Lenten Bible Study #14

THE QUESTION ABOUT THE RESURRECTION

3^RD Monday of Lent

Read Matthew 22:23-33.

Why did the Sadducees present such a ridiculous question?  Describe their attitude and motives.

Do you ever try to lay a trap for God, perhaps by bargaining?  (i.e., God, if you let me win the lottery, I’ll go to mass every Sunday.  I didn’t win the lottery so I guess God doesn’t want me to go to mass.)  If so, what are your motives?

Notes on the text:

The Jewish religious leadership was divided into two groups in Jesus’ day.  The Sadducees, consisting mainly of the priests and scribes in the Temple, did not believe in an afterlife or in the resurrection of the dead.  The Pharisees, the rabbis and scribes who taught in the synagogues, believed there was an afterlife and that the dead would someday be resurrected.  After the fall of the Temple in 70 CE, belief in an afterlife and the resurrection of the dead became the predominant line of thinking in Judaism.

The Law in verse 24 comes from Deuteronomy 25:5.

Just as the Pharisees were attempting to set Jesus up in the last passage, so the Sadducees are trying to set him up in this passage.  The question is an attempt to get Jesus to deny the resurrection of the dead.  The situation presented is ridiculous.

Jesus chides the Sadducees for not knowing the scriptures.  He reminds them that God self identifies as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, patriarchs long dead physically.  Jesus also points out that the resurrection is a different state of being where marriage and the fruits of marriage are unnecessary.