember this context so that we can see how the Sadducees double the bad faith in their argument by asking Jesus to prove something they already don’t believe in. They aren’t there to have a dialogue. There is no chance that Jesus will persuade them to see things his way. There purpose is to trap him and discredit him. Anything short of that is a loss for them.
Today, when we look back at these passages, we are hoping to glean some wisdom from Jesus. Often hoping against hope that, despite the dishonesty of the questioners, Jesus might offer a true response. I want us to be clear that we’re asking a lot out of Jesus and we should ask some more out of ourselves in return: that we remember the question is asked in bad faith and we best not erase the evil embedded within it.
Jesus changes the narrative, however, by suggesting the question itself utterly misrepresents God, resurrection, life, nature, and even the very purpose of our common faith tradition. In other words, he paints them for fools. And he reminds the crowd gathered at the Temple that life isn’t only marriage, that eternity isn’t marriage, and that the nature of all things isn’t the legal code and, as we might say today, the piece of paper.
We are children of God, participating in a grand project, not selfish individuals, paired for eternity in private lives. The distinction Jesus raises, is not about the conditions of laws and the preservation if inequality in the great hereafter, but in the embodiment of God’s dream in the people here and throughout eternity. Those with eyes to see will recognize the picture Jesus is painting. Those who don’t will need to keep studying and maybe they will get there.