Luke 20:27-38 (NRSV)
Read Luke 20:27-38 on biblegateway.com
Verse 27Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him Verse 28and 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. Verse 29Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; Verse 30then the second Verse 31and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Verse 32Finally the woman also died. Verse 33In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her." Verse 34Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; Verse 35but 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. Verse 36Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. Verse 37And 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. Verse 38Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive."
Devotion
In this story, we observe as a group of Sadducees, members of the aristocracy and self-appointed guardians of the temple, sought to pull Jesus into a "family fight." They were distinguished from the party of the Pharisees, believing only what was revealed in the written Torah, thus rejecting the oral Torah, or traditions held by the Pharisees. Sadducees told stories like this one to ridicule the belief in resurrection and life after death. How can the dead be raised, if they can't tell who is married to whom? Jesus settles the argument answering that the book of Exodus teaches the resurrection, describing Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as "alive to God." And as if to confirm the point, our Lord goes to the cross and is raised from the dead, in a surprising reversal of all those arguments that would seek to challenge God's power to make all things new.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, make me an instrument of your peace this day. Where there is discord, use me to sow seeds of harmony. Amen.