Reflection for November 23 Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time: Luke 20:27-40

Gospel: Luke 20:27-40

Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. 

Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.” Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 

They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Some of the scribes said in reply, “Teacher, you have answered well.” And they no longer dared to ask him anything.

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Reflection:

Why are we striving to live a life worthy in the eyes of God? We do it because we believe in the resurrection. We believe that after our life in this world is already over we would have a new life that is very much different from our present life right now. 

The Sadducees who do not believe in the resurrection put in front of Jesus a situation about a woman who married one after the other seven brothers. Their question for Jesus was to whom would the woman belong after all of them dies? Would she belong to brother number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7?

They’ve asked this question to prove to everyone that there is no resurrection. Otherwise if there is a resurrection then there would be a dilemma for the woman and the seven brothers who married her. 

But Jesus incisively answered the Sadducees that life in the resurrection is very much different from their present lives. During the resurrected life there would be no more marriage, no more death for everyone will be like angels according to Jesus. 

We must all aspire for this resurrected life that Jesus mentions to us in the gospel. We start by living a life founded in our close relationship with Jesus. A life that is clean and righteous before the eyes of God and men.    

Is your present lifestyle worthy of resurrection in heaven with Jesus someday? - Marino J. Dasmarinas