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Resurrection

  • gospelthoughts
  • Nov 18, 2016
  • 5 min read

Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Jer 29:11, 12, 14 The Lord said: I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction. You will call upon me, and I will answer you, and I will lead back your captives from every place.

Collect Grant us, we pray, O Lord our God, the constant gladness of being devoted to you, for it is full and lasting happiness to serve with constancy the author of all that is good. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Apocalypse 11:4-12; Psalm 143; Luke 20:27-40

Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. Teacher, they said, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. The second and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her? Jesus replied, The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection. But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord 'the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive. Some of the teachers of the law responded, Well said, teacher! And no-one dared to ask him any more questions. (Luke 20:27-40)

Resurrection There is much beauty in the world and much that arouses tremendous commitment on the part of men. It is a beautiful place, and generally people love life. They do wish to live. But they must face up to a mystery at the heart of all visible, living things. That mystery is death. The greatest trees reach out in life and gradually spread their branches as if about to soar — but then finally they fade, wither and die. The planet is bustling with insect life, with animal life, with human life. But as surely as the sun rises, all that live will die. Death cannot be avoided, and while we take this for granted because it is so universal and unavoidable, is it not a mystery why it is so? We take other things for granted too, without asking why they are so — for instance, the fact of the universe. Why is there a universe at all? We (unconsciously) assume that the universe has had to exist from the mere fact that it does exist, but plainly there is no inherent necessity for its existence. Why is there not nothing? There is nothing in things that requires that they exist, and the mere fact that they do exist does not itself require their existence. In similar fashion, a further question arises in our minds. Why is there death and why do not all things that live, continue to live? That is to say, why must they die? Now, a question like this scarcely ever occurs to the average person. Of course, many do not think much of death at all, and were they brought to the thought of death more often, it would be very good for them. But for so many who do come to think of death and its inevitability, it is simply taken for granted — and understandably so. All men know, or ought to know, that all are under the power of death. Death is the inevitable end for all the living things that we see. What happens beyond death? Generally, the survival of the Self after death is seen to be a bleak and twilight affair, although some world religions offer a brighter prospect. The average secular-minded person would prefer not to think about his state after death, for, as he sees it, there is nothing after death to look forward to. It is the universality of death and its sombre implications that we ought keep in mind if we are to appreciate the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.

The Sadducees approached Jesus with their objection to this doctrine. They insisted on a strict literal interpretation of the Five books of Moses, the Written Torah. In respect to the Sadducees, most of what we know of them comes from Josephus. He writes in his Wars of the Jews that they “take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned with our doing or not doing what is evil; and they say that to act what is good or what is evil, is men's own choice, and .... that they may act as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades.” While we cannot take the Sadduceean position as typical of mankind, nevertheless this is the context of our Lord’s reply reaffirming the doctrine of the resurrection. Now, what must be especially taken to heart is that when our Lord refers to the resurrection, he means that there will be a total resurrection, body and soul of the human person. When he speaks of those judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead, he is not meaning by this simply that there will be an Afterlife with God. When Saul sought information about his coming battle, he went to the witch of Endor and asked her to call up Samuel so as to gain his advice. There was no doubt that the ghost of Samuel lived. In the ensuing conversation between Saul and Samuel, one does not get the impression that Samuel is particularly happy — his spirit appears to be in a kind of twilight repose, not suffering but not in any special happiness, and he seems irritated that he has been disturbed. He has nothing but bad news for Saul, and what he has to say leaves Saul distraught with terror. He then sinks back into Hades, where, it appears, his spirit will stay. There is no expectation evident that Samuel has any other future ahead of him. There were developing views, but the question about the resurrection of the dead was a pressing issue for God’s chosen people.

Christ has assured us that all will be made new. His own resurrection to glory, body and soul, is a harbinger of what will come to mankind and to the world, if we cleave to Jesus Christ. God’s plan is that we shall be in glory, body and soul, and that the universe will be glorious too. This will be our eternity, with the greatest joy of all being our sight of the Lord God. We can scarcely imagine a world in which death has been utterly banished. We imagine it best by thinking of the glorious Jesus, risen from the dead. Let us embrace this wondrous doctrine, and make it a driving thought of our life.

(E.J.Tyler)


 
 
 

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