URC Daily Devotion 29 March 2025

St Luke 20: 27 – 39

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and 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. 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 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 any more, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And 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. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.’ Then some of the scribes answered, ‘Teacher, you have spoken well.’  For they no longer dared to ask him another question.

Reflection

The first paragraph here is a typical, ‘Let’s try and catch Jesus out’, passage!  Although the scenario sounds a bit extreme, this is an issue which is quite pertinent to modern society with so many second or third marriages, blended families etc. Indeed this is a passage which came very much to my mind when, over 20 years ago, my husband and I were talking about the possibility of marriage. He was a widower and older than me. One of the very practical things we needed to discuss was where he would be buried. Would I be happy with him being buried with his late wife? That would clearly be important for their children, but what about me? 
 
In my years as a hospital chaplain one of the questions people often wrestled with was what it would be like after they had died. It is a natural question, but inevitably one coming out of this world’s experiences. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. Jesus is politely telling them they need to shift their mindsets! Jesus is clear. The way things are in the heavenly realm cannot be described in earthly terms; but Jesus is also clear that those we call dead are in fact alive, albeit in a different way. God is God of the living, here and hereafter. Therefore, in God we can place our trust, for now and for the beyond. 
 
As for me, I was able to say with no hesitation at all, that I was happy, when the time comes, for my husband’s body to be buried with that of his late wife, because I know that will be just his body, and his spirit will have been set free. 

Prayer

God of the here and now,
God of the then and when,
in the complexities of this world, 
reassure us that your love extends beyond our earthly understanding, 
and that in Christ all shall be made alive. 
Amen

(cf 1 Cor 15:22)