“Prepare Yourself For Life At The Resurrection!”

“Prepare Yourself Now For Life At The Resurrection!”
The Sadducees was one of the major religious groups in Judaism next to the Pharisees. They constituted a certain percentage of the Jewish Sanhedrin and teachers of the law. Unlike the Pharisees, the Sadducees did not believe in the existence of angels and in the resurrection. Acknowledging Jesus as a great teacher of his time they came to him with a question hinging on Levirate marriage which was passed down by Moses.
They were teachers of the law who were ignorant of the interpretation and applicability of the law. Even today it is unfortunate that those who are looked upon as teachers who should explain Scriptures are rather blind guides! We may not blame president Paul Kagame for closing down about 6000 churches. We may rather blame him for the mistake he has made to say all pastors must have at least a bachelor degree in theology. Most misleading theologies are coming from those with degrees.
Unlike other times when people asked Jesus questions to trap him, this time around, these people were simply looking for a straight answer. The people depended and relied on the interpretations of the Sadducees for their religious interpretations of Scriptures. But the Sadducees seemed to be like doctors bent on giving the wrong prescriptions. No wonder Jesus could ask them, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures and the power of God?”
In Levirate marriage you inherited your brother’s wife to give birth to children who belonged to your late brother. This surely opened a door to polygamy since anyone would want to have a child of his own too.
The question they posed is at the resurrection what was going to happen to a woman who was married to a first brother but ended up being married to seven brothers still without issue? Whose wife was she to be at the resurrection? By simple logic she was the wife of the man who married her!
However, the clarity which Jesus gave to them which we must claim for ourselves is that “when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like angels in heaven.”
My friend, truth to accept this morning is that the dead will have spiritual bodies and we cannot transfer our earthly life precepts to heaven’s life precepts.
God is a God of the living! Even those gone before us are alive in the Lord just as we too are going to be (Mk. 12:18-27). Therefore, live a life now that prepares you to continue to be alive at the resurrection!
Prayer of the week: Thank you Lord for this new week. Help me to live in the present in a way that makes me worthy to live with you at the resurrection. Amen!
Have a blessed day and week! Peace be with you!