DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
Saint Luke 20:27-44
(12/5-12/18) Monday of
the Twenty-ninth Week after Pentecost
Denying Resurrection: Saint Luke 20:27-44, especially
vs. 27: “Then some of the
Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection, came to Him....” Saint
Luke opens this passage with an unusual double negative, a form that the New
Jerusalem Bible among our English translations renders clearly: “Some
Sadducees - those who argue that there is no resurrection - approached
Him....” (vs. 27 NJB). Both ‘deny’ and
‘argue’ are used by translators to render ‘antilegontes,’ meaning ‘those who speak
against,’ to which the Evangelist added “...there is no
resurrection...” thereby focusing attention on the strident opposition of
the Sadducees to any belief in resurrection. Many Jews did believe in a resurrection,
but at the end of time (Jn. 11:23,24). For that reason, some of the scribes
hastened to say, “Teacher, You have spoken well” (Lk. 20:39).
The Sadducees have many like themselves in our day and age,
those who drink deeply from the materialist well, reject life beyond the grave,
and deny any after-life, including resurrection. Saint Cyril of Alexandria aptly
characterizes all such secular ‘thinkers’ in his description of the
Sadducees: they “...attach great importance to their wretched
fancies...and imagine themselves possessed of such knowledge as no man can
gainsay.” Thus, when the Lord
corrected the fanciful tale of the Sadducees - of a woman married to seven
brothers (vss. 29-32) - He exposed the faulty underlying assumptions of all, in
any age, who deny resurrection.
First, the Lord addresses the materialist bias of denying
resurrection. He shows that all who
reject a spiritual dimension and reason solely in terms of the physical realm
cannot imagine another age, sphere, or state of existence beyond that which can
be measured and tested objectively.
To correct them, the Lord Jesus points out that, “The sons of this
age marry and are given in marriage...” while those in the age to come do
not marry, “...nor can they die anymore...” (vss.
34-36). As Saint Theophylact illumines: “Here, there is marriage
because there is death.... There, where death has been abolished, what need is
there of marriage?”
Second, the Lord Jesus shows that all materialists - from
Sadducees to contemporary secularists - consistently exclude God. The politically correct separates Church
and State: “There must be no mention whatsoever of God or His
Name.” Notice the contrast
between our Lord’s manner of speaking about “...those who are
counted worthy to attain that age...” (vs. 35) and the
style of the Sadducees.
Christ our God acts supremely, for He is the One Who finds men worthy or
not worthy of that age; He is the One by Whom
“...the dead are raised...” (vs. 37). Notice that in their
challenge and their story, the Sadducees never once mention God (see vss.
28-33).
Of course, the process of thrusting God ‘out of the
picture’ results in calculating all events and problems in terms of
tangible measures and relationships.
The Mosaic Law was used by the Sadducees as the objective rule for
everything. Hence, they reasoned
that there was no resurrection because Moses did not mention it in the
Law. And, of course, it was from
Moses’ teaching that they invented the problem story of the seven
brothers (vs. 28; see Dt. 25:5-10).
The Lord Jesus, on the other hand, laced His reply with
references to God and God’s revelation of Himself (vss. 35-38). Notice that our Savior’s teaching
concerning resurrection rests squarely on Divine revelation. As Moses, the Great Prophet who revealed
God’s gift of resurrection, “...showed in the burning bush passage
[that] the dead are raised, when he called the Lord ‘the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’” (vs. 37). Joining with Moses, the Church, by
revelation, declares to all who deny resurrection, “Christ is risen!”
O how noble! O
how dear! O how sweet is Thy voice,
O Christ; for Thou hast verily made us a true promise, that Thou shalt be with us to the end of time, an anchor for our
hopes.
Return to the December Calendar