Daily Gospel Reflection
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June 5, 2024
Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection,
came to Jesus and put this question to him, 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 and died, leaving no descendants.
So the second brother married her and died, leaving no descendants,
and the third likewise.
And the seven left no descendants.
Last of all the woman also died.
At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be?
For all seven had been married to her.”
Jesus said to them, “Are you not misled
because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
When they rise from the dead,
they neither marry nor are given in marriage,
but they are like the angels in heaven.
As for the dead being raised,
have you not read in the Book of Moses,
in the passage about the bush, how God told him,
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob?
He is not God of the dead but of the living.
You are greatly misled.”
Upon reading this passage, I did a double-take. Jesus just identified God the Father as the God of three dead men—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and then said that he is not, in fact, the God of the dead but of the living! With these surprising words, Jesus draws us back to the patriarchs and Moses to teach us about resurrection.
At the time when Moses encounters the burning bush, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob live on, as promised, in their descendants, the Israelites. The enslaved Israelites thirst for the new life of the promised land. To raise them to this new life, God sends plagues upon Pharaoh, institutes the Passover meal, and saves them through the lamb’s blood marking their doorposts.
Only two chapters after today’s gospel, Jesus will celebrate this great Passover feast with his disciples, this time transforming the feast through the institution of the Eucharist and consummating it in his Blood shed on the cross. The Eucharist saves us, not simply preserving our earthly life as in the Passover but lifting us to eternal life.
Moses demanded to be set free. Yet how often do I become so comfortable with my sins that I don’t even ask to be set free? That would take effort, trust, and self-knowledge, which I am often loath to cultivate. In my pride, I neglect the God who has humbled himself unto death and has marked the doorposts of my heart with his Eucharistic Blood. He rose in the flesh and is waiting in every tabernacle of the world for hearts that long to be set free and to belong wholly to him. He himself is not dead, nor is he God of the dead but of those he has brought to new life.
Prayer
Lord, grant us the same wisdom you showed your questioners. First, let us come to know the Lord God in his mercy and providence for us; second, let us glimpse the message of your never-ending care for what we say and do. You are the creator of us all, and we are in your hands. Trust should mark our relationship with you, and thanksgiving for your mercy toward us, even in the foolishness of our sins.