Thirty-second Sunday - 2019

Sadducees were one of the leading parties of the Jewish people in the first century AD. – small group, but they were very powerful and influential – people of high level, high ranking, very powerful, Jewish priests—who were functionaries in the temple, but who were also wealthy aristocrats in the city of Jerusalem. Now these Sadducees denied certain beliefs that were common to the Jewish people—the first one being the resurrection of the dead – they did not believe in any form of afterlife – once you died, that was it. You ceased to be. (Sound familiar?) They also did not believe in the inspiration of certain books of the Bible. They only accepted the first five books of the Bible, commonly called the books of Moses or the Pentateuch—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And they didn’t accept what we refer to today as the historical books, or the writings of the prophets—like Isaiah, Jeremiah. Jesus is teaching that there is to be a resurrection of the dead – a new eternal life to come. However, the resurrection Jesus is proclaiming is far beyond the notion of resurrection that the Pharisees believed and taught, or what the Sadducees understood as resurrection. So here the Sadducees are trying to entangle Jesus teaching by pitting it against the teaching of Moses. "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. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her." Jesus answers straight forwardly (. . . the resurrection we believe in today) Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but 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. Indeed, they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection”. Today our belief in the resurrection of the dead is being challenged and denied, not by Sadducees but a more virulent and dangerous group – the secular atheists of today; their argument is rooted in a new kind of scientism – seeing is proof – you say you believe where is your scientific proof. Like the argument of the Sadducees the argument of scientism is hopelessly narrow – admitting only one source of knowledge – empirical science. For us gathered here today we may not feel adequate enough to take on this debate. Fortunately, we have the support of the Church and therein are many who are more than capable of dealing with scientism and all the other deniers out there. However, we must be careful about where we get our information, even that which claims to be that of the Church. In the “wild west of the internet” there are plenty who claim to be speaking in the name of the Church – as well as some who attack the teaching of the Holy Father. Satan is real and his method is “divide and conquer”. Just look at the political scene today. Hear again: “You are Peter and upon this rock I build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” (Matt. 16:18, as well as 1 Cor. 3:11, Eph. 2:20, 1 Pet. 2:5–6, Rev. 21:14).

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