19 November 2016 - to him all are alive

[ Today's Readings ]

The Sadducees can't accept the resurrection because it is too different from their current perspective. They really just imagine a prolonging of life as they now know it. But the resurrection is quite different.

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. 

The resurrection reveals that much of our earthly life is temporary. It leads us toward our final destiny. But it itself is not that destiny. Marriage is an image, a map, and grace to propel us on in the direction of that destiny. It is a wonderful way to learn to live in selfless love. But we learn it so that we can ultimately consummate the still greater marriage between the Lamb and his Bride.

Jesus tells us that we have to be willing to lose this mortal life to gain eternal life. This is the thing with which the Sadducees, and indeed we ourselves have trouble. This is why the witnesses of the LORD can be so difficult to endure. It gets to a point that the "inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts" when the LORD's witnesses are silenced.

Ultimately, though, the message cannot be silenced. For the LORD is the Living God, eternally alive, and wants to reveal himself to the world.

he is not God of the dead, but of the living,
for to him all are alive.

His witnesses may even be killed. This silences them at the time. But in God's design it makes their message all the more potent and effective. Let us learn from them that we have nothing to fear. Let us learn to trust in the LORD.

My mercy and my fortress,
my stronghold, my deliverer,
My shield, in whom I trust,
who subdues my people under me.