Wednesday, June 2, 2021

2 June 2021 - God breathed


Jesus said to them, “Are you not misled
because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?

The Sadducees only accepted as canonical the first five books of Moses, the first books of what we call the Old Testament. In these books they did find any obvious and clear descriptions of the dead being raised. 

For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all (see Acts 23:8).

The Sadducees claimed to disbelieve in the resurrection because they did not find a basis in Scripture. But Jesus told them that they were misled precisely because they didn't really know the Scriptures. The view that they effectively took on Scriptures was that the Torah defined the limits of the power of God. They used the Scriptures as a shield against disruption of the status quo, against anything that would unseat their comfortable position in society. They didn't recognize the purpose of the gift of Scripture to us, and so were misled.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (see Second Timothy 3:16-17).

We must not use Scripture as a limit on God. We are told that, compared with the things about which we read even in the New Testament, "they will do even greater things than these" (see John 14:12). We should try to avoid being selective about which parts of the Bible receive our focus, since it is God breathed in its entirety, deuterocanonical books and all. This means that we must not flee from the difficult passages to those which seem most appealings, from meat to milk, from the apparently bitter to the candy. This approach to Scripture where we are fundamentally in control is always going to come up short. We aren't meant to stand in judgment of Scripture, but rather it of us.

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (see Hebrews 4:12).

Because the dead are in fact raised it changes the way we must relate to the world. We no longer live as those trying to eek out what meager pleasure we can before we die. We no longer see the suffering and hardship of the world as a fundamentally lost cause. Rather, we live so as to open ourselves and the world to the coming Kingdom here and now, as much as we are able. 

We must be cautious so that we do not fixate so much on the legitimate goods of the world that we set them in opposition to the world of eternity. Even marriage is a sign of the greater union between Christ and his Church. Even a good as great as marriage set up in opposition to the Kingdom could potentially devolve into idolatry. The only way to avoid being dominated by a worldly perspective is to know the Scriptures and the power of God in them, in prayer, in the Sacraments, and everywhere. When we really know it and aren't just using Scriptures for our own ends we won't try to put limits on the power of God. We will be just as eager as Jesus to demolish the status quo that stands in opposition to the Kingdom.

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?

Even the parts of the Bible read by the Sadducees contained the truth they denied. But they read these passages as though God himself was in the past, not powerful, not speaking through his word. Jesus showed them that the power of God implied that God ever present, not bound by time, and that even we could be elevated to eternity by our relationship with him.

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (see John 17:3).

Knowing the Scriptures and the power of God can help us not to give up when we are on the edge of despair, just at it did Tobit and Sarah. We may see all around us the apparent evidence of death but can still hold on to the fact that God is the God of the living.

“Blessed are you, O Lord, merciful God,
    and blessed is your holy and honorable name.
    Blessed are you in all your works for ever!”

At that very time, 
the prayer of these two suppliants
was heard in the glorious presence of Almighty God.


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